Recreating a recovery partition?

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SmallWalrus · #1 Post by **SmallWalrus** » Tue May 31, 2011 7:17 pm

Hi all,

I've been trying to rebuild the recovery partition on my X200 after performing a hard drive upgrade on it (Unfortunately, I didn't have a recovery dvd set). What I did managed to lay my hands on are a set of X201 recovery disks. Since I can make my own WIM image using ImageX, and there also happens to be a rather big WIM file on the recovery disk, is it possible for me to customize these recovery disks to have it rebuild a recovery partition to my specifications?

I've been trying to find more documentation on how to do this, but I can't seem to find it.

#2 Post by **Harryc** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 5:25 am

Anything is possible, but I have never seen it done.

#3 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 5:52 am

Why bother?
Install Windows/Linux/Whatever exactly the way you want it.
Use e.g. Acronis TrueImage to take an image of your entire hard disk or partition, store it on e.g. a USB drive.
Whenever you need to restore your hard disk or replace it due to a crash, restoring your image takes only minutes, compared to well over an hour recovering from an R&R partition, which usually contains lots of bloatware and obsolete software versions.

SmallWalrus · #4 Post by **SmallWalrus** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 7:27 am

RealBlackStuff wrote:Why bother?
Install Windows/Linux/Whatever exactly the way you want it.
Use e.g. Acronis TrueImage to take an image of your entire hard disk or partition, store it on e.g. a USB drive.
Whenever you need to restore your hard disk or replace it due to a crash, restoring your image takes only minutes, compared to well over an hour recovering from an R&R partition, which usually contains lots of bloatware and obsolete software versions.

hunterman223 · #5 Post by **hunterman223** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 5:34 pm

Did you mean to write something in the above reply?

I second what RealBlackStuff said. The great thing about it is that you can change all the settings and get the latest Windows updates ahead of time. For something like this I would just install Power Manger as far as Lenovo software. That will effectively get around the "obsolete software issue" since all you will need to do is press a few buttons to automatically install all your drivers. I would also install just the wireless drivers so you can get on the internet for Lenovo System Update, and you can even save yourself the hassle of keying in all the network security keys. There you have it, the perfect fresh install.

SmallWalrus · #6 Post by **SmallWalrus** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 6:38 pm

hunterman223 wrote:Did you mean to write something in the above reply?

I second what RealBlackStuff said. The great thing about it is that you can change all the settings and get the latest Windows updates ahead of time. For something like this I would just install Power Manger as far as Lenovo software. That will effectively get around the "obsolete software issue" since all you will need to do is press a few buttons to automatically install all your drivers. I would also install just the wireless drivers so you can get on the internet for Lenovo System Update, and you can even save yourself the hassle of keying in all the network security keys. There you have it, the perfect fresh install.

Rats, stupid ISP

Yeah, was meaning to say that actually it'd be quite cool if you can restore to your own "factory condition" anytime anywhere without having to carry around your Norton Ghost/Acronis TI/Clonezilla boot CDs and a separate USB drive housing that image. And since R&R already uses Windows WIM imaging, there pretty much is a standard way of creating these images easily.

ozzymud · #7 Post by **ozzymud** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 6:47 pm

Doesn't Acronis have something called "Startup Recovery Manager"... whereby it lets you store your image in a 2nd partition and boot from it to recover similar to OEM's?

Acronis Startup Recovery Manager allows you to run Acronis True Image directly from your boot drive before Windows loads. It accomplishes this feat by overwriting the MBR with its own proprietary boot code. On boot-up, right after the last of the information generated by the BIOS has scrolled by, you'll see a prompt to press the <F11> function key to start Acronis Startup Recovery Manger (if you do nothing, Windows will boot shortly after the prompt disappears). You'll be presented with a menu that will allow you to either run the full version of Acronis True Image, boot to Windows, or Exit (which reboots the system). Using Acronis Startup Recovery Manager's version of Acronis True Image is pretty much like using it from bootable rescue media or directly in Windows.

hunterman223 · #8 Post by **hunterman223** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 4:25 am

Indeed it does. A combination of the startup manager, a fresh image to restore from as mentioned above, and regular external backups would make for an excellent recovery setup.

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ozzymud · #9 Post by **ozzymud** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 4:41 am

Yea, been doing some more reading on the subject... think I may start doing this on my machines (laptops/netbooks & desktops)... Acronis all I'd need... Firefox and Thunderbird is about the only real data I have to backup and it is on a NAS server via my Asus RT-N16 router, anything else is on the same NAS or my webserver at conradshome.com

My nLite XP DVD pretty much gets me there, but there are some apps that are too much of a pain to silently install... this would be a nice "Plan B"

#10 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 4:45 am

There's only one hair in the soup!
If your hard drive crashes, your R&R/Ghost/Acronis/Whatever partition won't do you any good!

ozzymud · #11 Post by **ozzymud** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 5:53 am

Thus why the nLite XP DVD is "Plan A" ... I plan for the worst, hope for the best

Recovery partition would be a nice "if it's there" kinda thing... space is cheap these days, doesn't bother me to have the "wasted" space reserved. And as long as I routinely update it, it HAS to be better then XP's System Restore for going back in time