Predesktop recovery partition won't boot after Partitioning

[davidspalding]

My apologies if this is a "general" question, but I've encountered it with my new 2668 T43. After making an out-of-the-box recovery set (a CD-R(W) and a DVD+R(W) do a fine job, btw, so you only need two discs), and another after updating software, building the "docked" hardware profile, yada yada yada ... I used a boot CD with Partition Magic 8 to create additional volumes. 3 of them, actually, in an extended partition between the original C: primary partition and the hidden pre-desktop recovery partition. It all works fine ... my reasoning, for armchair consultants, is that Windows works much smoother if you separate your system volume, a "user" volume for user profiles, and additional volumes for the bulk of your files, or regularly churning multimedia files (video, for instance).

Well, ... now the pre-desktop volume won't boot. "Missing operating system." It's intact, it's problem free ... it just won't boot. I'm new to Partition Magic, so ... is there something I've neglected to do? Would reinstalling the Rescue and Recovery software (the new version that the ThinkVantage installer downloaded) re-write that volume? Any anecdotes or first person experience welcomed gratefully.

[Zeitgeist]

Sometimes PM interferes with the R&R MBR. Try this:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-54483

[cws]

It seems that Predesktop must be the second partition on the hard disk to be
workable.

If you repartition your disk, some repartition software move the predesktop to the 3rd partition which render it useless.

Anyways, with recovery CD, predesktop is not have much use. It only speed
up full recover time which I rarely done (Reinstall Windows XP once but
I use the Windows XP install disk create from the suggestion at
http://www.4saad.com/WhatsNew/Fresh_XP_ ... /index.htm ). Therefore I delete them when I repartition my disk.

[davidspalding]

Thank you, both.

1. Sounds good, but that utility seems to require a USB floppy ... something that doesn't come with T4x's lately. But if the Predesktop needs to be the second partition, that explains it. I *thought* it had to be unmoved, so I had PM shrink the primary (C:\), then create the extended in the middle. Moving the Predesktop to #2 is probably a simple operation once I've Ghosted the volumes.

2. The preDesktop *is* a convenience, since the boot Rescue and Recovery cd does the same things. The just makes it easy to rescue files off the primary volume from the F11/ThinkAccess button. ,:P
Deleting it, once you have your R&R discs made, is probably painless. Though the reclaimed disk space is chump change.

[rssb]

The recovery partition can be any paritition, towards the end, it need not be the second partition always. All it needs it the correct boot sector, and the volume label which matches in the boot sector ( in most cases IBM_SERVICE). If you want to hide it, then save it is as a paritition type 12.

[netguardianii]

davidspalding,
I've experienced this problem as well after installing Ubuntu. Here's what I did:

Boot into the R&R partition via your Recovery CD, then restart once you've finished booting. The R&R/Access IBM button should work the next time around.

[Zeitgeist]

1. Sounds good, but that utility seems to require a USB floppy ... something that doesn't come with T4x's lately.

Not really, you can make a boot CD from the file by using a virtual floppy drive:
http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html

[davidspalding]

Yippee ki yi ay, I'll try that later. I owe you a pint o' stout.

[davidspalding]

Alas, neither of these ideas worked for me. Booting into R&R on a CD, and selecting restart from that environment ... R&R predesktop still says "missing operating system."

I could boot from a CDRW made from the Virtual Floppy with that repair utility's files on it, but they didn't seem to work.

I think I need to stop worrying and say bye-bye to that little IBM_SERVICE partition. ,:}

[madmax]

I too have played at restoring the PreDesktop to a T40 after
upgrading to a faster larger Hitachi drive
and found this post to be the most helpful.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=13814

What I did to restore the Predesktop ( After failing with Ghost )
was to extract the two utility files fwbackup.exe and fwrestor.exe
from the above post ... I then ran fwbackup which created the
predesktop image files using the parameters suggested... it made 4
files. You can specify the folder to save these in or create a new
partition on old hard drive for them (Partition Magic is the easiest)

You must then create a 5 gig fat 32 partition and copy all the files
created with fwbackup to the new partition on new hard drive.
(Note: I have the slimbay adapter )
Now you must swap out old hard drive with new hard drive and run
fwrestore.exe from a boot disk floppy or cd as long as you boot into
Win 98 or DOS. This will set up the Predesktop on new hard drive.

Now you should have the Predesktop setup on new hard drive and
be able to access it from the IBM Blue Access button when booting.
You can now also make a ghost image of old drive and copy it to the
new drive with all the programs and settings.

It is definately not easy but it is doable.

Hope this helps

madmax

[davidspalding]

Thanks, Max. I actually never messed with the 5 GB HPA partition, just added others in between C:\ and the HPA. Last week I moved it to right after the C:\.

But you gave me a good idea. Actually trying to find out what is "missing operating system" on that partition. It might be a simple thing. Thanks for the PDF, searches on IBM/Lenovo turned up empty for me. (Glad I joined here, lots of expertise and excellent help here.)

That other post is accurate, using Partition Magic and Ghost makes a lot of this oh SO easy. Glad I bought 'em.

[madmax]

David

I'm not positive on this but I beleive that the fwrestor.exe actually
writes to the hard drive firmware changing the geometry of the hard
drive as it is seen by PatitionMagic and other utilities?

Somewhere in the docs it also states that the MBR must **not* be set...
(I originally used Ghost with the IB switch... it copied my old hard drive
but not the Predesktiop area...it would boot to Win Xp but not to the
predesktop by the IBM Access button).
So if my understanding is correct If you use the restore CD's on a blank
( non-partitioned hard drive... it will set up the Predesktop functions)
If the hard drive has been partitioned it may have trouble doing
whatever it has to do to the firmware and MBR that enables the HPA
to function as an alternative boot process invisible to the other operating
systems... Now I'm confused... anyhow good luck.

[davidspalding]

Thanks. And for the benefit of lurkers,... one should NEVER, EVER consider doing this kind of stuff without good, reliable, recent, backups.