Thinkpads Forum

I purchased a new X60S when they had the Verizon $1599 special last month, plus an extra gig of RAM for just $99. Can't beat that. It's my first Thinkpad, and many thanks to all of you for your invaluable insights that helped me in the selection process.

Anyway, it just came in and my newbie question now is, what do Forum members recommend I do to optimally set up this great machine?

I imagine the first thing would be to to eliminate extraneous promotional software, for example, perhaps even whatever virus software with which the X60S came. Any tips or suggestions?

Also, if I've understood what I've read here on this great Forum, I need to create a recovery disk. But I couldn't find the link for doing that. Can someone point me in the right direction.

Thanks!

at bootup you can press the blue "thinkvanage" button on the top left of the keyboard.

then the predesktop area should load up and as far as I know you can create the recovery discs in there.

you need a CD burner attached to the notebook ofcourse

please someone correct me if I am completely wrong, as I don`t own a x60s myself but it should work like this.

I have a question, not to thread crap.

Does IBM send you the XP Pro cd with the machine?

If I eliminate the recovery partition, how can I reinstall the windows using the key on the bottom

Saml01 wrote:I have a question, not to thread crap.

Does IBM send you the XP Pro cd with the machine?

If I eliminate the recovery partition, how can I reinstall the windows using the key on the bottom

I believe at this point, you'll have to call IBM and order a recovery disk from them. You can get them free of charge if they are nice, but some of them might want to charge you. I think I've read somewhere that if you order it within a month of your purchase, the chances of getting it for free is very likely, which is what I am going to do first as soon as I get my X60 next week (hopefully =/)

I would like to have this recovery disk so that I can clean out the hard drive for more room. And because I'm OCD and like to always have a very clean copy of WinXP with minimal software packages installed =P

I just got my two X60s and have the same question. There seems to be so much stuff 'junk' supplied but I'm not sure what I need and what can be removed.

Eactly. A lot of extraneous junk that I'd like to remove.

Thats really gay they dont include it.

How much space is taken up by the restore partition?

What if I dont remove it, does it somehow effect a clean windows install?

Saml01 wrote:Thats really gay they dont include it.

How much space is taken up by the restore partition?

What if I dont remove it, does it somehow effect a clean windows install?

about 5 GB space, no, it will not affect the clean windows install

Does anyone know how to get "My Bluetooth Places" off the desktop?

I don't like the clutter and it's pretty annoying. I got everything else off.

As for all the junk in startup, try this: win+r, "msconfig", check out the "startup" tab.

I haven't figured out what everything is, but I'm going to get rid of google desktop, probably the picasa thing. There are plenty more apps as you all know. Can we get a joint effort to figure out what each thing is maybe? I'll post my results.

Agree, a joint effort to list all the junk would be useful. I don't know what a lot of it does and it clutters up the start menu. I don't know what most of it is for so will need to google around to try find out.

Perhaps we can draw up a list of the junk that can be removed and how to remove it if it isn't a simple uninstall.

run services.msc to get rid of unwanted/unnecessary windows services. there is a guide over at majorgeeks.com. there is a topic in one of the forums about what you (don't) need that comes preinstalled. SEARCH!

dannyp wrote:Does anyone know how to get "My Bluetooth Places" off the desktop?

Try Microsoft's Powertoy called TweakUI. Under "Desktop", you can hide any icons that might appear on your desktop that you can't remove normally. You can also customize other settings using TweakUI =)

dsigma, that helps little in relation to the x60s since a lot of the things are thinkpad proprietary and certain things relate to thinkvantage and may break things.

Sounds good for cleanup though to crossreference with! Like I said earlier, I'll post results.

spaznrq: oh yeah, tweakUI. I'll give it a shot sir.

dannyp- are you mad at me because we have the same name? hehe.

i also hate how that dumb bluetooth places icon is everywhere. what about the systray icon in addition to the desktop icon?!

Also, if I've understood what I've read here on this great Forum, I need to create a recovery disk. But I couldn't find the link for doing that. Can someone point me in the right direction.



start, all programs, thinkvantage, create recovery media

MIB wrote:

Saml01 wrote:Thats really gay they dont include it.

How much space is taken up by the restore partition?

What if I dont remove it, does it somehow effect a clean windows install?

about 5 GB space, no, it will not affect the clean windows install

Another question.

