reinstalling XPp in a T21

[Ogg]

Would installing the full or oem version of XP cause certain features of the T21 such as the touchpad to no work properly?

A friend of my has a T21 that she acquired 2nd-hand about 6 years ago. She never received the install discs. The T21 is exeriencing some problems in IE and a few other areas of performance. My thought was to reinstall XP.

Any ideas on how to proceed?

[goofyGAguy]

A retail version of XP would not have any of IBM's utilities included, but everything you need can be easily found here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... IGR-4JSQHB

[RealBlackStuff]

Would installing the full or oem version of XP cause certain features of the T21 such as the touchpad to no work properly?

There never was a touchpad in any of the T2x series.

[Ogg]

I didn't have the T21 in front of me when I wrote that. I remember now that it doesn't have a pad. But I did wonder whether the blues Access IBM button and other features could be recovered. I am not sure if the recovery partition is still intact. How could I confirm the existence and integrity of the recovery partition? Or.. is that partition only available on later models, I guess?

[RealBlackStuff]

Take that HD out, put it in a USB enclosure and check it on your PC or other laptop. If the hidden partition is there, you would still see it (at around 3-4GB).
To use it, that function needs to be enabled in the laptop's BIOS, so you can press the Thinkpad button to restore to factory-status.

If you install another version of XP (other than the factory restore CDs), you need to install M$ dotnetfx20/SP1 and IBM/Lenovo's System Update 3.14. Then run it and get all the missing TP utils.

[nikki605]

...But I did wonder whether the blues Access IBM button and other features could be recovered.

My T21 originally shipped with Win98SE. After having it several years and prompted by a HDD that went bad, I upgraded to WinXP Pro retail version. I then installed the TP Utilities as already mentioned. I have been running this way now for several years.

I just wanted to mention that THE ONLY function that no longer works is the ThinkPad button to the right of the Esc key. Everything else works. I don't even miss that button as I rarely go into the Access IBM functions any more. I can still get to all of those functions from the Start>Programs menu, so its not a big deal.

[Ogg]

My T21 originally shipped with Win98SE. After having it several years and prompted by a HDD that went bad, I upgraded to WinXP Pro retail version. I then installed the TP Utilities as already mentioned. I have been running this way now for several years.

Ah... Thanks for that. I remember now that the T21's orginally shipped with Win98 too. That means that this particular T21 had XP installed by its previous user. In that case, there's no point in asking IBM for recovery disks (which would have Win98, right?) another clue that the T21 was updated to XP is the fact the file system is still FAT32.

I just wanted to mention that THE ONLY function that no longer works is the ThinkPad button to the right of the Esc key. Everything else works. I don't even miss that button as I rarely go into the Access IBM functions any more. I can still get to all of those functions from the Start>Programs menu, so its not a big deal.

I was thinking along the same lines. My friend doesn't even bother with those features. The simplest and best strategy is just to buy a new copy of XP and install that.

[nikki605]

I looked through the IBM Tawbook at the various T21 models. The only OS's I found were W98SE, W2k & Linux, so it appears that no T21's shipped with WinXP. I think the T21's were discontinued before WinXP was released. So, yes, that's why the HDD is formatted FAT32, and no, a recovery CD would not be available with WinXP on it (at least I don't think so). I remember formatting my new HDD to NTFS before installing WinXP Pro retail.

The main thing is to go to the IBM website and install the T2x Utilities after installing WinXP. That gave me all the functionality I needed.

One of the things I've done since, is to slipstream SP3 into my original WinXP install CD which only came with SP1. There is a topic here where I learned how to do it. I've not had a reason to use the CD yet, but if disaster struck my T21, I would be ready.