Thinkpads Forum

I'm trying to create my rescue CDs for my T61. I get this warning message that you can't use DVD-RAM* for the first disc. It then moves to another screen where it says "Select Recordable Drive". This menu has a pull down box but there are no choices...it's all blank. What the heck is it asking for

(I tried plugging in my stand-alone hard drive, but that's not recognized.)

Thx.


*what is DVD-RAM?

You need to use a media other than DVD-RAM to burn the 1st disk since Rescue and Recovery cannot make this format bootable.

DVD-RAM is a type of DVD media, please look into following wiki:

DVD-RAM

thanks for the reply.

I've got an old IOMEGA CD writer. Will that work?

uberT wrote:snip....I've got an old IOMEGA CD writer. Will that work?

DVD-RAM is a media (dvd disk), no need to change the device.

Use a CD-R/W or DVD±R/W media for the 1st disk.

ryengineer wrote:

uberT wrote:snip....I've got an old IOMEGA CD writer. Will that work?

DVD-RAM is a media (dvd disk), no need to change the device.

Use a CD-R/W or DVD±R/W media for the 1st disk.

Yikes, no I'm really lost. I've only got CD-R/W discs. I've never purchased a DVD disk.

The disc I attempted it with is nothing more than a bulk Memorex CD-R

Some suggestions:

1. Make sure your CDRW/DVDRW is working properly, run PC Doctor diagnostic test on it, also you can try playing a music CD.

2. Use a brand other than Memorex, Philips is a one good brand out there in my opinion.

Hopefully one of the two will get you some positive results.

I prepared a couple of R&R (non-IBM) and bartPE CDs yesterday, worked without a hitch.

Don't these machines have some kind of warranty for nonsense like this? I looked for contact info at the Lenovo site...didn't come up with anything.

When I had a problem burning R&R disks a few weeks ago, I called Lenovo support about it and after I explained the problems I was having, they sent me a set for free.

pae77 wrote:When I had a problem burning R&R disks a few weeks ago, I called Lenovo support about it and after I explained the problems I was having, they sent me a set for free.

Support will send you Product Recovery disks and not Rescue media that the poster is trying to create.

ryengineer wrote:
Support will send you Product Recovery disks and not Rescue media that the poster is trying to create.

ryengineer, what is the difference between Product Recovery and Rescue Media? I don't understand this subtlety.

Thanks.

There are two things that Rescue and Recovery media creates:

1. Rescue Media
2. Product Recovery Disks

The functionality of 1st option is:

It is very useful even if you haven’t even used Rescue & Recovery tool to make a backup. If you ever used the Windows 98 Universal Boot Disk, think this as that boot disk on steriods. The CD it creates contains a Lenovo-customized copy of Windows PE. Even if Windows won’t boot, you can use this disk to access your data on your hard disk in a GUI format. If the worst happens and you have to reformat and start over, it also contains drivers so that you can dump your data to a CD or DVD or USB HDD as well.

The second option creates Product Recovery disks that puts your machine to out of the box factory settings (including the OS and drivers, applications, tools etc., creates the hidden service partition including the predesktop console as well).

Although disc 1 of 1 in the Product Recovery Disks is the Rescue Media.

I telephoned IBM (Atlanta) yesterday and they are sending me recovery discs. He claims it is absolutely identical to what I would have created with "Create Rescue Media". He says it will span quite a few discs.

He had no suggestions as to why I could not create the discs on my machine.

I too just tried to create my rescue media and encountered the same issue where no selectable CDRW drives were listed under the pulldown menu.... I called support in Atlanta and they are mailing me both the rescue media and the set of recovery CD's.... no charge.... seems like a common problem based on these posts...

jaxf250 wrote:I too just tried to create my rescue media and encountered the same issue where no selectable CDRW drives were listed under the pulldown menu...

Jax, thanks for confirming I'm not completely crazy about this.

I've had a 2nd issue with my DVD writer. I attempted to copy a file (IBM driver) from this new machine to my old T30. I was using Sonic and it did not recognize the DVD writer either. I just keep getting a warning message that 'no drive is recognized'. I spent 1/2 hr trying to copy a file and could not get it done.

It's odd, 'cause I copied a file the day I got the machine and was pleased to learn that the machine had a writer installed. I confess I've read none of the documentation on any of this. I haven't had the time as I've been trying to juggle the repair of the old machine and trying to do my job using the new machine.

I had been instructed to remove SONIC DLA. I wonder if this could be part of the problem.

Interesting.... let us know if the Sonic DLA is causing problems...

The DLA program was removed last week. I may try re-installing to see if things start working again.

Here's the patch that got my machine going again:

http://images.roxio.com/en/support/pxengine3_00_58a.zip

I had three phone calls this afternoon with IBM and that was fruitless.

I've applied the 1.5MB patch from the link above and everything seems normal. I've removed DLA (again) and everything still works so it appears the missing DLA program was not the problem.