Thinkpads Forum

What did IBM ship out for OS and driver media for the 760/770 series thinkpads? Was it an OS cd and drivers on floppies or did they do something differently? Would also be interested in what was done for the 3x0 and 75x series as well.

I generally just reformat the HDs in my systems and use a retail OS CD to reinstall the OS and then grab drivers as needed from the internet. Was curious as to what IBM had shipped and how easy it would be to find those files to put a machine back into stock condition if needed.

Most Thinkpads I think shipped with recovery disks. Certainly that was the case with the 770 series, but I can't say about the 76x for sure.

You can get recovery CDs from auction sites or online sources (or here in the Marketplace) for around $25-$50 USD. But I'm not sure I can see the value of it for a system that shipped with Win95 or Win98 (like the majority of 76x or 77x systems did). You would need to update every single custom IBM driver that came pre-installed anyways, so I'm not sure I can see a value in starting off with a system that already had some drivers pre-installed. And I would say that it would be much better to start with one of the more recent, unofficial (non-Microsoft, non-IBM) "service packs" or alternate installations of Win98 rather than going through the challenge of trying to update the OS from a bare vanilla install off of a Thinkpad recovery disk.

For Win2000 installs, there may be a value in obtaining the disks. Though for the 770 series, almost all of the drivers are actually part of a default Win2000 SP4 install from standard retail disks, so you would not gain much by using the IBM disks. And at (say) $40 USD a pop, you'd be paying as much or more for the disks than what the entire laptop is now worth.

Phil.

You can get 760/770 machines shipped for something like $15-20 if you look around so why would recovery disks cost $50?

I asked the original question because I didn't know what IBM shipped with the laptops, was it a slipstreamed CD with all the drivers needed installed so you didn't have to hunt for anything (simple install) or just a copy of windows and a bunch of drivers on floppies?

I can't speak to why things cost what they do. Perhaps I'm wrong about the current cost, I didn't actually check anywhere.

In case my reply wasn't clear, the 770 series shipped with what you are calling slipstreamed CDs, not a separate OS install disk and a separate set of disk(s) for drivers. These slipstreamed disks are generally referred to as recovery disks if you are searching for more info elsewhere. The 76x series I expect was the same, but can't say for sure.

Phil.

Unknown_K wrote:Would also be interested in what was done for the 3x0 and 75x series as well.

They had a recovery diskette creator on them... you needed a stack of floppies and a lot of patience, IIRC it would also do sets of Windows and DOS diskettes. I definitely did it with my 750 and probably with my 701 when they were bought new. To be honest the important stuff - the drivers and utilities - were on the Features Diskettes that could be downloaded from the IBM PCCBBS - audio features, video features, thinkpad utilities, etc., and a System Program Service diskette is a BIOS update

Have a look on the PCCBBS mirrors referenced elsewhere in this section, they are all there as far as I could see.