Reformat T40

[LeoB]

I've got a T40 that I've worked HARD for a year and a half now. It has defiinitely been the best laptop I've ever had -- and I''ve gone through Sonys, Compaqs, Toshibas, etc.

But, it's time to clean it up. I have downloaded and changed so many programs over the year or so that I would like a fresh start. I also want to go from Office 2K to Office 2003. I've searched this forum and found lots of good info. I have the restore CD's from IBM, and I'll do an upgrade to SP2 at the same time. But, I have some questions.

1. Rapid Restore. I have never used or needed it. I regularly back up my data files to an external HDD. Is it possible to install WITHOUT Rapid Restore?

2. Drive partitions. Is it better to make a smaller partition (10MB?) and put all the XP/program operating files there and then a larger partition for all the data files?

3. BIOS. It looks like I should upgrade the BIOS (from 33WW) to the newer one BEFORE resinstalling -- right?

4. Will just running the recovery CD's format the disk drive, too? I recall that when I did this on my Sony, I actually did a C: format and then installed WinXP.

Thanks for all the help.
Leo

[ashleys]

LeoB,

1. Yes, you can restore/rebuild your system without Rapid Restore. This is exactly what I did when migrating my old desktop to my TP.

2. Personally I would. See the following thread for my reasoms for doing this. http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=4313

3. Yes, I'd upgrade the BIOS first. Then make sure your current configuration works and then start your re-install. This way you're confident that the BIOS hasn't upset anything.

4. Recovery CD procedure only reformats the C: drive. The thread shown above gives details of this.

Ashley.

[ashleys]

Sorry, forgot to add ...
Make doubly sure before you start that you've backed *EVERYTHING* up.

Whenever, I'm doing something like this I usually take one full backup and then a second backup of data that I consider critical (ie impossible to re-create from any other means).

[LeoB]

Yes, I have data back-ups on two external HDD's and then I move everything to my office PC for a third location.

Can the "E" drive be formatted by itself from within the DOS emulator?

Thanks for all the info.

Leo

[ashleys]

I do all my partition allocation and formatting using the windows disk manager that is available under Computer management MMC.

That's just my personal preference. The format command within the DOS emulator can do the job just as well, there's just more command switches to get right