Thinkpads Forum

usually the first thing I do when a new Thinkpad arrives is disable the recovery partition to free up the space and reinstall Windows XP they way I want it without the gunk and junk, then proceed with FreeBSD for dual-boot.

Since my laptop comes with XP Tablet edition, for which I don't even have that CD, does the laptop come with it? I don't want to recover from the recovery partition (I would prefer to use an external cdrom drive). Or can you install XP without the drivers, or at MINIMUM without all the crap that comes on it? AOL, etc??

Is there anyway to install Windows XP, install YOUR preferred apps, drivers, etc.. and then save that image in the recovery partition? What are the options here?

There is a difference between Windows XP and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, the former doesn't have any tablet support, if you install it then none of the tablet functions will work, the latter on the other hand supports tablet features but was never released as a retail version i.e. was sold only as OEM version through vendors and computer manufacturers.

I suggest you perform "Custom Factory Restore" that lets you choose your choice of programs from the "Lenovo Base Software Selector". Obviously you'll have to settle on which programs you need according to your requirement.

To do so:

a. Turn off your machine.
b. Power it up and carefully observe the display. Look for the logo screen. At any time, while the logo screen is onscreen, press Thinkvantage Blue Button or F11.
c. Once Rescue and Recovery Predesktop area fully initiates, you'll see many option on the top and left side of your screen.
d. Under "Rescue and Restore" press "Restore your system".

At some point you'll be presented with custom restore option.

The rest of the process is self explanatory.

I also suggest you to create recovery disks.

thanks for your reply. I'll try that out. Kinda sucks I have to keep that partition at bay. Actually, I ordered the 160GB drive so 4-5GB won't matter too much. I just realized that I ordered 4GB ram for the system (will be running FreeBSD amd64) and I bet the XP Tablet edition that comes with it isn't even 64bit. Will it even run with 4GB RAM (I assume it will only be able to allocate 3 or 3.5GB which is fine). I will definitely not run Vista, XP is the last MS OS I will run. Are there no 3rd party tablet addons for regular windows xp? Is XP Tablet basically the same as XP Pro? Is it slower? Does it add a lot of unnecessary apps, etc? I don't know how much i'll use the tablet features as I've never tried a tablet before. I would have liked to use the touch screen though (I ordered the SXGA+ screen though, not the MultiTouch) I just can't wait to see FreeBSD/amd64 run on it!! Maybe if I install a Linux and run Xen with WinXP Pro I can use Linux's tablet functionality for Windows...... hmmm

You dont have to keep the recovery partition if you make the recovery dvds (better still, make a few of them just in case). Then wipe out the recovery partition and dual boot your os of choice.

XP Tablet is essentially xp pro with tablet functionality, which is different than vista in that vista includes tablet stuff already. BUT, xp tablet does have additional services which may make speed booting an issue... I havent personally tried to strip down xp tablet, but I cant imagine it being better than the 20s boot I could get under xp.

Good luck and keep us posted on the linux version of tablet... I might want to try that out one of these days just for kicks.