Thinkpads Forum

Hello, everyone

My X61 will arrive tomorrow, really excited right now. I have vista home basic ordered from lenovo. I'm considering re-installing vista business which I can get an academic key. My question is

1) What's the best way to do it? Do I have to format my HDD and do a clean install of vista business? If so, do I need to search for all drivers and applications manually from lenovo's website? Seems that ThinkVantage System Update can do it automatically, can anyone verify this for me?

2) my vista business is an iso file that I downloaded from my college's website, it's on my ipod which I use as an usb external hard drive. Can I boot from it to install vista?

Thanks

xmod wrote:Hello, everyone

My X61 will arrive tomorrow, really excited right now. I have vista home basic ordered from lenovo. I'm considering re-installing vista business which I can get an academic key. My question is

1) What's the best way to do it? Do I have to format my HDD and do a clean install of vista business? If so, do I need to search for all drivers and applications manually from lenovo's website? Seems that ThinkVantage System Update can do it automatically, can anyone verify this for me?

2) my vista business is an iso file that I downloaded from my college's website, it's on my ipod which I use as an usb external hard drive. Can I boot from it to install vista?

Thanks

I just installed Vista Business on my new X61. You will need a DVD drive or an external HDD with an empty partition. You cannot boot from an ISO image per say. You need to burn it onto a DVD or onto the empty partition of the HDD (and set that partition to ACTIVE using DISKPART).

Try to search for it. I think I saw some posts on these before.

BTW we all love MSDNAA...

1. Download those drivers/applications/tools manually that Thinkvantage System Update misses (if):

Drivers and software - ThinkPad X61, X61s.

Thanks, guys

What should I do with the hidden partition? If I leave it untouched, does that mean I can restore to factory settings, i.e. vista home basic, even though I am running vista business?