IBM ThinkPad 700c and 720c Must Boot Windows NT Using FAT

 Last reviewed: May 9, 1997
Article ID: Q103488
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows NT operating system version 3.1
  • Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server version 3.1

When you install Windows NT on an IBM ThinkPad 700c or 720c portable computer and you attempt to convert the boot partition to the NTFS file system, you may receive the following error message after rebooting the computer: 

   FAT structure in area required by NTFS
   Bad Sector in required areas of volume.
Before you install Windows NT on an IBM ThinkPad 700c or 720c portable, an ABIOS patch must be applied. After these files are applied, you will be unable to convert the file system of the boot drive to NTFS.

This is by design. Windows NT refuses to convert the volume to NTFS because the existing BIOS Parameter Block (BPB) conflicts with the disk geometry information returned by the file system driver.

Conversion requires these two sources of information about disk geometry to be consistent because Convert writes a new BPB based on the information it obtains from the file system driver. If Convert writes a BPB that conflicts with the BPB expected by the BIOS (that is, the existing BPB), you will not be able to boot from that disk.

Additional query words: prodnt
Keywords : kb3rdparty kbbug3.10 kbother ntfilesys
Version : 3.1
Platform : WINDOWS

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Last reviewed: May 9, 1997
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