cant boot to or install Windows

[jeremyj6482]

Hi,

I just acquired a lenovo thinkpad t400 refurbished with Windows 7 on it. I tried booting it and it wouldn't get past "starting windows". I tried putting the windows 7 disc in and got a c000021a error before it got anywhere. I put another hard drive with a working install of windows 7 and got the same thing. I put a blank harddrive in and started to install xp on it. It crashes about half the time trying that, but even after it starts installing, after the first reboot I get "a diske read error occured. Press ctralaltdel to restart.

Any idea what the problem could be? I upgraded to the newest bios update at some point in the process.

 

[crinkdude]

Have you tried testing your memory?

 

[jeremyj6482]

Have you tried testing your memory?

I ran two passes of the Windows 7 disk memory test and got back no errors.

 

[crinkdude]

When you say you acquired the laptop, do you mean you just bought it or someone gave it to you? As for the 7 install, was it a clean install? Give more details