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I am working so many things at the same time right now I am just hoping that someone has actually done... what I am about to ask. My old PIII IBM r30 thinkpad is a --good ---solid 'little' machine. comes with cd drive (swap w/floppy) 256 meg of ram, and 10gig hard drive. It can run xp. I do use it with 98/95/d0s, even Novell... or Linux. It has two built in usb slots, one in back and one on front left. Lately I use it as a workstation / web access, or for writing articles/submitting info or website update, etc. I do tend to use a usb optical mouse (much preferred over the built in 'nub mouse', between the g-h-and-b keys).

I, myself, have never made a bootable memstick yet, for any machine.

has anyone MADE something like an XP / bootable USB memstick for this machine, and it works well??? I haven't spent ANY time working with 'this' project yet, and simply wish to give myself max flexibility with this machine as quick as possible. suggestitions I would welcome would be along lines of...

memsticks: How SMALL a usable boot version of xp? ie 4gig stick?
-------------- Linux? Ubuntu 'stick booting? Ubunto --ON-- this r30?
-------------- Linux? RedHat? RH memstick?
-------------- Linux? Suse? etc

booting using differing hardware combo's of memstick: 256meg, 1gig, 4gig- Or larger, memsticks, WITH floppy, or cd available. ..or not... (or NO memstick and just cd?) (or, w/USB installed auxilliary hard drive, dvd?) etc..............

No this is not a clearcut question. This is a hardware/hacker forum style question, I seek good leads and suggestions to take me down 1 or 3, usable paths w/this machine. I am mostly interested in making (at least) a memstick (xp?) for this machine, w/a small partition it can use... (like IF the machine is mostly Linux) OR w/xp purely ON the memstick...(say 10gig or larger)... OR, a combo of system on a cd, and the memstick... etc. What works(ed) best for YOU? etc.

I'm sure the possibilities are endless. But I have spent no time on this at all and simply am looking / hoping someone has direct experience with the R30 thinkpad, and KNOWS intimately, the related issues of this machine, (it's behaviors/requirements) and its hardware. ...And what (software) works best, simplest, and may have suggestions for me to avoid dead-ends. Thank You in advance. For your suggestions. Speak freely of your experience (if you have it) just describe how YOU have hardware hacked and setup/configured your r30 for ease and flexibility of reconfig, and or multi-use. Mucho Gracias

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Short, practical summary for ’s R30: the machine uses USB 1.1 (two Type‑A ports), an Ultrabay removable CD/floppy, and a classic IBM BIOS—so USB boot is possible but limited by speed and firmware. See the R30 spec page for the port/BIOS details. (If you haven’t checked the BIOS yet, press F1 at power-on to view the startup/boot options.) ThinkWiki R30 · R30 manuals (BIOS access)

If the BIOS does not list a USB boot device, use Plop Boot Manager on a burned CD (or floppy) to chainload a USB stick—this is the simplest way to boot USB on older ThinkPads without native USB‑boot support. Boot Plop, pick “USB”, then start the installer or live system on the stick. Plop Boot Manager

Windows XP options: you can make a USB installer (tools such as WinSetupFromUSB exist) but on USB 1.1 the install will be very slow and sometimes flaky. If the internal CD still works, using the original XP CD is the least headache. If the CD is dead, create the USB installer on another PC and either use Plop or a BIOS that supports USB‑HDD. WinSetupFromUSB (XP installer guide)

Linux/live usage is the best fit for a 256 MB R30. Lightweight distros like antiX or Puppy run acceptably from a USB stick and can be made persistent. Use Unetbootin, Rufus, Ventoy or similar tools to create the stick; if you want persistence note common tools create a casper‑rw file (FAT32 limits that file to ~4GB). Recommended workflow: make a 4GB stick for a single live distro with persistence, or use Ventoy for multiple ISOs on a larger drive. antiX requirements/FAQ · UNetbootin · Ventoy docs · Persistence notes (casper-rw)

Quick tips: try CD install first; if you must use USB, prepare the media on a modern PC, test on another machine, then use Plop on the R30 if the BIOS won’t boot USB.

Member Avatar for stvrich

oops didn't mean to put this under win98

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