T43: New HD .. Access IBM ?

[CeeBee]

Just upgraded a T43 1871-4BU (40GB OEM drive) to a 100GB HD via an Acronis backup of the old drive (with the hidden partition) made on an external USB drive, with the new drive mounted in the T43. Once the 100GB drive was operational, I added logical partitions using PM8. It all worked well w/o any problems, as far as I can determine, but I have some questions:

1. How do I know that the hidden partition works as advertised, as I removed R&R some time ago. Under a no R&R scenario, what should I see when I press "Access IBM" during boot up?

2. What is contained in the hidden IBM partition? As R&R has been removed, what's left? Without R&R, do I need the hidden partition?

3. What else can I remove of the ThinkVantage software, most of which I do not use? Any suggestions? Thanks...

[CeeBee]

Too many questions .. so let's limit the answer to # 1 and # 2. That said, any suggestion on what Lenovo software is non-essential would help too. Thanks...

[Harryc]

1. How do I know that the hidden partition works as advertised, as I removed R&R some time ago. Under a no R&R scenario, what should I see when I press "Access IBM" during boot up?
If you hold down the access IBM button on boot you should see the machine boot up to the rescue and recovery utility.

2. What is contained in the hidden IBM partition? As R&R has been removed, what's left? Without R&R, do I need the hidden partition?
The hidden partition contains all files needed to completely reload the machine to factory specs. So in effect, once it's done, the first time you boot the build will be identical to the first time that you powered up the machine. I do not know if the recovery partition will work with the access IBM button if R&R has been removed. I do know that R&R and the partition are tied together, so I would not be surprised if it did not work with R&R removed.

3. What else can I remove of the ThinkVantage software, most of which I do not use? Any suggestions? Thanks...[/quote]
There are many, many good threads on this subject as it has been discussed to death.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... edc773b451
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=27494

[CeeBee]

Thanks, very helpful. Here are a couple of follow-up comments:

1. I held down the IBM button during boot but did NOT end up in the 'rescue and recovery' utility. Instead, I was presented with this menu:

Startup Interrupt Menu
Press one...
ESC to resume normal startup
F1 to enter the IBM BIOS Setup Utility
F12 to choose a temporary startup device
Press Enter to pause...

The F12 results in a sub-menu where I can choose between starting via HD or CD/DVD or to enter Setup. Quite useful but, it seems, the functionality of the hidden partition was NOT transferred during my HD upgrade using Acronis TI 10, only the physical drive itself. If I missed something, let me know.

2. Okay, so the hidden partition contains the same recovery data as I have on the self-created 'product recovery disk set'. Hence, I can use the product recovery disks instead of the IBM partition to restore (as a last resort) to factory state. If the HD crashes I have to do that anyway...

Under this scenario, unless there is an easy fix to get the hidden partition functional again, I may as well delete it and use the space for other stuff! Again, if I got this backwards, let me know.

3. On ThinkVantage software, noted. I'll check those threads...

Again thanks.

[Harryc]

I would try to reinstall Thinkvantage Rescue and Recovery to see if that makes an difference.

[CeeBee]

A bit reluctant to do a reinstall of R&R .. and, as R&R resides on the C: drive only (afaik), even if I can enter it via the Access IBM Button on boot, I'm not sure I see the connection to the hidden partition. But, if you think I can kick the hidden IBM partition back into life, I'll give it a try...

[SteveS]

If you just want to verify if the hidden partition is there, you can see it by right clicking My Computer / Manage / Storage / Disk Managemetn (local).

This will show all the partitions on the physical drive. The hidden partition will be named "Service" and should be around 3.5 - 4.5 GB, depending on your model.

[CeeBee]

>> If you just want to verify if the hidden partition is there...

It's there alright, that's not the issue. My problem was that I didn't know if the IBM service partition was/is 'functional'. Judging from my exchange with Harry .. it's not (functional). And, if not functional, my inclination would be to delete the hidden partition and to rely on the product recovery disks (factory state) I made.

As for reinstalling R&R, I don't think that's going to change the above and make the hidden partition work as advertised. That said, I may still try it when I have time...