Recovery CD's - How To?

[suzyq67]

Okay i broke down and bought the recovery cd's. I received a little piece of paper saying insert and follow directions. I did that and still not able to access the blue IBM button. Do I need to reformat and take out all partitions and start fresh with these cd's in order to get that to work again?
The instructions are not very specific.

[pphilipko]

it will ask some questions in the beginning when you put in the recovery cd's, e.g. "Do you want to implement the recovery partition? (Y/N) " If you said yes, then the blue button would work. If not, the answer is self-explanatory. Perhaps you might have overlooked one of the questions? Good luck.

[SeanM]

What kind of machine do you have?

Go into the bios, security, and make sure the ibm predesktop area is set to enabled.

Delete all the partitions on the hard drive.

Try again.

[suzyq67]

My machine is an R40. I was not given the option to implement the ibm recovery partition....i double checked and tried the software again. The partition for the recovery is still there because i have a 20 gig drive and there is only 15 gig showing.
The predesktop is set to normal in the bios.

[SeanM]

First, the predesktop area has to be set to "normal". Sounds like you're all set there.

Second, your CD drive MUST be the first bootable device as set in the bios. Do NOT try to use the F12 key for this. Set the CD drive as the first bootable device. Seriously.

Third:

When you boot to the recovery CD, one of two things will happen. Either
1) You will see a screen that has some menu choices, one of which will be "Full Recovery", or

2) You will be asked a yes/no question.

If you see the menu, then the recovery is NOT going to put the service partition back. If you see the yes/no question, the recovery WILL put the service partition back (if you tell it to).

Fourth, if there is a partition on the drive, then the recovery will not even attempt to put the service partition back. In other words, you'll never see the yes/no question (see above). If you want the recovery to put the service partition back, you must delete all partitions on the hard drive prior to booting to the CD.

So what exactly happens when you try to access the service partition now?

[suzyq67]

Okay lets see....

Predesktop set to normal -----check

CD drive set to first bootable device ---- check

When starting the recovery disk says:

IBM recovery 5.8 please wait......then i have a main menu that says

Facotry Contents: reformat your hard disk and install windows xp, device drivers, and preinstalled software.

the other is system utilities....

If you choose the first one it gives the terms and conditions, then it asks if you want to run the product recovery program, then if you continue your hard drive will be formatted and all files deleted........no mention of service partition.

Now I tried a fdisk and only seen one partition even when i turned of the predesktop......sooo how do i get rid of the partition....if that is what i need to do...all i want back is my predesktop.

[SeanM]

So what exactly happens when you try to access the service partition now?

[suzyq67]

Nothing happens.

I push the ibm access button and my options are

f1 to enter bios
f12 or whatever to boot from temporary device


I installed ibm recovery and now when i press the blue button it goes into ibm recovery. i tried factory recovery and it says that the recovery is not installed....