My R40e Can no longer Recover!!!

[adexter007]

Hi.

I really, really could use somebody's help out there. It's like, I've been into a 2-week vigil already, as i watch my Thinkpad R40e dead..and cannot recover its pre-installed XP.

Here's how it started: I experimented dual-booting with Fedora Core 4 and Windows XP. I installed XP first fine (NTFS). Followed-on by an install of Fedora Core4. When i was in FC4, i backed-out the install due to not enough disk space, as the message said. What i did not realized, was that...the Grub loader already started to modify my HD. And to make a long story short, i did several deletions of partitions this and that and created this and that...Until to the point, that when i had it setup C=9GB and D=7GB wherein XP be in C and FEdora in D...I could no longer succesfully perform a Thinkpad Recovery Restore. It halted with the following info:

FWMount version 1.0 Copyright 2002 Phoenix Tech
Mounting BIOS drive 80h (ATA drive 0)
PSA Index#..............7
PSA ID#...................888h
Starting Sector..........32868981
Sector Count.............5941248
Drive Letter ..............

Heres;s some thoughts:
1)I think my hidden recovery partition installer is still there since, i can still perform diagnostics..and it was hidden by the way from the start..and since i can initiate recovery but it only hang..

2) I am a C/C++ programmer and i have some basic understanting of boot record, MBR, partition, FDISK, pqmagic...Ive look into this areas, i can no longer see any actions further...

Please, if any of you knows how to recover Thinkpad R40e, i definitely consider it a depth of gratitude that is hard to pay...I really feel pity of my R40e...Thanks.

AAronDex

[egibbs]

The IBM recovery process does not deal well with unexpected partition setups, strange MBRs, etc. Assuming that you really do still have the recovery partition you need to get the machine as clean as possible.

Get the machine back to a single C: partition (without touching the recovery partition) and wipe the c: partition clean - full erase from diags or fdisk.

You may also need to download the MBR repair tool from the IBM support site and repair your MBR first, or you might be able to get away without it.

Good luck,

Ed Gibbs

[adexter007]

Hi thanks for the reply...

I already did clean it..wipe everything and returning to the single main C:\ drive alone with size of about 16GB as original it was.

Speaking of this MBR,..is this the MBR that bootstraps the recover installer???? When i cleaned the C:\ ... i already did an fdisk /MBR with it...

But if there is another MBR, and IBM has tools for it..i will try that out.

[egibbs]

Try FIXMBR.

If that doesn't work, run the Quick Erase HDD or Full Erase HDD from the PC Doctor Diags. Those will both wipe the MBR and allow you to start fresh.

Ed Gibbs

[adexter007]

After reading IBM's Predesktop PDF file documentation, I think that my HPA is corrupted. You see, the showing-up of a menu ( as i have seen before ) does not care if there is a partition in C or not since this is still in the HPA zone...a self-sustaining hidden zone. I am referring to that part before that part when the long progress bar of formatting takes place...there are warning DOS windows...and we type "Y" several times...yeah...My R40e did not make it to that part...Well, well, well...when i check my BIOS, i remember very well that it security was NORMAL when i attempt dual-boot with Linux FC4.

If this the case, the conclusion is: Fedora Core 4 installation can OVERWRITE into the Thinkpad's HPA (hidden-partition-area) when its BIOS secturity setting is "NORMAL"....myyyyyyy Gooooooodddd.###!$%&*((/./////////.....