Rescue and Recovery .iso

[fefrie]

Hi, when I purchased a t42, it came with R&R as iso images on the hard drive. I've looked at the files and only one is an iso file. The others are best described as data.

The bootable ISO makes sense, but what am I supposed to do with the other files? Do I just burn them as a dada disc and R&R intelligently finds the data files on them as needed? Or what would be better is if I can navigate R&R directly to the directly scoop the information without me having to burn 7 data discs?

[fefrie]

Here's the info that came with it:

Product Recovery CD for IBM ThinkPad R51, T42, T42p Type 1829, 1830, 1831, 1836, 1840, 1841, 2373, 2374, 2378, 2379
Rescue and Recovery with Rapid Restore
For use with IBM PCs only

Download includes:
Readme.txt
Disc_1of1_March2004_P~N19R9174_EN.iso
Disc_1of7_January2005_P~N24R7709_XP-P_SP2_EN_FRU_P~N24R7684.rar
Disc_2of7_January2005_P~N24R7734_XP-P_SP2_EN_FRU_P~N24R7684.rar
Disc_3of7_January2005_P~N24R7759_XP-P_SP2_EN_FRU_P~N24R7684.rar
Disc_4of7_January2005_P~N24R7784_XP-P_SP2_EN_FRU_P~N24R7684.rar
Disc_5of7_January2005_P~N24R7809_XP-P_SP2_EN_FRU_P~N24R7684.rar
Disc_6of7_January2005_P~N24R7834_XP-P_SP2_EN_FRU_P~N24R7684.rar
Disc_7of7_January2005_P~N24R7859_XP-P_SP2_EN_FRU_P~N24R7684.rar

Decompressing and burning your restore CDs:
Disc_1of1_March2004_P~N19R9174_EN.iso is a bootable image (Includes original Microsoft Image file) - Just burn it!
The other 7 compressed files need to be decompressed and the two folders (MFG and RECOVERY) burnt to CD - These are not bootable but no worries!
Feel free to use any burning software: Nero, MagicISO...



To recover factory contents:
1. Set optical drive (CD-ROM)as first boot device (It is optional.)
2. Insert Disc 1 of 1 (Boot CD)into your CD-ROM
3. Restart your computer
4. Click Restore factory contents
5. When prompted place next CD into CD-ROM (There will be 7 CDs - not including boot CD, so altogether you will use 8 CDs for your restore process)
6. After restore completed successfully (if you have a smaller HD or just want to save storage space) you can delete the service partition (It is usually drive D:\)


Enjoy your ThinkPad!
I would love to see more uploads for special operating systems (Dell, HP, IBM, Lenovo...)like this one.
Keep it coming! I know I am seeding. {;-P

[fefrie]

Well it came with a 2374-CTO Machine, and it seems to be taking to a 2373-4WU machine so we'll see how it goes.

It booted via cd to what seems like the screen you would get when you pressed F1 on powerup.

Before I used this boot CD the screen never came up and the IBM access button did not work.

Now it seems to be copying files I've never seen happen before onto the hard drive. I see the hard copying files from \Preboot on the CD so this is all good news.

If I can get this hard drive back to anything close to a factory state this will be a very VERY good thing....

Fingers crossed...

[fefrie]

Just restarted and went straigh to IBM R&R splash screen and it asks for
INSERT PRODECT RECOVERY DISC 1 INTO DRIVE D.

I'll burn a data disc and see what happens.

I'll go with the 'not bootable but no worries'

[fefrie]

I'm up to disc 2 so far.

So far so good.

[fefrie]

Well it seems to work.

I've finally burned all 8 recovery discs.

I've got six laptops that I need to restore for work, all 2373 variants.

The readme manual says that that the restore discs are for t42 and t42p but it doesn't mention either 2373 or 2374 so I assume that it will work for both inspite of the fact that the 2374 comes with 64mb of graphics and the 2373 only comes with 32mb.

Seems like everything is coming back as it should. I hope the access ibm button becomes active and useful again.

Once I get all these laptops up and running again I can get rapid restore running from the access ibm button. It will save me a lot of work in the future!

I think the t42s are the best!

[fefrie]

Well, I'm just chugging along now, a factory line of passing along recovery discs from one computer to another.

As a bonus, I found a couple of laptops with thai keyboard. After wanting one for awhile, they don't seem as great as I would have hoped. A little noisier and a bit more of a firmer push, but that's with the newest one I installed into my personal machine.

[RealBlackStuff]

You'd be much faster just restoring one machine, then take an image with Acronis TrueImage, and install that image on the other machines' hard disks.
Takes about 10 minutes per laptop...

[fefrie]

Is it possible to clone a hard drive properly if the machine types are different?

I woud think that it's not possible no?

[RealBlackStuff]

You say they are all T42 type machines.
The only difference within the T42 range is the GPU, either Intel or ATI 7500/9000/9600/FireGL.
Your restore set is for ATI, which includes all types of ATI.
An Intel will object (saying there is no ATI GPU), but still run. All you need to do there, is install Intel GPU drivers after the clone.

[ajkula66]

Since all T42/p units have ATi graphics, the only differences could be in wireless cards, bluetooth/fingerprint or lack thereof.

Main model number - 2373 vs. 2374 vs. 2378 vs. 2379 has nothing to do with anything apart from warranty entitlement when these were new...

[fefrie]

Thanks.

The Acronis tool is great. I'm using the boot CD version. Works exactly like a clone should with my external hard drive.

I've tried a cross platform clone to another T42 no problems except for as you said with the wireless cards.

That 's always been one of my big pet peeves with the Lenovo site.

When searching for the proper wireless card driver, there's always an alphabet soup of wireless card drivers to choose.

I wish that they would just include them all like they do with the CD rom drives....

[ajkula66]

You can input the full 7-character model number here and it will tell you all you need to know:

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/default.page?

As for the wireless cards, some deciphering is required before one dives into the driver matrix:

Intel b = Intel 2100B

Intel bg = Intel 2200BG

Intel abg = Intel 2915ABG

b/g wireless = IBM (Atheros-chipped) b/g

a/b or a/b/g = IBM (Atheros-chipped) a/b or a/b/g

[fefrie]

I can muddle my way about, but again, I just wish that they would have just included it all.....

Strangely enough, system updated doesn't work very well, I've tried it on a couple of laptops and it says that there aren't any updates, even though the Recovery discs are dated around 2007

[JSP62]

Hello,

I realize that this post is over 2 years old, but this post seems to be the most recent mention of topic for the issue I am having. I have scoured the net and have not found anything substantial enough to address my issue. It would seem from this thread that a person has successfully made CD copies of the 1 boot CD and 7 product CDs.

I am trying to fix my father's laptop, which has many junk spam inducing games he plays on it. I can never seem to understand how people fall for these scams and promises of making a computer/laptop faster.

In any event, I cannot seem to get past the 1st product CD. I burned the files (two folders "MFG" and "RECOVERY" onto a blank CD and the laptop does not recognize the CD. Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated!

I really hope that this post does catch the original poster's/responder's attention.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.