New x31 owner, wipe current HDD before full resore?

[Motohead]

Hello all. I just bought my first x31, a 2672-CBU. It came with a hitachi 60g hard drive installed with a fresh load of windows. It was missing most of the drivers, and it doesn't seem to have any of the IBM software installed. I have ordered the R&R discs from IBM and am hoping to put it back to stock before I start playing with it much more. Do I need to wipe the current hard drive somehow before I try to load the discs? I don't have another computer that I can run it in. I'm pretty new to this kind of computer work, so any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Drew

[ryengineer]

No. Product Recovery disks would wipe out everything on the HDD including all partitions and personal data for you.

[Motohead]

Excellent. Do the discs update the bios at the same time? I bought an Atheros wifi card as well, and heard that I need to update the bios before install. I'm going to read all of the atheros threads after I get the system loaded

[Harryc]

No the recovery discs do not update the BIOS. You'd have to do that yourself.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 50308.html

[billp117]

Why not log into Lenovo.com and download the IBM specific drivers and software?

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... idate=true


You will find the software that will update your computer with your existing Windows. No need for the R&R.

Also, you might want to update the BIOS to the latest version.

Good luck...Bill

[Motohead]

will the lenovo update create the hidden partition? I'd like the blue button to work correctly, at least in the beginning, so I can see what it does.

As far as the BIOS, should I update the BIOS or the controller first? Do I need to put the file on a diskette, or can I load it from the HDD?

Thanks again,
Drew

[ryengineer]

will the lenovo update create the hidden partition?

No, only Product recovery disks can do that.

As far as the BIOS, should I update the BIOS or the controller first?

1. Embedded Controller and 2. BIOS can be updated via Thinkvantage System Update or can be downloaded manually. Updating BIOS via floppy is an older method, lenovo has been providing Non-Diskette method since a while now.