After I fresh install windows and push the think vantage, what happens?

As far as I understand(dont have machine yet) the 5gb recovery partition is hidden? is it tied to the thinkvantage button? is anything other then a windows install usefull on it?

Saml01 wrote:Thats really gay they dont include it.

How much space is taken up by the restore partition?

What if I dont remove it, does it somehow effect a clean windows install?

It's all part of the homosexual agenda to reduce hard drive space and destroy family values.

trentblase wrote:

Saml01 wrote:Thats really gay they dont include it.

How much space is taken up by the restore partition?

What if I dont remove it, does it somehow effect a clean windows install?

It's all part of the homosexual agenda to reduce hard drive space and destroy family values.

Okie dokie people; tone it down a notch or two now. If this thread, or at least the responses to it, don't return to normal; consider it locked *quickly*/post-edited and/or PMs sent out concerning the FAQ/Forum Rules and the possible use of any extra reading time you all may have lying around that could be devoted to it.

Ok then, constructive comments:

The recovery partition generally takes "a few GB", but the exact number seems to vary from model to model (from the posts I've read). I think mine takes around 6GB.

I would highly recommend keeping this partition around. It's a nice little safety net that can really come in handy if for some reason you need to get up and running ASAP.

As long as you don't let windows repartition your HD, it's fine to reformat and/or reinstall another OS over your main partition. In the event of trouble, the recovery partition will still be able to restore the main partition to a factory state.

Long story short, unless you are teh 1337 haxor, and REALLY need that extra space, you should leave it alone.

dsigma6 wrote:dannyp- are you mad at me because we have the same name? hehe.

yes.

trentblase wrote:Ok then, constructive comments:

The recovery partition generally takes "a few GB"...
I would highly recommend keeping this partition around. It's a nice little safety net that can really come in handy if for some reason you need to get up and running ASAP...

But it won't help you if the drive fails as I understand it, which is the likely catastrophic event in my experience.

But then, if the whole drive fails, why would you want to restore the contents back to a factory image anyway? It wouldn't work until you got a new HDD.

PF wrote:But it won't help you if the drive fails as I understand it, which is the likely catastrophic event in my experience.

Generally, it's true that the recovery partition won't help you if the disc fails. However, this depends upon the exact failure mode you encounter. In my experience, most HD failure happens as increasingly problematic disc corruption, not instant death. In the early stages of this corruption, you may get a bad sector while trying to write an important OS file that corrupts your entire installation. It's possible that you could boot into the recovery partition and use disc utilities to re-map that sector. Then you could do a factory restore and be <i>provisionally</i> up and running.

However, I disagree that the most likely failure will by hardware. In reality, the benefit you will see is from an OS installation gone awry, accidentally deleted system files (including thinkpad drivers), virus, etc. This type of stuff happens to the best of us every once in a while, and the best of us can fix it in due time. But when things go bad when you are on a plane to an important meeting, you'll be glad that you have recovery tools instantly accessible.

If you know enough to know you don't need the partition, then that's fine. But for those who aren't sure, I think it's prudent to keep it around.

So, if I understand this correctly, if you do a clean XP install, the recovery partition is unaffected and remains as your failsafe back up. But then why bother creating recovery disks? Is that just in case you have to replace the entire hard drive?

PF wrote:So, if I understand this correctly, if you do a clean XP install, the recovery partition is unaffected and remains as your failsafe back up. But then why bother creating recovery disks? Is that just in case you have to replace the entire hard drive?

The fresh install will change your MBR and you will be unable to use the recovery area- it will still be there of course. I think you can regain access by re-installing the IBM thinkvantage stuff- but in my case that defeated the purpose of the clean install.
I ended up doing a fresh install and wiped the recovery partition- I did however create 2 sets of recovery disks beforehand. I use Acronis to make backups which are stored on another parition- it allows for recovery of your main parition even if it is corrupted
I realize this is not the solution for everyone but it worked for me
later JZ

Check this out: http://www.4saad.com/WhatsNew/Fresh_XP_ ... /index.htm

fount that here: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_re ... eloaded_OS

I'm gonna do this and make sure it works, then wipe my drive and install NetBSD woo!

that 4saad guide to format seems to help real nicely thanks!!

im a bit confused on step2 will it work if i use sp2 or just sp1?