Thinkpads Forum

***Please advise how I can prevent R&R v3 from creating a 3 GB R&R recovery folder onto the external USB 2.5" notebook hard drive without my consent?

My beef with ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery v3.01.0037 released 30-Dec-2005.


I extensively use external USB 2.5" notebook hard drive enclosures for weekly data backups. I previously used R&R v2 made by IBM.
v2 worked like a charm for me.


Now with ThinkVantage R&R v3, *everytime* I connect a USB hard drive:
a) It takes up to 30 seconds to "detect" the USB hard drive (by then, I usually think something was wrong).

b) *every_time* you connect the USB Hard Drive, R&R v3 *always* ask you if you want to make it a bootable USB Hard Drive (Yes_or_No).
I don't need this aggrevation from (a) & (b) each time.

c) To add insult to injury, R&R v3 adds a 3 GB R&R folder into the USB Hard drive anyways even if I answer "No" to above (b) question.

I had been using 40 GB USB Hard drives for my data backup which just barely fit, but with R&R now hogging the 3 GB extra, my data no longer fits onto my backup HDD!

***Please advise how I can prevent R&R v3 from creating a 3 GB R&R recovery folder onto the external USB 2.5" notebook hard drive without my consent?

Hey, I'm not sure exactly what's going on with your system so you may have to help me out. First and foremost making the USB bootable should not be a 3GB process even if it is actually happening. If you actually selected to make it bootable it should, at most, add about 4-500MB of data to your HDD. If you're getting a new 3GB backup EVERY time you create a backup and still getting the "Make USB Bootable" message every time I'd say the error is in the backup and has nothing to do with USB bootable notice, that can be annoying to some users. It sounds as though you're creating a new base backup everytime rather than the intended incremental backups though 3GB sounds low for a full backup on a system that has been in use for any length of time. Have you made any changes to your system or configuration files at this point? What system are you using? You upgraded or uninstalled RnR 2.xx (do you remember exactly what version?) to RnR 3.0.1037?

Let me know and I'll see if I can't help out.

Thanks for your reply!
Problem solved!

1. I've emailed IBM but they never replied...
(The IBM web links to the ThinkVantage Rescue&Recovery)

2. Seems that protable hard drives formated in NTFS has above behavior "feature/problem".

Once I've formatted it back to FAT32, the nagging problems & R&R behavior disappeared.

ie: I can now copy all data back one single USB 40 GB HDD.

Seems that I've accidently converted my USB HDD from FAT32 into NTFS format by the Windows Format.


==========
BTW, does anyone know how Windows can format/convert a USB hard drive that is NTFS back into FAT32?

Right-clicking the (NTFS) hard drive, [Format] yields only format in [NTFS] option, and no FAT32 option? Would be nice if Windows can do this by itself without 3rd party programs....

To the best of my knowledge this is not possible. You'll need to copy all data from the drive and re-format then.
Strange to hear that about USB HDD. Tinkered quite a bit in with USB HDD and RnR in both NTFS and FAT32 and never had an issue like that. Thanks for the heads up.

Hello.
I needed to use the hidden partition redo on my G41 this last week and to my surprise, when I hit the button, it came back with a " FAIL ". How can this fail when it is protected or so it is claimed that it is foolproof but not "me proof".
I will resort to the Restore CDs. Further in a few days. JP.

First of all, make sure you have security set to Normal for the Predesktop Area in the BIOS. You can try the following to repair the boot process into the Rescue and Recovery workspace.

Rescue and Recovery - Recovery repair diskette

Hello GomJabbar,
You were kind enough to write to me thus :

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>> First of all, make sure you have security set to Normal for the Predesktop Area in the BIOS. You can try the following
>> to repair the boot process into the Rescue and Recovery workspace.

At the moment, the G41 has curled up its toes and is under the bed waiting for my Restore CDs to come in. I am not at home now. There is not hidden file left on the HD, it got flushed.

Rest assured that I will follow your advice and will get this diskete made if/when I restore the TP. I am always gratefull for the help present here. JP.

GomJabbar wrote:...You can try the following to repair the boot process into the Rescue and Recovery workspace.[/u][/url]

Thank you very much--very interesting utility.

Will definitely try this out if needed...