Thinkpads Forum

Hello,

I've recently purchased a fine x61. Unfortunately, it came with a vista Home edition, although I wanted business edition. Anyway, after upgrading all the thinkvantage applications and drivers I've decided to get Vista Ultimate. When I received the disc, I've installed and used the UPGRADE option. Once the Ultimate edition was installed, I wanted to make a backup and noticed I can't launch R&R application. It wouldn't budge...so, I repaired the installation using the files in the SWTOOLS folder. Then I've decided to try the R&R through boot. Nothing happened when I pressed F11 or the blue thinkpad button. Checking further, the parition is there! I can't see it normally, but opening disk management, it shows 'Healthy(EISA COnfiguration)'.

ANyone ever encountered something similar? I've read some papers, but nothing specific.

When I couldn't access my R&R partition, I followed the post below on repairing the MBR. Here is the repair kit link:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-62978

It might work for you. BTW, I had problems with XP Pro, not Vista, but it might be worth a try. I didn't need to make an iso as described below since I had a floppy disk to boot from for the repair. What I found to be the most helpful were his pictures and directions for the repair (item # 6-10), i.e., which options to select was critical for my repair.


ramian
Sophomore Member


Joined: 22 May 2006
Posts: 153
Location: Singapore
Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 12:34 am Post subject:

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

OK.
I've got the CD done and working. I believe this will be useful for those who can't access the hidden R&R partition after doing a clean XP install or partitioning the C drive. Problem is, I don't have any dedicated web space to host it. I'll temporarily put it up on one of those free file hosting places.

What you'll need to do to get it working.

1. Download the CD image (TPRR.ISO) from the following link: http://www.filefactory.com/?ac16ee

2. Ensure that the MD5 checksum of the file is 921643d7ca69c7aab7f33aeafa1b40af

3. Burn the CD image (ISO) to a CDRW using Nero or your favourite CD burning program

If you're using Nero,
a. Start Nero Burning Rom
b. Close the New Compilation Wizard which pops up
c. Choose Recorder > Burn Image... (This is on Nero 6, look for a similar command on other versions of Nero)
d. Select the ISO, click Open, followed by Burn

4. Once it's done burning, pop the CD into your ThinkPad's optical drive and restart.

5. By default, the bios should have been set to boot from the CD before the 1st harddrive. So, you should not have any problems having the CD boot up.

6. The following screenshot should show what you should see when you first boot the CD.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v85/ramian/1.png
Hit F1

7. Read the next screen and hit Enter
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v85/ramian/2.png

8. Select option 2
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v85/ramian/3.png

9. Select option A
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v85/ramian/4.png

10. When it's done, you'll see the following screen
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v85/ramian/5.png
Hit Enter to exit the program. You may need to turn off your notebook and turn it back on again.

11. When you boot up, you should be able to access your ThinkVantage Rescue & Recovery partition by pressing the blue ThinkVantage button. You may/may not need to hit F11 to enter (depending on whether you're prompted).

That's it.

If anyone has any ideas on how I can improve this, please feel free to reply here. I hope this has been helpful to at least someone.

cheers!

Last edited by ramian on Sun Jun 04, 2006 2:49 am; edited 1 time in total

Hi Ramian,

Thank you kindly for replying so quickly!

I've read about Linux's GRUB and the MBR, so I've figured that must be it, the LINK between the button and the MBR is broken.

THe link for the ISO file, doesn't really show any ISO Tried searching for it too, but didn't find it. Since I don't have a usb floppy at the moment, i'll try to figure something out.

*My main concern, since the repair kit was released in 2006, is that it's XP compatible and not VISTA. BUt...I'll backup my system and then give it a go.

Will update you when the process is over.

Cheers,

Noam

Actually, I believe you want the following instead...

Rescue and Recovery - Recovery repair diskette

Too late....screwed the current MBR. Doesn't work. No RE/R&R screen and no Windows Vista. I have to fix the MBR for now, or use the solution GomJabbar gave me.

I am not sure, but the diskette may fix it for you.

Gom,

Used Vista's recovery console to fix the MBR. "Bootrec.exe /fixmbr".

Voila, Vista's back alive.

I'll get a nice USB floppy disk tomorrow and give your solution a try.

Cheers!

*Will keep you updated.

Update :

I have a new USB FDD. The new disk re-enabled the F11 option, but it doesn't seem to work. The blue ThinkVantage doesn't bring me to the R&R environment, nor does the F11. It just starts Vista as usual.

Will wait for more solutions or until IBM/Lenovo replies.

I have not used the Vista version of the Rescue and Recovery Repair Diskette, but I have used the XP version successfully. See my post below. It may not be clear in the thread, but what I had was an XP HDD with Rescue and Recovery (working). I installed Vista on a second hard drive in the Ultraslim Bay slot. The vista installation program installed a boot loader on the other XP HDD, disabling booting from Rescue and Recovery. I used the diskette to fix this on the XP HDD.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 040#240040

I've downloaded the Vista version in the link you've provided me with.

The Diskette recovery has the repair process only, right? It doesn't replace the MBR, it only tries to repair it, correct? That's what I saw during the process.

Mmm...it clearly states it supports up to version 4.0 of R&R, but I have ver 4.1 , althought I don't believe that's the issue, but who knows?