Rescue and Recovery v3.00.0027

[mr_anime]

Hi Everyone,

I've have a few questions reguarding the Thinkpad Rescue and Recovery v3.00.0027.

First of all, I was reading the Installation Instructions and was concerned about Consideration 13:

Consideration 13
computers that have a hidden protected area (HPA), also referred
to as PARTIES, and have the Rescue and Recovery program installed
will not be able to boot into either the PARTIES or Rescue and
Recovery workspace after recovering the original factory contents.
To enable the PARTIES area again, restore a backup using either the
Rescue and Recovery program in the Windows environment or by booting
from rescue media and then uninstall the Rescue and Recovery program.

Does this mean that after I do a complete factory restore, that I'll be unable to access the Service Partition? I know it sounds odd, but I'm not sure whether it'll modify the Master Boot Record, or something in the UVM.

And does the new Client Security Software include the File/Folder Encryption, or have they abandoned that sector and push Utimaco's Private Disk instead?

And for the people who have already their upgraded, would they recommend the upgrade? As it stands, I am still at version 2.02.0178 for the Rescue and Recovery software, and version 5.41.104.0 for the Client Security Software.

Any insight is greatly appreciated.

Thank You,

mr_anime

[GomJabbar]

Regarding Consideration 13, I once started a post titled: "IBM Rescue and Recovery obfuscation" referring to this same paragraph on another forum. I never really got an answer. After reading this a few dozen times, I concluded that you can get the service partition back by...........

Option 1: Restoring a previous backup that was made using Rescue and Recovery.
Option 2: Uninstalling Rescue and Recovery by booting from and using the Rescue Media.

However, once you get the service partition back, it seems you should be able to install Rescue and Recovery 3 again. Since I haven't personally tried a restore to 'Factory State' yet, I can't unequivically say this will work.

The following link may help some regarding some benefits of version 3.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=15964

Here is a link regarding Security.
http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/think/thinkvan ... urity.html

[mr_anime]

Thank you for your quick response.

But does anyone have an idea of what this new version of R&R modifies to hinder the Service Partition, even after a Factory Restoration?

And why are they trying to do away with it?

Does this mean no charge for Recovery CD's?

[GomJabbar]

The service partition is still there after installing Rescue and Recovery version 3. I uninstalled version 1, then installed version 3. and I can still boot up into the service partition - no problem.

I think that somehow restoring Factory Contents creates a conflict with 2 different versions of Rescue and Recovery on the ThinkPad. The C: drive having the original version, and the service partition having the new version. When you install Rescue and Recovery, it installs on the C: drive as well as the service partition. You have to follow the procedures mentioned in Consideration 13 to get to a workable service partition again.

When you boot up into the service partition after installing the newer version of Rescue and Recovery, you will see the appearance and features have changed and are upgraded.

Just now thinking about this, I believe if you do a restore to Factory Contents using the Recovery Disc set, you will not have the issues mentioned in Consideration 13. These issues only occur when restoring to Factory Contents from the service partition.

All the above regarding Consideration 13 are my thoughts on it. I have not done any restore to Factory Contents to test.

EDIT: I had new and original reversed in paragraph 2. It has been corrected.

[mr_anime]

Excellent.

Thanks so much for clearing that up

[mephie]

A couple of things here that might help:

1. Consideration 13 is referring to older systems that used early versions of the predesktop area, as opposed to the RnR environment as a pre-load. What happens is this: The factory config includes PARTIES. RnR install removes PARTIES and replaces it with WinPE. If you then restore to factory contents from WinPE, it wipes out the PE environment (which is based out of a virtual partition on C in that configuration), and it does not have the capability to put PARTIES back on the system, since that's not part of the OS load stored in the service partition. The early expectation being that if you're recovering to factory contents via disk-to-disk, you're doing so from PARTIES. This architecture was implemented before RnR became a reality. You would, at this time, not be able to access the service partition. However, if you were to re-install RnR, it would pick up the service partition and restore access to the "restore to factory contents" option from within PE. Of course, if you restored to factory contents, you'd no longer have access to the service partition because.... Lather, rinse, repeat.

2. UVM is the User Verification Manager component of CSS. This only works in the OS, so changes to it will not have any impact on your ability to get to the predesktop area.

3. CSS 6 does not include File and Folder Encryption (FFE). The new push is to use the free verison fo SafeGuard Private Disk, which is a much more stable encryption platform anyway. I'd go with it, even if you're using 5.4x.

4. As for whether you want to upgrade, the RnR upgrade is good, either way. New features like Single Instance Storage and some fixes addressing multiple hard drives make it worth the upgrade, hands down. As for going from CSS 5.4x to 6, that depends on exactly what you want to do. CSS 6 does not have the granularity that 5.4x does with regard to policies. I have resisted upgrading to CSS 6 and continue to use 5.43 specifically because I like having complete control over my application policies, etc. CSS 6 simply doesn't offer that. 6 is a little easier to use and can be more convenient, depending on what you're shooting for, but you have far more control in 5.4x.

Hope this helps.

[mr_anime]

Thank You mephie!

I believe I will upgrade. But I'm already using Ultimaco's PrivateDisk, so I'll just back up my private key from the CSS, and then restore it under the newer build so I can still access my exiting PrivateDisk.

[s0larian]

well said, mephie! I can also confirm your CSS 6 experience, it is a little disappointing that the policies are not configurable any more as in CSS 5.4.

@mr_anime:
I am not sure if it is possible to use the old CSS 5.4 key with CSS 6. So if you plan to upgrade to CSS 6, it might be better to safe the old Private Disk content unencrypted somewhere and create a new Private Disk container after installing CSS 6. For some reason CSS 6 doesn't support import or export of keys anymore, at least not in the way it used to be.

And one more thing: If you have already installed Utimaco Private Disk and you want to upgrade to CSS 6, it might be helpfull after uninstalling Private Disk to delete following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Utimaco\InstallDir

The reason is following: if you have installed the standalone Utimaco version for CSS 5.4 (or the original Utimaco version), the value of InstallDir is "C:\program files\Utimaco". But CSS 6 cannot work together with this path, it wants Private Disk installed in "c:\program files\IBM Thinkvantage". So there can occur some problems without deleting or adjusting the correct path in the registry before installing CSS 6.

[mr_anime]

s0larian:

Thanks for the heads up. I'll was planning on keeping CSS 5.4 after hearing everyone's disappointment with the newer version. But I think I'll try it for myself. Worse comes to worse, I'll restore my T42 image from my network drive.

[hkhalil]

Hi folks,

reading through this thread I'm wondering if this may have something to do with my R&R troubles.

I did a fresh install of XP from the 5 CD recovery media. On the "old" OS I was using client security 5.54 & Private disk with much success. Ever since then whenever I try to install R&R3, it fails.

I did wonder if it had something to do with the pre-desktop area, but didn't know how to explain what I meant in a way that made sense. My pre-desktop is now the original clumsy style version that was on there from new.

As you might have seen, others have had issues getting this to work and i have posted some more detailed info on this thread:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=16428

If you have time, please take a look. I would much appriciate anything advice you might have. I'm not a computing expert, so I'm learning the hard way that you HAVE to read everything carefully.

Thanks in advance, hkhalil