Thinkpads Forum

Hi,
Is the recovery partition on an x61 identical to the one in an x61s? i.e., can I simply copy the image over to the x61s and install a fresh XP copy on it that way, that would not have any incompatibility problems?

Thanks

malachont wrote:Hi,
Is the recovery partition on an x61 identical to the one in an x61s? i.e., can I simply copy the image over to the x61s and install a fresh XP copy on it that way, that would not have any incompatibility problems?

Thanks

They are going to be very similar if not identical; the hardware in the two machines differs (primarily) in that the X61 has a "regular" core2duo mobile Intel processor, in lieu of a "Low Voltage" core2Duo. The recovery partitions are somewhat individualized depending on what hardware shipped in your machine, for example one could have had an Intel or an Atheros mini-pcie WiFi card installed depending on what came with your notebook. Nonetheless, it has been my experience that the recovery partition (or recovery disk set) can "adapt" to small differences like this. Even if the recovery partition lacks all the drivers and software needed to work (with, for example, a different brand of WiFi card), you could always download that later from the internet. Whatever you do, I'd suggest that you test your "results" once you have completed your cloning to be sure that everything you need will work should you have to rely on the contents of the recovery partition.

What you might consider doing, which is what I do when I clone over a disk onto a new machine, is that I try to retain the original recovery partition that shipped with the machine, and I clone over only the main Windows (XP or Vista) NTFS partition from the "source" machine. You can do this with software such as Acronis True Image by making a complete image file of the source machine, then only replacing the main partition, not the Service Partition. This way you can easily return your machine to factory contents by booting up with the "blue button," then choosing a "restore to factory contents." I wouldn't do this, however, if it involved having a different operating system than the machine shipped with (although it might work).

ken

Much obliged.. I did just that, imaged the entire target machine before messing with it (but didn't do it yet). The machine came with Vista and naturally I wanted to upgrade it to XP which we have natively on another x61 (not S) here. What I was planning to do was simply to image over the entire x61 image to the x61s then press the blue button and reformat it. I was only worried about different CPU drivers and things like that which aren't easily dealt with as a different wifi card driver... I considered just installing a fresh non-recovery XP copy but I had an experience with an A31p where it just doesn't work as fast with a vanilla XP as with a "Lenovo Windows 2000" that it had from the factory. Even if I went through the entire compatibility matrix and installed everything it was slower. For some reason. I assumed there are some hidden core hardware drivers which Lenovo only puts in its images and doesn't mention in the upgrade matrix. How much does the recovery DVD cost from Lenovo, approx?