What are you really disabling with a clean install

[wwarlock]

Ok I am new the to laptop side of computers. the question:

why take the time to reinstall your operating system when you can go through your registry and start menues and get rid of most things that are starting up?

next question:

what processes are required and what are not?
I am supposed to be getting my laptop a T43 2687DUU next week and would like to do this right out of the box so any info would be helpfull.

William

[c333]

Most people reformat because IBM uses about 5GB for their rescue and recovery software. Many would rather have the HD space, or have other recovery software.

[Nolonemo]

Most people reformat because IBM uses about 5GB for their rescue and recovery software. Many would rather have the HD space, or have other recovery software.

But can't you just use partitioning software like Acronis Disk Director to format the partition and merge it with the main one? Not sure you need to reinstall the OS just to get rid of the service partition.

[GomJabbar]

But can't you just use partitioning software like Acronis Disk Director to format the partition and merge it with the main one? Not sure you need to reinstall the OS just to get rid of the service partition.

Short answer: no.
See the following (2) links:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/ibm ... 1431575eae

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... +partition

[Ground Loop]

Long answer: Yes you can. I did it.

First, disable the PreBoot Partition from BIOS so you can write to it.

Then, boot a recent Live Linux CD-ROM like Knoppix or SLAX.

From within Linux, you can delete the Preboot Partition. (It's the second one, FAT32). Now you have Free Space at the end of the disk.

Then, edit the NTFS partition end point to include this new free space -- make it the whole size of the disk. Most importantly, don't change the beginning of the partition.

Write the new partition table to disk.

Now run the "ntfsresize" tool that is on KNOPPIX and others.
This will let you resize the NTFS view of the world to match your new larger size.

Reboot into Windows, and it will do a filesystem scan (normal) and enjoy the new space.

If this is too manual, there are other simpler tools that do both the resize and partition tweaking in one step.

http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html

[GomJabbar]

Good answser Ground Loop!

Really, I knew that it could be done by reading other posts on this subject. That's one of the reasons I included the links. What I meant by 'Short answer: no.' was that it took more steps than just using a partitioning program to recover the hidden partition. Your post is the first one I've read that spells out all the steps clearly from A to Z.

[jdhurst]

If you are new to laptops, use the Preload, look through the applications and configure them as you want. None of the IBM apps take huge amounts of space, and none (properly configured) take any appreciable resource except that Access Connections takes a while to start (but it is one of the best IBM apps).

I don't find the Preload to absorb an undue amount of space and I have a huge number of documents, and six full featured independent computers running on my T41 with 25 Gb of free space on a 60 Gb disk.

You can do as you wish of course, but the Preload works, and works well. The stuff I don't use in total would use less the 1 Gb of disk.
... JD Hurst

[wwarlock]

thank for replying

I went to the thread you posted. One thing that is not mentioned is if none of the software can see the missing cylinders then how does IBM write to this part of the hdd and how does it read any info from this section to do a restore? Im thinking great place to hide things cc# passwords etc....

Thanks
William

[Ground Loop]

From what I could tell (and I could well be wrong), the PreBoot partition is never actually unreadable. When set to HIDE, It might just get turned into a "Compaq BIOS" type that is foreign to Windows, so it doesn't list as a drive letter.

When you "unhide" it, it seems to show up as FAT32. I was able to read every byte and clone it onto DVD.

In either of the above cases, you can't write to it.. it's protected (Host Protected Area).

When you Disable it, it's both visible and writeable, like a normal hard disk.

This is on a T43. I remember having an older T42 that seemed to have more trickery going on. Perhaps they are not all the same?

As for the IBM preloaded apps, they're surprisingly good. I usually wipe all the shovelware off, but the Access Connections is a keeper. So is the power manager. The Software Updater works quite well, and I prefer it greatly over web search-and-download. I'll wait a while before deciding what can go.

Pretty much just the Blue Button menu shell app is worthless. I'd like to assign it to something else. Can the Access IBM be reassigned?