Rescue&Recovery: which partition is used as target one?

BigCatAndy · **Posted:** Wed Jul 04, 2012 9:59 am

Hello @all,

I have T43p with hidden recovery partition (as it was set at the factory), and I have to re-install my Windows XP. Completely. The straightforward way here is to use "Rescue&Recovery" and simply re-install from that partirion. But my laptop is a dual boot one - I have also Linux on it. I want to keep Linux partition as well as my data partition. Here is my question: is it possible to choose the target partition when reinstalling Windows using "Rescue&Recovery"? Or will it silently overwrite my whole hard drive bringing it ot initial factory state?

I would appreciate any hint on it, because I have extremely important private data and I cannot loose it.

Thanks in advance, regards from Hamburg,

Andrey.

RealBlackStuff · **Posted:** Wed Jul 04, 2012 10:14 am

Using R&R you will loose everything, as it overwrites the whole HD (apart obviously from the recovery partition).
You might consider W7 32-bit instead of XP.
That runs quite well on a T43p.
Make a backup of your Linux data anyway.
You may have to (re)install Grub or similar after W7 has been installed.

BigCatAndy · **Posted:** Wed Jul 04, 2012 5:12 pm

These are bad news for me. I hoped that I would be able to choose certain partition to recover Windows on it. :-(

RealBlackStuff wrote:

Using R&R you will loose everything, as it overwrites the whole HD (apart obviously from the recovery partition).
You might consider W7 32-bit instead of XP.
That runs quite well on a T43p.
Make a backup of your Linux data anyway.
You may have to (re)install Grub or similar after W7 has been installed.

In order to use Windows 7, I need a license. And I don't want to buy it.

BigCatAndy · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 3:32 am

Perhaps, in this case it would be even more smart to buy a new hard drive. But here I have doubts about well-known issue with "non-IBM-approved" harddrives for T43p.

RealBlackStuff wrote:

Using R&R you will loose everything, as it overwrites the whole HD (apart obviously from the recovery partition).
You might consider W7 32-bit instead of XP.
That runs quite well on a T43p.
Make a backup of your Linux data anyway.
You may have to (re)install Grub or similar after W7 has been installed.

RealBlackStuff · **Posted:** Thu Jul 05, 2012 5:52 am

Update your BIOS with TTAV134's version, which eliminates HD Error 2010 and wifi Error 1802 and other good stuff.

BigCatAndy · **Posted:** Fri Jul 06, 2012 4:49 am

Where can I read about this BIOS update? I'm a bit scary to ruine my laptop. It means a lot fro me, even if it's quite old...

RealBlackStuff wrote:

Update your BIOS with TTAV134's version, which eliminates HD Error 2010 and wifi Error 1802 and other good stuff.

RealBlackStuff · **Posted:** Fri Jul 06, 2012 5:02 am

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=92115&start=0

BigCatAndy · **Posted:** Fri Jul 06, 2012 4:19 pm

Thanks.

RealBlackStuff wrote:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=92115&start=0

I think, I will simply backup all my data and recover everything using hidden partition. I'm a bit pessimistic with BIOS update...

But, anyway, thanks for the hint.

Regards,
Andrey

RealBlackStuff · **Posted:** Fri Jul 06, 2012 8:12 pm

Every T43/T43p/R52 that goes through my hands (several every week) gets this TTAV134 BIOS update.
If you don't do it, you miss out on some great advantages.
I have never had any problems with it.

BigCatAndy · **Posted:** Sun Jul 08, 2012 5:00 am

Hello, just decided to check current version of the BIOS - perhaps, I have already installed that update via SystemUpdate. So, my current version is 1.29 (1YET65WW), BIOS date is 2006-08-21. Is it the right one?

Greetings from Hamburg,
Andrey

RealBlackStuff wrote:

Every T43/T43p/R52 that goes through my hands (several every week) gets this TTAV134 BIOS update.
If you don't do it, you miss out on some great advantages.
I have never had any problems with it.

