BIOS access and Hidden Recovery Partition

[yiplong]

I just did a clean install of Windows. Prior to installation, I went into BIOS and put "CD Drive" as #1 boot device, with HDD being 2nd. Now I went back to BIOS, seeking to switch it back.

To my surprise, the options are locked, message on the right side of the screen said "these options cannot be changed in user mode, please consult your supervisor". I have never set a password for BIOS. How do I get into the "supervisor mode"?

I heard there is a special hidden recovery partition on the hard drive, from which we can create recovery CDs. If this is the case, can't we recover directly from the said hidden partition itself, w/o the use of the CDs? If yes, how do I do that? When I go into "rescue & recovery", it seem to want me to restore to a prior restore point, there was no option to restore back to the factory setting, except by using the CDs, (which I don't have).

[ryengineer]

For password issue, take a look at x40 fresh install.. now password problems thread and check out this document from lenovo too.

As far as your other problem is concerned, did you enter the service partition via ThinkVantage Blue Button during the boot process? If so then seems like the recovery partition is damaged. A gent in the Marketplace of this forum is selling Genuine IBM ThinkPad Recovery CD's including thinkpad X60's, you should have a look.

[yiplong]

For password issue, take a look at x40 fresh install.. now password problems thread and check out this document from lenovo too.

As far as your other problem is concerned, did you enter the service partition via ThinkVantage Blue Button during the boot process? If so then seems like the recovery partition is damaged. A gent in the Marketplace of this forum is selling Genuine IBM ThinkPad Recovery CD's including thinkpad X60's, you should have a look.

Prior to the clean install, I first attempted to use the recovery CDs (which I had created) they turned out to be corrupt. When I tried again, it said "Recovery Failed During Conversion Phase", so I reformatted my hard drive and did a clean install.

Does that looks like the recovery partition is damaged? So one cannot recover from this partition alone, w/o a set of recovery CDs?

[ryengineer]

snip...so I reformatted my hard drive and did a clean install. Does that looks like the recovery partition is damaged? So one cannot recover from this partition alone, w/o a set of recovery CDs?

Formatting a HDD also removes service partition from your drive. One can restore a machine from recovery partition if one keeps it intact and doesn't remove it.