[ThinkVantage] With the T61 laptop

[sylvain]

Hello, first of all, I want to say that I will buy my first ever Laptop and it will be a T61

I'm very thrill to have a IBM box

I would like to know few things...

First, I saw that there is a Rescue and a Restore feature that comes with the button ThinkVantage.
I think that this will burn a CD and a DVD for restoration factory .So what this thing will backup ? The whole disk , the hidden partition the MBR etc...

I want to know that, because I plan to install Gentoo.So I will install GRUB somewhere...

If I mess up my laptop, can the Rescue and Restore will get back on track my laptop with the MBR...and what about the partition.
Does this thing wipe the HDD and start from scratch...

P.S Sorry for my poor English...I'm French Canadian.

Thank you in advance

Sylvain

[mgo]

Hello, first of all, I want to say that I will buy my first ever Laptop and it will be a T61

First, I saw that there is a Rescue and a Restore feature that comes with the button ThinkVantage.I want to know that, because I plan to install Gentoo.So I will install GRUB somewhere...

If I mess up my laptop, can the Rescue and Restore will get back on track my laptop with the MBR...and what about the partition.
Does this thing wipe the HDD and start from scratch...

Thank you in advance

Sylvain

Greetings and welcome to the legions of happy ThinkPad owners!

Yes, Rescue & Recovery works well, but it take a very long time to create the backup disks. However much of that time is taken by the software verifying the backups to ensure they will work when needed. With a new machine, the Rescue & Recovery creating is always a terrific idea, because it gives you a very good backup in case of emergency.

Yes, the restore process will remove everything from the disk (including any partitions you made, but not the IBM special recovery partition) and return the machine to factory original.
The Rescue & Recovery process takes a very long time, and it runs several batch files at the end that seem to have errors in them, (file not found, etc) but that is just because they are designed to look for variances in the image and simply not run things that are not there on your particular machine. Don't let that alarm you.

This restore procedure works, but it takes a very long time..about 90 minutes or more.

If you want to experiment with Gentoo or other operating systems why not just spend 40 dollars or so for a imaging program like Acronis or Ghost. They are much faster (10-20 minutes) and Acronis has worked well for me over the years. Those do not destroy other partitions, but you may need to re-do the MBR when re-installing Windows after running Linux on that C: partition. -not hard to do, just use the Windows install DVD and Recovery Console mode-

[sylvain]

Those do not destroy other partitions, but you may need to re-do the MBR when re-installing Windows after running Linux on that C: partition. -not hard to do, just use the Windows install DVD and Recovery Console mode-

Do the T60 and the T61 come with a real Windows CD... I tought that it use only a ghost and you get only the laptop in a box without any CD or DVD at all....

So you have to backup your installation before doing anything.

[SHoTTa35]

no "real" Windows CD as far as i know... just the regular ones that runs and installs the system back to original specs (including all the junk)

That's why i just install with a normal CD and use my key to activate it and we're good to go.

[sylvain]

no "real" Windows CD as far as i know... just the regular ones that runs and installs the system back to original specs (including all the junk)

Is there a special option that create the Factory CD or just luncher the ThinkVantage and backup the disk will to the trick ?

[GomJabbar]

Yes, there is a special option. You can only burn one set of Product Recovery Discs - until you actually restore factory contents, then you are given the option again.

Start > All Programs > ThinkVantage > Create Recovery Media > Product Recovery (I believe this is the current sequence). You also have the option there to create a Rescue Media CD. This is for booting up Rescue and Recovery when that doesn't work from your hard drive. This Rescue Media CD is also the same as the first disc created when you burn the Product Recovery Discs.

You can also press the ThinkVantage button on bootup to enter Rescue and Recovery and restore factory contents. Of course this will not work if you are replacing your hard drive - then you need to use the Product Recovery Discs.

[sylvain]

Ok thanks you...

Dumb question : What this Product CD contains....

I know that there is a special hidden partition inside the hdd...so can the Production CD wipe the entire disk and restore the factory state with the hidden partition ?, are it only restore the Windows partition ?

In case of a disk failure, can the hidden parittion can be restore ?

What is the contain of the hidden partition ?

Many questions.... I ask because if I mess up the MBR, can it be restore also ?

I will install Gentoo...so the MBR will be erase I think...

[GomJabbar]

The hidden partition contains everything to restore your C: windows partition as it came from the factory - Windows and all the IBM/Lenovo drivers and software.

The Product Recovery Discs restore the hidden partition to a hard drive. After that partition is restored, then you restore factory contents. You actually have to restore factory contents twice when you use the Product Recovery Discs. The first time it erases all partitions, creates new partitions, then installs Rescue and Recovery and all product recovery information to the hidden partition. On reboot you enter Rescue and Recovery. From there you restore factory contents again, and this time your C: partition is restored from the information stored in the hidden partition.

[sylvain]

Ok, know I see, so this thing wipe all the disk and also the MBR.

This is a great thing

[sylvain]

For what I know, I will have to be very careful with my installation.

From the Gentoo Handbook :

Note: If you want to install GRUB in a certain partition instead of the MBR,
you have to alter the setup command so it points to the right partition.
For instance, if you want GRUB installed in /dev/hda3, then the command becomes setup (hd0,2).
Few users however want to do this.

Will I have to do this to install my Gentoo box... the right way ?

I plan to have a /boot on a separate partition and a / for the Gentoo.

Can I make a /boot active even if it's a Logical Partition ?

What would be te result if Grub is inside the MBR ?

With my very little experience on Thinkpad, one of my friends had to format is T60 with a Genuine Windows XP CD (because of his work setup),
and the result : he doesn't have the ThinkVantage Button since the day he installed the XP systeme....

Where is the ThinkVantage program...inside the MBR ?

What other programs that are inside the MBR ?

[trent9008]

This really should go in the Linux forum.

My understanding is that you want to dual boot? Because otherwise, you could "simply" wipe your hard drive (after backing it up) and install from there.

Can I make a /boot active even if it's a Logical Partition ?

Not easily. I've been grappling with a similar issue recently (pending the arrival of my T61) and while there are plenty of dual boot how-to's out there, very few of them explain what's actually going on and how to adapt the procedure for your needs.

My plan is to install GRUB on a /boot primary partition (that makes 3 with the Windows and RnR partitions, leaving the rest for logical partitioning), then set it to boot Windows and Linux. Make that partition bootable using fdisk. On boot, the MBR should load GRUB (I hope). Your / partition can be a logical partition without complications.

What would be te result if Grub is inside the MBR ?

Unless you want to move completely to Gentoo, don't install GRUB to the MBR, because if you need RnR later on you'll have to restore it via Windows, which will prevent you from booting into Linux until you reinstall GRUB.