Problems installing XP on TP600

I just recently aquired a IBM Thinkpad 600, and I am trying to put XP Pro on it.

XP installer will go through and reboot the first time, then it comes up with "NTLDR: Fatal Error 256 reading boot.ini"

I pulled the hard drive, put it in my other system and completely erased it and put it back in the laptop. I let XP partition it, and reinstalled XP Pro. Still get the same thing. I loaded up my partition magic CD into the laptop, and redid the drive again. I did the XP install again, and this time, when it reboots, I get "NTLDR is missing, Press any key to reboot. "

I pulled the drive again and read it in my tower. There are NO FILES in the root dir, just a WINDOWS folder.

Any help appriecated.....

 

Updated info..

Using the built in IBM diagnostics, I checked the memory, system board, and hard drive, and all check out.

Can anyone help?

 

Does the Windows XP install finish successfully?

 

The installer will get to the first reboot, where I get this message.

 

I did run chkdsk on the drive. No errors. Also Disk Doctor.

As for the explorer setting, no, I didnt have it enabled. I did enable it, and found the files. (Momentary act of brainlessness!!)

Just for the laughs and giggles, I took a drive out of another laptop that I have here (I have a couple) and put it in. Loaded XP up and VIOLIA!! XP finished the install, and it's now loading it's updates from the web!!! I guess the orginal 10GB has problems, so I am going to see if I can figure out what is up with it.