Thinkpads Forum

A quick question: has anyone successfully restored a T6n-series TP that has a hidden service partition? I've been able to successfully restore T4n-series TPs (with and without the hidden service partition) from an HP EX490 MediaSmart Server (v. 3.0.14.n) using PC Restore Disc (v. 3.0) but the T6n-series has proved to be a problem (boots to the white blinking cursor but no further). TIA.

You need to set SATA in the BIOS to compatibility mode.
When the installation is finished, change it back to AHCI mode.

RealBlackStuff wrote:You need to set SATA in the BIOS to compatibility mode.
When the installation is finished, change it back to AHCI mode.

RealBlackStuff,

Thanks very much for your reply. I tried that change in BIOS already: no joy. I'm not sure what's wrong - I'm just going to have to play around with this some more.

What OS is on your ThinkPad? Make sure you have the latest restore disc from the link in your WHS Software\Home PC Restore CD\ReadMe.txt file.

No problem at all on my T60 with Vista preload, but I have only done OS partition restore. I haven't tried a restore to a blank disk, but I should really test it. IIRC the restore screen only offers selection of two source and two destination partitions. It could be a problem with my partitioning scheme of recovery, os and data if I need to restore all of them.

msb0b wrote:What OS is on your ThinkPad?

XP PRO + SP3 + all subsequent critical patches

msb0b wrote:Make sure you have the latest restore disc from the link in your WHS Software\Home PC Restore CD\ReadMe.txt file.

Hmmm, I'm using HP PC Restore Disc v. 3.0 which came with the EX490. I had assumed this was just the Microsoft WHS Restore CD v. 1.1 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=104683) with some of HP's extensions but I'm not sure. I'll give this a shot. Thanks for the info.

..you know - for a minute there I read the title thread as:

Has anyone restored a T6n (w. partition) from VHS?

How about trying IBM/Lenovo CDs instead? Buy those in our Marketforum.
I'm sure that what you are doing is not quite legal...

RealBlackStuff wrote:How about trying IBM/Lenovo CDs instead? Buy those in our Marketforum.
I'm sure that what you are doing is not quite legal...

RealBlackStuff,

Sorry, I don't think I made myself clear. I bought a T60 on Marketplace from a well-known seller. It came with the original IBM_PRELOAD and hidden SERV partitions (and the COA on the bottom). Nothing untoward here. I know I can restore IBM_PRELOAD from SERV with RNR to its original factory settings. I just want to be able to image IBM_PRELOAD (WHS won't image SERV since it is FAT32) and restore it in an emergency. I back up daily to WHS (it’s much more efficient than Acronis which I used previously) so in a restore situation I would hopefully only lose a day's work.

I’ve been able to restore all manner of TPs (with and without the hidden partition) with WHS but I haven’t been able to restore a T60 that has a hidden SERV partition.

Excuse me if I am confused, but what are those HP disks doing in this equation?

RealBlackStuff wrote:Excuse me if I am confused, but what are those HP disks doing in this equation?

RealBlackStuff,

The HP disks (i.e., HP PC Restore v. 3. 0) are HP's version of Microsoft's WHS Restore CD (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=104683) and manage the client-server restore process on the client side (e.g., partition selection, boot loader, rdisk ...).

I just ran a quick test with Windows XP here. First of all, the latest restore disc downloadable from MS is version 3. AFAIK, the newer version has better driver support so that you don't need to load additional drivers for your storage and networking hardware.

Now on the backup/restore test. The WinXP preload I have has integrated Office 2007 which I think is one of the latest version. WHS connector was unable to see the service partition and back it up. I think it has to do with the partition type. If the blinking cursor is your only outstanding issue, you may be able to use the MBR repair disk to fix it.

On the other hand, WHS can see Vista preload's service partition and back it up.

msb0b wrote:If the blinking cursor is your only outstanding issue, you may be able to use the MBR repair disk to fix it.

I'll give this a shot.

msb0b wrote:On the other hand, WHS can see Vista preload's service partition and back it up.

What is the file system type used by your Vista preload's service partition? I'm guessing it's not FAT32. TIA.

jtreble wrote:What is the file system type used by your Vista preload's service partition? I'm guessing it's not FAT32. TIA.

Both Vista and XP's service partitions are NTFS according to PartImage. They do have different partition ID though.