Ubuntu on the IBM Thinkpad 240

In a previous post I researched options for a lightweight, small, simple piece of hardware that I could set up as a portable programming environment. Based on what i determined to be the top contenders, and what was available on Ebay, I went with an IBM Thinkpad 240. I'm happy with the hardware, as it all appears to be working.

The problem? Windows 2000 is installed on the hard drive, and I do not have the Administrative password. I can boot up the computer to a Windows 2000 login screen, and that's it. This began an epic series of events which led me to the conclusion of "Buy a new hard drive." If you think I could have come to a different conclusion, you are wrong. Let me tell you why.

First off, there are some things to know about the IBM Thinkpad 240. The motherboard can only boot from an internal HDD or an external floppy diskette drive (the second which I do not own). Have an external optical drive? Great! You can't boot from it. Boot from NIC? Out of the question. In order to install Ubuntu, I either needed to log into Windows and download an installer like Wubi, or move the drive to another computer, format the drive, and place a HDD based installer on a bootable partition.

So how can I log into Windows? Some basic research shows a number of "password recovery" options, or programs which can brute force a crack given a certain amount of time and a mediocre password. The only problem with this is that this software has to run on the hard drive while it is still in the machine Win2k was installed on it. If you move the hdd over to another computer, the hard drive will "lock up" at the very instant your motherboard runs POST. I would run password recovery on it in the original machine, but I can't because I do not own an external optical drive, and even if I did I would need to bott from an external floppy drive which I also do not own.

The real killer? When the hard drive is locked, you can in no way read, partition, format, low level format, or zero out the disk. It is my understanding that there is a slight possibility, owning the correct hardware with a special bios installed, you can get past this. I do not own this special hardware nor want to install a foreign bios on my workstation motherboard.

Finally, I have resolved to purchase a new hard drive, which is currently in the mail. When I receive it, I will update with my experiences of performing this already difficult install.