ThinkPad T61 can'tBoot LiveCDw/o HD

[TeslaCoiled]

1. My (ex-IBM) Lenovo ThinkPad T61 can't Boot the LiveCD (11 or 13)
w/o a HD installed (or a working HD installed, I should specify).
I've pulled the HD options out of the BIOS.
Yes, the HD is out of the rig.

2. This rig has killed 3 HD's in 5 months.
The drives were fine (when I kept it as Live CD's),
until I installed Linux on them (t+hen I prob overtaxed them).

3. Best I can boot to is:
Loading /casper/vmlinuz
Loading /casper/initrd.lz
Ready.
Then I just get a blinking cursor, just hanging there.

4. Is there a Linux command line (hit TAB for options) that forces the LiveCD to IGNORE/Kill any HD calls?

5. PS I see that the t61's bluetooth is dead for 11 & 13, a known Linux issue for quite some time.

6. LiveCD's (other)
Puppy Linux (June/2012): no joy, no monitor output, perpetual reboots
Knoppix Operator 3.3 booted, has 3 text editors (does not like flash drives for microSD cards)
Ubuntu 11.04 ...icon of what looks like a (HD) = (DaVinci Voyager Person Symbol),then blinking cursor (yeah I know Mint is a fork- had to try)
Chrome OS (Suse based?) (Nov 2011- started to load Kernel after basic GUI- reboots) DL'ing new version

Looking for LiveCD, that can edit DOC/rtf files

[viking777]

Is this meant to be a support question or a survey?

If it is the former it belongs here if it is the latter it needs to be moved to the Chat section. It is not a good idea to mix the two, you are perfectly free to post a support question AND a survey, but not in the same post.

[TeslaCoiled]

I'm looking for a solution.

The survey is out of frustration, trying to see if there are more prevailing problems.