R&R can't find disk drive

[Elwarpo]

I have a t42p I am trying to get working to give to a neighbor's kid (can't afford to buy one). I want to reinstall all software but rescue and recovery is asking for a password I never set. I searched and found you can create recovery disks and wipe the drive. However when I try to create them, my cd drive does not show up in the drop down menu. I have tried the original drive, one from my T61p and even an external drive, none show up. I upgraded to R&R 4.1. If I have to buy them from Lenovo for $50+ I might as well put that money towards a new computer since I will have to drop $30 on a new fan.

Any suggestions?

[ajkula66]

Post a WTB (want to buy) ad in the forum's marketplace and I'm certain someone will come to your rescue...

[Elwarpo]

Thanks, I am more curious to see if there is a way for R&R to recognize the disk drive.

[RealBlackStuff]

Recovery disks can be created ONLY once.
They were probably already made by the previous owner.
Apart from that, the recovery partition would only hold a very old Windows XP without any Service Packs, and would need SOOOO many updates, you'd waste almost a day on just doing that!
And all the other programs on it (like Norton Antivirus) are so outdated (and bloatware), it's not even funny!
I suggest to wipe the HD and install Ubuntu or Linux Mint on it instead.
A T42/p is fit for W2K and XP, but hardly for Vista/W7/W8.

[Cigarguy]

I wouldn't bother looking for or recover from the recovery partition. Just to much bloatware and outdated software.

I got a 15" T42 with 2 GB RAM, a 30 GB SSD, P M 755 and Win 7. The 80 GB IDE HDD is used for data. It runs pretty good for websurfing, emails and Office stuff. I really like the SXGA+ screen on this laptop so it was worth it. I was going to run a variant of Ubuntu on this but unfortunately the new Ubuntu based variants are not PAE friendly.