T60 - Fresh install of XP

[Cassirer]

questions:

1) If I reload, can I then download the software loader from IBM and reload all the IBM specific software? Will it recognize my machine, and down load the drivers etc. or will have to do that one by one ... and I assume risk messing it up?

2) when I do a fresh load, how do I make sure that it does not formate the IBM backup partition in case I need it?

3) I have made a back of the drive with True Image... I assume that if I mess up I can just run a recovery cd and reinstall that ...


I have a T60 2007 63G with German software that I am trying to get into English ... the result of a major misunderstanding when I bought the machine and IBM has not been very helpful so far

[donking!]

Thanks serpico. I'll check the device manager.

Okay now I'm having another problem (perhaps related to the first?). I installed the hotfix for the audio, but the software installer still doesn't recognize any audio drivers to install. And there are a number of drivers (TPM, PCMCIA, Network) that I install, the software installer says the installation has finished fine, and then when I reboot the software installer shows that these drivers aren't installed.

Maybe there's something messed up with the slipstreamed windows cd I made? Hmm.

*

Cassirer, in response to 2. If you DO NOT disable the predesktop area in the BIOS, then it won't be reformatted. When you run the windows installer, you will have an option just to reformat c: and install XP to your reformatted c: partition. (Perhaps this is true even if you do disable the predesktop are. Not sure.)

[serpico]

Thanks serpico. I'll check the device manager.

Okay now I'm having another problem (perhaps related to the first?). I installed the hotfix for the audio, but the software installer still doesn't recognize any audio drivers to install. And there are a number of drivers (TPM, PCMCIA, Network) that I install, the software installer says the installation has finished fine, and then when I reboot the software installer shows that these drivers aren't installed.
<snip>

I didn't use the installer to install the audio drivers. I ran c:\drivers\win\audio\setup.exe. This will install the SoundMax drivers.

Not sure why you are having problems with the other drivers. As you note, maybe it's related to the Intel chipset support files? Were you able to re-install these or otherwise confirm that they have been installed?

[donking!]

Thanks again serpico. It looks like the system drivers are installed. And the TPM driver is also installed (though it shows as not installed in the software installer).

Alas, I think I'm going to go back to the factory install and try to optimize performance from there. I'm not feeling very confident about my deployment of the clean install process at the moment. And I haven't even used the computer for anything yet!

I may take up the clean install effort again another time.

Thanks for all the help. I learned a lot in the process.

[serpico]

Thanks again serpico. It looks like the system drivers are installed. And the TPM driver is also installed (though it shows as not installed in the software installer).

Alas, I think I'm going to go back to the factory install and try to optimize performance from there. I'm not feeling very confident about my deployment of the clean install process at the moment. And I haven't even used the computer for anything yet!

I may take up the clean install effort again another time.

Thanks for all the help. I learned a lot in the process.

I don't think you're losing much by not doing the clean install. Just uninstall the stuff you don't want and make sure to use msconfig to check on all the processes that load at startup and remove those that you don't need.

After all, you bought the laptop as a means to an end rather than as an end in itself.

One note though - if you think you might attempt a clean install in the relatively near future, try to limit the number of applications you install as well as the number of customized settings you configure for Windows and for apps. Obviously you would have to redo all of these if you do a clean install and I think this is more time consuming than the clean install of XP itself. Or you could note down all your customized settings as you make them.

[misfit]

Have you found yourself able to make recovery disks? Mine does a fatal error even after a complete factory reset.

Ok, I know that I'm replying to a really old question but I've just discovered something myself and, after reading this thought I'd share...

I've never been able to write recovery disks before and have variously put it down to HDD bad sectors, malware and perhaps the disks having been written before. (I've never been fortunate enough to own a new TP, I only 'discovered' them in 2008 and by then I was only interested in discontinued models.)

Anyway, I was trying to write recovery disks for my latest acquisition (a 2374-M97 T42) the other day and, after getting several messages like "couldn't read xxxxx" or "Bad data at xxxx" for some reason I decided to try to write them with the anti-virus (Avast!) turned off. Well! It worked perfectly so I got out my T41 (and it's original HDD that was 'in storage') that I'd not been able to write disks for before and yet again, by turning off the AV I was able to get the disk-set written with no trouble.

I've never seen this 'tip' mentioned before (haven't really looked TBH) but thought that it might be worth sharing.... Now I'm *really* wishing I hadn't deleted the factory partition of my T60/s after failing to write disks.