Clean&updated system recovery for X41 Tablet. XP or 7?

[re404]

Hello all,

(After first searching for similar questions and help on my question on the forum I wasn't able to find what I need. I tried to find the best place in this forum to put this question(s) and thought it would be here. If I missed threads on the topic(s) please forward me. And might I have put this in the wrong section, please tell me.)

I'm planning a clean (and lean) install of my x41 tablet. A while ago (when messing with multiboot solutions for combinations of OSX86 / XP / Ubuntu) I lost my IBM recovery partition and in general my bootsector seems kinda messed up after fixing it with some obscure tools. Sometimes my machine simply won't boot, only after a couple of power-on-and-offs, I have no idea why exactly. But I hope a full IBM system restore will solve it in the end. Worth a try, I need a fresh install anyway.)

I have obtained the Product Recovery CD set.

But: What I remember from the last time that I reinstalled Windows XP Tablet Edition from the Recovery Partition (when I still had that one) is that it left me with a terribly slow Windows install to start with (a lot of utilities and running processes that I don't want and have to uninstall, probably leaving clutter). Then there is the disadvantage of having a "really old" install (no SP2/SP3 and no Lenovo updates.) Updating windows (SP2/SP3 and probably millions of security and other windows updates) and all Lenovo updates and drivers will probably take hours and leave even more clutter taking up drive space and limiting windows performance in general.

I was wondering: Is there a good solution for "customizing" the Recovery process?
Is it possible to "slipstream" windows' updates (and maybe even Lenovo updates) into copies of the Lenovo Recovery CD's?
Or can I customize what is installed / recovered when using the Recovery CD's somehow? (Selecting the software that is installed off it? Making it only fix the drive (boot issues) and installing windows separately? Should I get rid of Windows Tablet Edition anyway and install a fresher XP Pro?)

Any other tips / hints / guides? Thoughts? Any help more than welcome!

Maybe I'm asking too much. We'll see ... I'm just flying a balloon.

Anyway. Thanks a lot in advance.

Cheers,
Re.

[K0LO]

re404:

I sold my X41T earlier this year but by far the best OS I ever used on an X41T was Windows 7. You should give it serious consideration.

[re404]

Thanks K0LO. I've had terrible experiences with Vista on another machine with higher specs then my X41 so I never even considered trying that on the X41. I expected that Windows 7 would be the same or worse in terms of system requirements, but you sound enthusiastic so maybe I should give 7 a try.

Other people have experiences with windows 7 on the X41 Tablet?
Would my 1.50 GHz pentium M and 1.5 GB RAM do?
No hardware / driver problems?
Does it have good (or even better) tablet functionality in comparison with XP Tablet Edition?

Thanks!
R.

[K0LO]

R:

To read about other user's experiences with the X41T, see this thread.

Your system specs are the same as mine and would be just fine.

The only hardware problem is with Intel GMA video. If you turn hardware acceleration up full to watch movies then the machine locks up. Backing off the hardware acceleration slider fixes it. As of a few months ago, Intel had not fixed the driver and was claiming that it was impossible to do so. This is one of the only compromises you will have to make to run Win7 on the X41T. If you don't try to use it as a gaming machine then you won't be disappointed. Everything else runs better and faster than XP.

Lenovo has released a bunch of Beta Windows 7 drivers; a lot of the problems reported in the GBM forum have been fixed with the new drivers. There is a sticky post at the top of the Thinkpads Windows 7 forum with links to them.

Yes, the tablet functions are very much improved over XP.

[re404]

Thanks K0LO,

That thread seems helpful and promising!
Is it still the RC edition that "everyone is using and talking about" (the one RC that expires on June 1 2010)? If so: I haven't got a download but I requested a product key just in case. What is the best / safest way to still get a download?

Thanks, cheers,
R.

[K0LO]

The download period has ended, but if you have a product key then you can borrow a DVD from someone who downloaded the RC version earlier this year.

[zukster]

I've been running Windows 7 ultimate on a couple of X41 tablets and its way
better that XP Tablet and way faster than Vista. Although Vista actually worked
okay, albeit slow. I think I had to manually install a couple of drivers. No biggie.
I just used the ones that I used for Vista. In particular, the newest video driver
is hard to find info on. This came out for a Samsung Netbook with Intel 915 graphics,
and it works well on Vista and is working well on Win 7 too:

samsung-Q1-915-Q1_Graphics_Driver_6.14.10.4764

I actually did an Upgrade from Vista to Win 7, and it mostly worked. I think I
had to do the wifi and keyboard drivers. keyboard - weird... All the IBM Power
managment continued working. That's a must for optimal battery usage.

Also, hybrid hibernation from sleep to hibernate works if you enable it in the
BIOS. Read up on this - very handy way to conserve battery life.

Oh, a 1GB stick of RAM gets you to 1.5GB and a 2GB gets you to 2GB, limited
by what the chipset can handle. There's 512MB onboard, which is not enough.