Thinkpads Forum

I'll soon reclaim my HPA partition because I desperately need space. (I have the Product Recovery [and Rescue and Recovery] disks from IBM, in case my USB backup drives die.) On reboot, I want my computer to give me legitimate boot option instructions. ==> I'm an idiot, especially when stressed-out (for example near a deadline), and if my computer says (approximately) "To interrupt startup, press the blue Access IBM button" I will believe it. Having not done this yet, several things are not clear to me:

• * Will the blue button do anything at boot after the HPA is gone?
  * Will the boot text (in quotes, above) be the same as it is now--thus useless?
  * Is it possible/easy/worthwhile to edit the BIOS boot text message

What I'd like is to see my boot options directly: F12 boot from another device, F1 access bios, ... probably I'm missing something. I always forget these. (I believe boot text is there for a reason)

Of course, one option is that I update my boot splash screen to include the boot shortcuts along the bottom. (And maybe a note to say "The below text doesn't work anymore.") If anyone has a clean splash image to this effect, could you post a link here? ..And FWIW I'm assuming that this thinkwiki how to (for windows) is all I'd need for my x40.

Thanks for helping!



PS I've searched thinkwiki.org and this site. To the best of my knowledge, this exact topic hasn't been discussed. I've tried to search forum.thinkpads.org using the site:forum.thinkpads.org switch in Google, but that switch didn't work, so apologies if this is a stupid question.


PS v2: What I'd really love would be a Rescue & Recovery partition that wasn't excessively huge. I don't use Rapid Restore, so I don't think I need extra storage space to store backups. ... And... as a PS v3, until today I'd been confused between "Rapid Restore" and "Rescue and Recovery" Wouldn't it be easier to understand with less R's involved?!? (again, I'm an idiot)

Why not just save yourself the headache and get a secondary drive or thimbdrive for additional storage? You can have almost as much room as you'd like.

If you are one to panic is stressful situations, you might not want to remove the HPA. This gives you a quicker way out in an emergency. All of your information could be stored outside of C:/ incase there was an issue. Then you could restore using either the disks, HPA, or whatever, but have all of your files readily available, even if you are having to use a different system.

Is there any way to re-create the HPA?

I have a retail HD on my X41 and did a clean install. I am thinking if I can create the HPA and put the OS image there.

@tokyo_x40:

I deleted the hidden partition on my X41. The blue "Access IBM"-key became useless, the splash screen text remained the same - useless as well. However, using bmgr32.exe (should be somewhere in the R&R-directory) I could restore some functionality for the blue key: now it displays a startup menu listing the boot options, pretty much what you describe up there.

Unfortunately I have since uninstalled R&R, so I cannot really tell you what exactly to do with bmgr32.exe, as it is gone now. It was a fairly simple command, though. Also, I suppose it will give you a listing of its options. Or maybe someone else remembers?

Björn

Björn: Thanks for the info! Can you tell me, is "BIOS" an option for you, after pressing the Access IBM button?

bigtiger: That's kind of a different topic, but if you search and find an answer could you post a link (or info) here? The answer probably depends on how you did the clean install.

tfflivemb2: Yeah, I have plenty of external storage--it's just not convenient enough when I'm on the road. ... To be honest, I'm not sure what you mean: "All of your information could be stored outside of C:/ in case there was an issue" ... Are you referring specifically to Rapid Restore accessing the HPA? Or do you mean partition my drive to have user docs on D:\ (etc)?

I have sequential external backups, and I'm not a power user (not much "experimental" software), so the only thing I worry about is physical disk failure. In my experience, when a disk dies you have a 50/50 chance of being able to read ~any~ data, not just C: ... If I'm being unwise, please feel free to reprimand me!

tokyo_x40 wrote:Can you tell me, is "BIOS" an option for you, after pressing the Access IBM button?

Yes, on my machine the menu lists these three options:

• * ESC - resume normal boot
  * F1 - BIOS (it says "enter IBM BIOS setup" or something like that, takes you to regular BIOS)
  * F12 - choose temporary boot device

Björn