Thinkpads Forum

i was fiddling around with installing osx and i accidently removed the hidden partition. now when i hit the blue button on startup it gives me some menu that asks me if i want to go into the bios or change the boot device. does anybody know how to fix this? the partition is gone

I think you will need to restore from your recovery CD / DVD set to get the hidden partition back. That's what I have to do everytime I install Linux and blow away the recovery partition.

awlane wrote:I think you will need to restore from your recovery CD / DVD set to get the hidden partition back. That's what I have to do everytime I install Linux and blow away the recovery partition.

You are quite correct in your solution. I have personal experience from own mistakes to confirm this

On a side note ...

If I do a clean install of windows myself, and download rescue & recovery software from Lenovo and install it, will it then automatically create this hidden partition again?

I have not done much research into this yet, but on my T60 it seems there is only one "hidden" partition, but I can see it in Disk Management (less than 1 GB if I am not mistaken). But in the factory installation of WXP there is a directory called "RescueRecovery" (or something similar) in the root of the c: drive, I cannot access this but it seems to me that the real backup is done to this folder and not the 2nd partition. So is this partition only used for the thinkvantage software that loads if you press this button on startup of the thinkpad?

Sorry for the unstructured post ...

Cheers,
Rick

sw-rick wrote:If I do a clean install of windows myself, and download rescue & recovery software from Lenovo and install it, will it then automatically create this hidden partition again?

In a word: No.

sw-rick wrote:...there is a directory called "RescueRecovery" (or something similar) in the root of the c: drive, I cannot access this but it seems to me that the real backup is done to this folder and not the 2nd partition.

That is true. You can access the directory if you boot up in Safe Mode and change permissions.

sw-rick wrote:So is this partition only used for the thinkvantage software that loads if you press this button on startup of the thinkpad?

Yes, it is used for that. Moreover, it contains everything needed to restore your C: partition with the ThinkPad software (Windows, drivers, and applications) to factory state. You can also boot up into this Rescue and Recovery partition and restore a Rescue and Recovery backup - if you have made one. Furthermore you can retreive files from a C: partition that won't boot, and transfer them to another medium, before doing a restore.

Hey GomJabbar, thanks for the answers!

So does this mean that if I, let's say, delete the RescueRecovery directory in the root and run the ThinkVantage software from boot, I can still recover a complete copy of WXP to the c: / first partition? I understand ofcourse that it will be with factory defaults.

Cheers,
Rick

Oh, and one more thing. Does this mean that if I do the infamous "clean install", will there be no way of making Rescue&Restore work again? I am speaking of doing an install from an original set of WXP disks and to install all the TP software after.

Cheers,
Rick

If you are talking about the C:\RRBACKUPS\ directory, I see no reason you can't delete it. You should still be able to restore your ThinkPad to factory state.

EDIT: Some users report that they have been able to keep the service partition, do a clean install to drive C:, and through some work were able to boot into the service partition again. You'll have to search this site (using the search icon at the top of the screen) to find the methods they used.

Thanks again for all your help.

I have been searching, and I am actually thinking about putting together a small guide myself as it seems that the pieces of "know how" are scattered all over the place.

What I am basically trying to accomplish is to do a clean install of WXP, and have the HPA/Service partition available afterwards. It seems to me that it is not possible to make a new image from my clean install to replace the factory image in the hidden partition. The RRBackup directory at the root should be no problem however.

Actually, the real reason why I want to do all this is that I want to be somewhat prepared when Vista eventually will ship, to see what I have to do to install Vista on my T60 but still keep the service partition.

Has any T40-T43 owners experienced how this was done from for example Win2k to WXP? Have they simply bought a new set of disks from IBM/Lenovo with WXP and all the TP-sofware packaged?

Cheers,
Rick

I made a clean install of windows.. but decided to get rid of the recover partition.. it took up 5gb.. and i figured i would need all the space i could get.. the recover partition is great for recovering files from a messed up system tho.. copy files over to usb drive.. nice option.. to remedy this.. I can use CIA Commander to read/write files on NTFS drivers, this boots from floppy.. if I need something more powerful.. I can use my USB stick (1gb) that has a linux OS installed on it.. boot from there.. and recover files from any NTFS drive...

Sorry to jump in...

if I understand correctly- the backup cds can be used to restore the hidden partition?

My thinkpad is coming in a few days and I wanted to image the drive with either drive image or acronis. I just ordered acronis but it will arrive after my thinkpad. can I make rescue dvd's, mess with it (a clean windows install), then restore everything with the rescue dvds? the rescue dvds will restore the hidden partition and bring the drive back to the factory state?

sorry no thinkpad yet. posting from a pocket pc

GomJabbar wrote:If you are talking about the C:\RRBACKUPS\ directory, I see no reason you can't delete it. You should still be able to restore your ThinkPad to factory state.

EDIT: Some users report that they have been able to keep the service partition, do a clean install to drive C:, and through some work were able to boot into the service partition again. You'll have to search this site (using the search icon at the top of the screen) to find the methods they used.

grouch808 wrote:Sorry to jump in...

if I understand correctly- the backup cds can be used to restore the hidden partition?

....can I make rescue dvd's, mess with it (a clean windows install), then restore everything with the rescue dvds? the rescue dvds will restore the hidden partition and bring the drive back to the factory state?

Yes!
They do delete all data on the hard drive when you use them though

EDIT: The CD's/DVD you are talking about are called the Product Recovery Discs. IIRC, you can create them by going to Start > All Programs > ThinkVantage > Create Rescue Media > Create Product Recovery Discs.

The key is to keep the MBR untouched. I think somewhere on Thinkwiki they talked about it, even with a dual-boot to linux & XP.

GomJabbar wrote:If you are talking about the C:\RRBACKUPS\ directory, I see no reason you can't delete it. You should still be able to restore your ThinkPad to factory state.

EDIT: Some users report that they have been able to keep the service partition, do a clean install to drive C:, and through some work were able to boot into the service partition again. You'll have to search this site (using the search icon at the top of the screen) to find the methods they used.

GomJabbar wrote:If you are talking about the C:\RRBACKUPS\ directory, I see no reason you can't delete it. You should still be able to restore your ThinkPad to factory state.
...

Is there any way to move my multi-GB sized c:\RRBACKUPS to the back of my hard drive (where HDD performance is slower)?

It's currently sitting on a prime section of my HDD (about 33% in) and rarely used!

w0qj wrote:

GomJabbar wrote:If you are talking about the C:\RRBACKUPS\ directory, I see no reason you can't delete it. You should still be able to restore your ThinkPad to factory state.
...

Is there any way to move my multi-GB sized c:\RRBACKUPS to the back of my hard drive (where HDD performance is slower)?

It's currently sitting on a prime section of my HDD (about 33% in) and rarely used!

You can use UltimateDefrag from Disktrix. I put 20% of my frequently used files on the outer tracks of the harddisk where it is fastest and the other 80% from the inner tracks.

However, i do not see the point of having the RRbackups in your C drive. Try to move it off to an external HDD or CDROM. If your HDD gets a virus, you press blue button, you may need to reformat the HDD before you restore all your previous backups. So how do you reformat if the backups are on the C drive?