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I've migrated to an SSD, but no MBR magic I try works to bootup WinXP from my Lenovo T500. The problem seems to be that a Lenovo laptop requires a custom MBR to provide functionality from the ThinkVantage button.

Instead of using the Lenovo recovery disks to reformat my SSD with a custom MBR, can I simply turn off the need for a custom MBR on the laptop?

Is it possible to undo whatever bios hook requires a Lenovo MBR?

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I'm confused...you can put any MBR on it that you want, as long as you don't mind the ThinkVantage button not working between the BIOS and the operating system. – Shinrai Sep 26 '12 at 17:45
I've tried that, and still encounter a cannot load system error. I also can't seem to fix the MBR using the recovery console either (XP sp3 just goes straight to the partition delete/create screen). I've been using HBCD to get into the system: superuser.com/questions/476928/… Is it possible to diagnose why my on-disk MBR can't find the system partition? It feels like normal MBR operation and recovery is being circumvented somehow. – Warpstone Sep 26 '12 at 19:03
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I've never tried changing one on-the-fly on these (or I'd have made an answer with those details), but I can certainly say that clean non-Lenovo installations work just fine, so it's doable in some capacity. – Shinrai Sep 26 '12 at 19:32

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