Neil · **Posted:** Sun Jul 08, 2012 6:10 am

No, the BIOS of which RBS speaks is not provided by Lenovo, it's a custom modified BIOS that fixes several of the things crippling the T43/R52 series. I too apply it to all those machines that come through my hands.

BigCatAndy · **Posted:** Sun Jul 08, 2012 3:52 pm

Hello Neil,

thanks for the hint. I tried to download the update, but the web-site asks for login name. Is it normal?

Best wishes from Hamburg,
Andrey

Neil wrote:

No, the BIOS of which RBS speaks is not provided by Lenovo, it's a custom modified BIOS that fixes several of the things crippling the T43/R52 series. I too apply it to all those machines that come through my hands.

RealBlackStuff · **Posted:** Sun Jul 08, 2012 4:20 pm

Some websites require that, doesn't cost anything...

BigCatAndy · **Posted:** Mon Jul 09, 2012 4:30 am

Hello @all,

just downloaded it. I will try to install that update next days. In general it means, that I can install any hard drive in my laptop. Am I right?

RealBlackStuff wrote:

Some websites require that, doesn't cost anything...

RealBlackStuff · **Posted:** Mon Jul 09, 2012 7:59 am

BigCatAndy · **Posted:** Mon Jul 09, 2012 2:51 pm

RealBlackStuff wrote:

yup

Thanks for the help. I think, I will keep my original IBM-drive and just reinstall Windows XP from hidden partition, and then I will re-install Ubuntu. (I mean - after applying that BIOS update we spoke about).

Regards from Hamburg,
Andrey

BigCatAndy · **Posted:** Tue Jul 10, 2012 2:46 pm

Hello @all,

today I tried to update the BIOS. I created bootable CD using the ISO file, started my laptop from that CD. MS-DOS started. I confirmed, that I wanted to flush my BIOS, the process has started. While flashing block C or D, the following error message appears:

Undefined error number -28640
RESTART SYSTEM WITH CRISIS DISKETTE

I powered off the laptop, started it again. Everything looks quite well, my both OSs start and I can work. Does anyone know what happened?

Regards from Hamburg,
Andrey.

P.S. I can also send a photo of the screen - I made it with my mobile phone.

RealBlackStuff wrote:

Every T43/T43p/R52 that goes through my hands (several every week) gets this TTAV134 BIOS update.
If you don't do it, you miss out on some great advantages.
I have never had any problems with it.

Neil · **Posted:** Tue Jul 10, 2012 7:46 pm

I usually see the same error message...I assume it's just a fluke in the flash package as the BIOS update has never actually failed to take.

BigCatAndy · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2012 3:16 am

How can I verify, that update ran successfully?

Cheers,
Andrey

Neil wrote:

I usually see the same error message...I assume it's just a fluke in the flash package as the BIOS update has never actually failed to take.

BigCatAndy · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2012 5:33 am

Another idea came into my mind... I checked my model number (2668 PEG) over Lenovo page, and there my laptop is labeled as T43 (and not T43p). Can it be, that I apllied the wrong BIOS update? As far as I remember, there were two ISO-files - one for T43p and another one for T43/R52. Should I also try the one for T43?

Regards,
Andrey

Neil wrote:

I usually see the same error message...I assume it's just a fluke in the flash package as the BIOS update has never actually failed to take.

RealBlackStuff · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2012 6:17 am

All ATI machines use the same BIOS, based on 1YET65WW.
Do NOT use the Intel BIOS, based on 70ET69WW.
To check if your BIOS update worked, put in any non-IBM approved hard disk.
If there is no Error 2010, it worked OK.

BigCatAndy · **Posted:** Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:02 pm

Hello,

I just inserted my second HDD (Western Digital) into main adapter, and I haven't got any error 2010. The drive itself appeared in the list of available boot devices, when I pressed F12.

Looks like it worked... :-)

Thanks a lot for you help.

Best regards from Hamburg,
Andrey.

