When Preconfig OS Differs from Recovery Disks...

[DeAnna]

When I ordered my T400, I selected these two options:

Operating system: Genuine Windows Vista Business 64 (My preference)
Recovery DVD: Microsoft Windows XP Professional US English RDVD (As a fallback)

..with the intention of creating my own set of Recovery CDs for Vista64, so I'd have them for both OSes.

Unfortunately, even though this is my third thinkpad, I have yet to wrap my mind around or use the rescue/recovery/restore/pre-load partition. I've read and read, but the different terms confuse me, and reading that I only have one chance to get it right, I'm nervous about the whole thing.

So, two questions:

1. Even though I asked for the recovery disks to be in XP, the preload/recovery partition will be in Vista - not XP - ...Right?

2. When I get my T400, what steps do I take to create Recovery CDs for my Vista Installation?
Assuming it will come with clear instructions (where?), are there any tips y'all advise? e.g., Any way to create them so they'll include the inevitable updates I'll need to download?


...Waiting like a child for UPS to deliver my T400 today.

[mgo]

When I ordered my T400, I selected these two options:

Operating system: Genuine Windows Vista Business 64 (My preference)
Recovery DVD: Microsoft Windows XP Professional US English RDVD (As a fallback)

..with the intention of creating my own set of Recovery CDs for Vista64, so I'd have them for both OSes.

Unfortunately, even though this is my third thinkpad, I have yet to wrap my mind around or use the rescue/recovery/restore/pre-load partition. I've read and read, but the different terms confuse me, and reading that I only have one chance to get it right, I'm nervous about the whole thing.

So, two questions:

1. Even though I asked for the recovery disks to be in XP, the preload/recovery partition will be in Vista - not XP - ...Right?

2. When I get my T400, what steps do I take to create Recovery CDs for my Vista Installation?
Assuming it will come with clear instructions (where?), are there any tips y'all advise? e.g., Any way to create them so they'll include the inevitable updates I'll need to download?


...Waiting like a child for UPS to deliver my T400 today.

Many of my answers may be outdated, but what I have to say may help some:

- if you ordered Vista x64, that is what you will have on the recovery partition.
- if you also want 64 bit XP you would need to pay for another operating system license. (and then endure the MISERY of finding drivers for your machine off the Lenovo site) Vista is MUCH better at having drivers ready for you. Besides, it's doubtful Lenovo would send you recovery disks for XP 64, because that isn't what your ordered, some smarty pants at tech support will tell you.
- Creating the recovery disks from the special partition is a huge pain, and it takes hours, not minutes. Much of that time is spent by the software verifying all the data that is written to the backup disks.
- MAKE SURE you create the boot disk (separate operation from the other disk recovery operation) when in Rescue & Recovery, because you would need that bootable disk to run the remaining disks in restore mode.
- you are dealing with cranky old 80s technology, so it ain't gonna be fun.
- you can NOT add updates to the recovery disks or partition. You will be making a true copy of the machine as it came out of the factory and to your door.

Rescue & Recovery is a WRETCHED program, and because CD media can degrade over time, goodness knows if recovery would work years down the road.

SOLUTIONS:
- forget XP. the 64bit version is just not good enough. never was.
- Use the built-in backup program in Vista to create an image of your machine over to a USB drive. It is much simpler to use. BUT, you MUST have a bootable Vista disk for recovery. Any Vista disk will work.
-updated versions of your machine (including any programs you have installed) can be backed up and restored out of the native Vista Backup application, which is much nicer than the Lenovo R&R.
- buy a 3rd party imaging program to back up your system. it's worth the less than 50 dollars for something like that. The one I use allows the image to be created even if Windows is running, and I can restore, even if Windows is running. (the program requires a re-boot to finish the job)

[DeAnna]

Thank you for such a thoughtful answer, mgo. : )

UPS delivered it to me a few hours ago, and all I can say (after I pick my happily-in-awe jaw off the floor. I can't get over the false alarms a few stirred for whatever reason - this thing is totally solid and just beautiful!) I agree about Vista. Wow. So far, I am very pleased with Vista, and have no interest in going back to XP. *

Your advice to simply do a backup of the Vista install with its upgrades to a usb drive does make sense. Would it be doable on CD-rom though? If not, I might grab an extra one of those older hard drives to slip in the IDE external enclosure intended for my T23 and T41p drives.

Would I restore that image using the same interface, either way?

(*and this is even though my other 2GB of ram won't be here until tomorrow, so the 2GB that I have until then are totally maxed out, constantly. It's so strange to see only 5-15mb ram available, even though everything is still running fine. I guess it's the whole cache thing. : ))

[mgo]

Your advice to simply do a backup of the Vista install with its upgrades to a usb drive does make sense. Would it be doable on CD-rom though? If not, I might grab an extra one of those older hard drives to slip in the IDE external enclosure intended for my T23 and T41p drives.

Would I restore that image using the same interface, either way?

(*and this is even though my other 2GB of ram won't be here until tomorrow, so the 2GB that I have until then are totally maxed out, constantly. It's so strange to see only 5-15mb ram available, even though everything is still running fine. I guess it's the whole cache thing. : ))

Yes, you can put your backup onto a Ultra Bay drive, or use an external USB drive. The backup/restore procedure is the same either way.

You will see less available RAM because Vista uses RAM as much as possible for more efficiency. The idea of needing to have RAM "just sitting there" is not useful at all. RAM is faster than a hard drive, so we want as much ram used up as possible.

64 bit Vista is rather good at RAM management. Have fun!

[DeAnna]

Excellent. Thank you for all your help, mgo.