I recently acquired an IBM ThinkPad 760E (for free) and I was wondering, I'm going to repartition and reinstall Windows (it has Win 98 First edition and I'm going to install SE). The software and drivers aren't an issue because IBM has all that crap on their website. But I was wondering, is it safe to convert the hard drive to FAT32 (it's FAT16 right now), or will I lose some of the BIOS supported features like hibernate, etc.? The BIOS date is 1999 (it appears it's been updated). Thanks!

-JohnThe file system you put on the HDD should have no affect on the BIOS settingsI was just wondering because the BIOS reads and writes directly to the hard drive, and I do use hibernate a lot. Thanks.FAT32 will work just fine on there. Reformat the whole drive and then reload Windows, rather than trying to convert it once WIndows is loaded for best RESULTS. What size is the harddrive? I think "FAT" is better on really small harddrives (2-gb). If you are formatting afresh, as it sounds you are, you do not need to convert from one to the other, you can just directly format to FAT32.Many of those came with a 3.1 gig. or bigger drive.It's 2.1GB (shows up in Windows as 1.98GB) and, yes, I'm repartitioning because the current Windows installation is a mess (you know how used computers are), and it's Windows 98 first edition.

I was kind of thinking (mostly as a joke) to put Windows XP on it ! I'd have to bring the RAM up past 32MB (!) first but I still can't see it running on a 150MHz Pentium! Not to mention the tiny hard drive. I have run it on a 200MHz pentium before (2.5GB hard drive)...

Probably not a good idea! lol

seriously though, for an old computer, the battery holds a suprisingly good CHARGE. The people I got it from only used the computer for like 5 months though, so it's barely used. And I was suprised about the XGA screen too... I was expecting 800x600. For a free computer I really can't complain.

Back to the hard drive, it doesn't look like it's upgradeable. At least not without some modification. Is upgrading it possible? Thanks!

-JohnXP on a 150 Mhz Pentium with 32 MG of RAM...that should be a short (or Long) experiment...

patio. 8-)I've tried xp on a 266mhz with 32mb of RAM, It didn't work!

I've got a 64mb upgrade stick that if i get it to work i MIGHT try a STRIPPED out version of XP.On such low specs, if you must use a new operating system, use 2000. But on such a small harddrive and low spec, I'd seriously consider sticking with 9x and FAT.FAT vs. FAT32...

http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref/hdd/file/fileFAT32.html

patio. 8-)The Windows XP thing was mainly a joke. Plus isn't 64MB the minimum requirement for XP? And I've run it on 64MB before, an all I can say is [shudder]. It was terrible. Well, I'll try FAT32 and if it doesn't work I'll just use FAT16.