RealBlackStuff wrote:

All ATI machines use the same BIOS, based on 1YET65WW.
Do NOT use the Intel BIOS, based on 70ET69WW.
To check if your BIOS update worked, put in any non-IBM approved hard disk.
If there is no Error 2010, it worked OK.

BigCatAndy · **Posted:** Sat Jul 14, 2012 12:26 pm

Hello @all,

just now I restored my Windows XP using recovery CDs I created immeaditely after purchasing my laptop. The first think I noticed is that my system partition (actualy, my single partition, except for the SERVICE001) has now type FAT32 (and not NTFS, as it was earlier). Is it normal? I'm quite sure, I was not asked for the file system type during recovery process. I suppose, I cannot change the type of file system now, can I?

I would appreciate any hints.

Cheers,
Andrey.

P.S. By the way, when I tried to recover using hidden partition on my hard drive, R&R recognized that I had several partitions and asked whether it should recover partition C or whole hard drive. Since I had GRUB installed, it didn't work for me. But If I would have Windows XP only with hard drive separated into several partitions, I would be able to recover just C. The rest of my hard drive would stay untouched. At least I think so... :-)

Neil · **Posted:** Sat Jul 14, 2012 12:35 pm

Yes, it's normal for the restore process to setup with a FAT32 partition. If you let the installer run it's course, through several restarts, it will automatically switch for file system from FAT to NTFS. If it doesn't you can manually do it.

BigCatAndy · **Posted:** Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:36 am

Hello Neil,

I was to inpatient. After some reboots the file system was converted to NTFS.

Neil wrote:

Yes, it's normal for the restore process to setup with a FAT32 partition. If you let the installer run it's course, through several restarts, it will automatically switch for file system from FAT to NTFS. If it doesn't you can manually do it.

I have another question about the content of my hard drive / pre-installed software. Which folders from that content can I delete without breaking the system? I suppose, some of those folders contain just installers for IBM/Lenovo products, don't they?

Regards,
Andrey

P.S. Sorry if this question was already asked. In this case I will search further for the correspondign thread.

RealBlackStuff · **Posted:** Mon Jul 16, 2012 5:15 am

It's not worth the hassle to hunt around and delete some installation folders, that maybe give you 40-50MB extra space.
It's way more effective to go to C:\Windows, and there delete all the (Windows update) folders that start with:
$NtUninstallKBxxxxxx, as well as all the corresponding C:\Windows\KBxxxxxx.log files.
Check for their presence once a month (and delete).

BigCatAndy · **Posted:** Mon Jul 16, 2012 5:05 pm

Hello RBS,

I checked folders I mean:
- DRIVERS - 234 MB
- IBM TOOLS - 902 MB
- SWTOOLS - 474 MB

Together they occupy 1610 MB os space. To be honest, I would better use that space for my system. So, what do you say: is it secure to remove those folders? As far as I understand, they are just installers of different (in most cases - old) IBM tools.

As far as I remember, I also can delete content of the "session" folder of "System Update" (except for a couple of subfolders and XML files).

RealBlackStuff wrote:

It's not worth the hassle to hunt around and delete some installation folders, that maybe give you 40-50MB extra space.
It's way more effective to go to C:\Windows, and there delete all the (Windows update) folders that start with:
$NtUninstallKBxxxxxx, as well as all the corresponding C:\Windows\KBxxxxxx.log files.
Check for their presence once a month (and delete).

OK, I will check them either. Thanks for the hint!

Regards,
Andrey

RealBlackStuff · **Posted:** Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:02 pm

Burn them onto a DVD and then delete them.

Fr0stCrunch · **Posted:** Mon Sep 17, 2012 5:23 pm

Can anyone please give me a link to the c:\ibmtools download for the t43?
it was deleted

from my computer and now i need to restore it ><

it would be really helpful if someone could copy their own ibmtools from their t43(specifically t43) and put it on 4shared.com or something.
Thanks in advance
Alan Sandoval

Rescue&Recovery: which partition is used as target one?

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