T500 W1G HDD

[demential]

Hi.
It's my first post here, so please be gentle and patient.
I received a ThinkPad T500 W1G, with a 160 Gb HDD.
I have 3 partitions visible in Vista Bussines :
SW_Preload C: (137g , 95g free)
Lenovo Q (9,7g, 3.6g free)
Servicev003 (1,4g , 700mb free)

Please explain me what are these last 2 partitions for (because i have no idea, it my first Lenovo/IBM device i use),
and please tell me if it is normal that "Windows" + "Program Files" directories to have 20 Gb.
Thanks in advance and sorry if i look stupid

[Marin85]

Hi,
welcome to our forum!

Since you have Vista OS, yes, it´s normal that its initial setup (without any additional programs of yours) takes up about 20 GB of one´s precious HD space (actually, no, it´s not normal, it´s only normal for Vista). The Lenovo partition is the one that stores a "hidden" image of the factory content of your ThinkPad (the Lenovo image that comes preinstalled on every ThinkPad). The Service003 partition is just that, a service partition, and to my best knowledge it stores Rescue&Recovery predesktop area as well as the Lenovo-specific bootloader (and probably a few other things too). The second partition makes it possible to use the first one in case the user might want to perform (custom) restore to factory settings/content. The predesktop area (accessible by pressing the blue button upon power-on) also provides some more restore/recovery options.

Hope this helps,

Marin

[demential]

Thank you very mych ! Yes, of course it helped me with understandind this.
But can i free up somehow some space from my hdd ? How can i do this WITHOUT installing XP or installing a "clean vista" (as i read around) ?
Thanks in advance.

[Marin85]

You could basically consider two things:
1. If you think you will never need the recovery partition, you may want to delete the last two partitions, that would free up about 10 GB, but keep in mind that you will most likely have to repair/reinstall Vista bootloader (as the Lenovo one wouldn´t be present anymore), which can be easily done if one has (standard) Vista installation media (but no need for license (!) ).
2. You can control the OS-related space usage. A few things to consider here woould be:
(a) Adjust the space System Protection is allowed to use for shadow images, restore points etc. (Computer -> right click -> properties -> system protection or advanced options -> system protection, then pick the OS HD/partition etc). Over time the automatic backups Vista does can noticeably reduce the free space.
(b) A similar thing goes for Rescue&Recovery. Over time its backups can take up significant space (sorry, I can´t help you with the exact settings for that as I don´t use R&R).
(c) Use Vista Disk cleanup to get rid of file junk, but choose carefully what to delete. If you don´t use suspend to disk, you can also delete the hibernation file (~4 GB). Use Vista Disk Defragmenter to keep the written data compact, this also improves HD performance.
(d) Additionally to Vista Disk cleanup, you may want to consider the free program CCleaner (it has a few more features, I´m referring here only to the HD cleanup part of it), which would give some additional options for cleaning up file junk.

Cheers,

Marin

[demential]

Thank you very much again for your helpful information written with such precision and patience.
I will use that Ccleaner.
In the las few days i tried to change as much as i could the vista appearance so it would look like XP.
I am a XP user for over 4 years and the translation to vista is a little hard. on my personal laptop (a hp) i have Xp installed, but on this i left the vista os to get used to it. It's the recommended OS nowdays by the manufacturers....
Anyhow, i have a license on the back of my laptop for my OS, but no installation CD. And i think it would be better if i won't delete those 2 partitions, for now al least.

[Marin85]

And i think it would be better if i won't delete those 2 partitions, for now at least.

For first-time Lenovo/ThinkPad users I don´t recommend it either.

Enjoy your T500

Cheers,

Marin