One more time: T42P Recovery partition Predesktop, Ghost...

[Marc_G]

Hi folks-

I've got a brand new T42P . It works great but due to some repartitioning, it won't let me make recovery CDs.

I've spent the last two hours reviewing prior posts about reinstalling onto new HDs, predesktop areas, etc... But I'm still not sure I have a clear answer.

I have ghosted (Ghost 9.01) the IBM service partition onto a DVD.

What I want is to use this image to do a factory install onto a separate HD I have hanging around.

Can someone point me to just exactly how I take this Ghost image to do a standard install onto the new HD?

After reading many, many threads... I'm more confused than ever. I think what I want to do is simple:

-Restore image of the service partition onto the new HD
-Maybe do something in the BIOS to get it to recognize the partition
-Choose to do a restore

...but would appreciate any help for this situation.

Thanks

Marc

[Aramitz]

I'm using Drive Image 7
1) My OS & Datas are on C/
2) I've made a 2nd partition for the D.I.7 backup files .( one for the OS alone and an other with the OS+ my Datas and softs.
It takes only 10' for recovering my C/ of 6 Gb

[Marc_G]

Hi Aramitz-

Thanks, I do the same thing actually. I never liked DI 7 though, and stuck with DI2002. When DI2002 failed to make a useable backup of my new T42P, I went over to Ghost 9, and found it was essentially DI 7. Boo, hiss...

But, my system partition contains lots of stuff set up by my corporate IT. I back this up frequently and can restore it quickly. No problem.

What I want is a plain factory install from the recovery partition that I might play around with now and then, containing none of the modifications relating to the domain setup for my company.

So, that's why I'm asking how to turn my Ghost image of the service partition into a functioning factory-spec working copy.

Thanks in advance all.

Marc

[Aramitz]

Hi Marc
It's very easy with your DVD
You put your empty HD and going into your bios you boot on your DVD and it runs

If not , you make a second partition
You copy your DVD Ghost and you boot on it.

My PC was with a 40 Gb /4200rpm DD and I want to tranfer the IBM factory OS on a new 60 Gb /7200 rpm Hitachi HD
a) After installing DI7 on the old HD , I've done a backup of the whole OS
b) I've put my new HD on a USB case and copy the backup on a second special partition for DI7
c) I've put the new HD in the PC and the old in the case
After, it was very easy to install the OS on the new bigger'n faster HD

[Aramitz]

Hi Marc
Look at that !??
It looks nice !??
http://www.tomshardware.com/firstlook/2 ... index.html

[Marc_G]

Aramitz-

Thanks; I'll try it tonight.

Marc

[Marc_G]

OK here's what I did:

1. Took the Ghosted image CD and restored it onto a brand new HD that had an empty 20 GB partition and the rest unallocated space. Restored into the unallocated space. Had Ghost set the MBR and set the partition as the active one.

2. Attempted to boot. Got "Missing OS."

3. Rebooted, pressing the Access IBM key. It booted into the recovery environment (yea!) but asked me for the password, which I've never set. It didn't accept a blank password field, or my windows logon password.

At this point I'm trying to figure out what is going on with the R&R password. But at least this process seems to get the recovery partition to be active and once I sort out the password thing it should be OK.

Marc

[Aramitz]

Hi Marc
Have you spent a nice week end ?

For your passport ...I don't know !??
Have you tried with "0000" or "****" or may be with your corporate one !??
I like Drive Image coz it's easy to use for non-specialists (I'm not a geek!)

[Marc_G]

Hi Aramitz-

I tried everything I could think of. Windows logon. Administrator account windows logon. About ten other things. I went in and reset the password for the R&R system, burned a NEW DVD copy of the service partition, restored that to the other disk, and it STILL didn't accept the password, the new one I just made.

Eventually called IBM; they're sending me disks.

BTW: I LOVE Drive Image (DI 2002) but it failed when trying to back up my new T42P. I'm not sure why. It gave lots of errors when starting to make the image of the C: partition, and aborted. I disabled error checking, and it seemed to make a valid image, but when I tried restoring the image, it failed at the end and the HD wasn't bootable. Also DI2002 (DOS version) wouldn't write directly to my DVD drive (It does CDs fine).

These things made me feel that maybe DI2002 is gettng long in the tooth, and that's why I went over to Ghost. Ghost is nice in that it writes directly to DVDs, and don't need to go to DOS to get a system drive image (not sure how they managed that... nice trick). And, the restored Ghost image actually booted )

On the other hand I thing Ghost is slow on the restoration end; the Recovery CD alone takes 5 minutes to boot! And about an hour to restore the C: partition.

I'm not happy with the recovery environment for Ghost 9, but other than that it's not sooo bad.

Marc

[Aramitz]

Hi Marc
Sure, that you've tried all the thinkables passwords

Me too, I'm not a geek and I only want a workable PC , no more
I'm using it for my job (Finance) and I'm obsessed by the security of my customs folders ...I've plenty of USB keys'n external USB drives.
I'm using my PC for video and I try a lot of softwares and plenty of them are 30 days trials.
With Drive Image 7.0 , it's easy'n quick to restore a clean OS (15' for 7 GB), according to that, I restore my PC every month !
DI7 is very easy and you need only the CD and your recoveries stored in an other partition, that's all !
I've never nothing understood in Ghost and I don't have a floopy drive !
Have a nice day
Michel.

[w0qj]

at this point, it might be more fruitful if you proceed on another paths:

a) Good excuse to get another hard drive!
Buy a new HDD (5K100, anyone?), stick it into your Thinkpad, and use Product Recovery CD's to format back to factory condition.
put your old HDD into a USB2 HDD enclosure, and just copy the data back onto your new HDD in your Thinkpad.
install your applications and settings.

you did make Product Recovery CD's, didn't you?

[Marc_G]

Hi w0qj-

By the time I got my laptop from corporate IT, something had been done that messed up the recovery CD creation. Modifying the system partition size probably was it. Anyway, the IBM_Service partition is there, and if I move it to a new drive and set it to be active, it boots... I just don't know the password. There's a bug in the password setting utility.

Oh well. IBM did send me the recovery CDs when I explained the situation, and this was mostly for play anyway. I wanted to explore the use of the recovery option. My system is working OK at the moment, and I've deleted the IBM_Service partition, all is well.

Marc