Thinkpads Forum

Dear users,

I'm running Windows Vista together with Ubuntu 9.10 on my T60p. Over the years my Vista system has become cluttered and unstable and I'd like to wipe it clean and reinstall it using the Rescue and Recovery partition (I have version 4). Will doing this wipe out all my linux partitions or are they safe? Here's the output of "fdisk -l" (the R&R stuff is on sda1)

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x95f3457a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 791 6348800 27 Unknown
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 * 791 11330 84655104 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 11330 11343 98280 83 Linux
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda4 11343 14593 26112240 5 Extended
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda5 11460 12097 5118088+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda6 12097 14593 20049088+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 11343 11446 831537 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Thanks in advance!

Philipp

Greetings & Welcome to the Forum.
Yes, running Rescue & Recovery will wipe the entire drive clean, (including your Linux partition) then re-install the original OS, drivers & pre-loaded apps like ThinkVantage that came on the computer. It is designed to return your ThinkPad to the same "as new" state, just as it was when the computer was first new out of the box. It's an automatic process once you launch it and answer yes to a few questions it asks you which essentially advise you of what I just explained. Once underway it takes approx 60 to 90 minutes to run depending on the size of your hard drive.
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What I've chosen to do with my T60 is to install a second hard drive in the ultrabay as a dedicated Linux drive. Thereby isolating it from windows altogether. Then when I'm ready to run Rescue & Recovery, I simply remove the ultrabay drive, run R&R and I'm all set.
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Cheers...

Thanks for the quick response! Oh well... I'll just have to reinstall everthing then.

Philipp

Actually it depends on how you run Rescue and Recovery.

If you run it from the restore discs it will wipe the entire disc, reinstall the restore partition and reinstall windows. You Linux will be gone.

If you run it from the hidden restore partition, not the discs, it will only wipe the Windows partition and reinstall it with drivers and apps. Your Linux will be OK.
Also when running it from the restore partition you can have the option to do a "Custom Restore" where you choose the application you want to include or exclude.

carbon_unit wrote:Actually it depends on how you run Rescue and Recovery.
If you run it from the hidden restore partition, not the discs, it will only wipe the Windows partition and reinstall it with drivers and apps. Your Linux will be OK.
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Excellent advice. Thanks for the clarification, as this is an option I was unaware of.
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Cheers...

Now it may not be that way on newer Thinkpads with a newer version of Rescue and Recovery but it was on the T6x series and earlier.
You are quite welcome Leonard.