Hidden recovery partition on T series? Installed by default?

[simms]

I'm wondering if IBM does something similar to Toshiba, where they have the basic OS installed as a seperate, hidden partition that only comes out when you use a special recovery CD/disk.

If so, mine may not show up with it - would I want it installed? How can I get it set up?

[christopher_wolf]

There is the Pre-Desktop area, which is like a hidden partition. It can, however, let you make a set of Disks with which you can recover your pre-loaded factory image with.

[simms]

So basically, to format, I would just format my C: and reinstall. No need to use fdisk?

I'm not sure how much the Pre-Desktop area occupies in terms of HDD space. Is it worth having hidden, or just better to delete it?

[christopher_wolf]

The Pre-Desktop area is around 7GB if I remember correctly; I haven't deleted it as it is still there and came in *very* handy once. If you do decide to delete it, I would make sure you make a set of Recovery disks and keep them in a safe place, then you can blow it away if you want to. I think formatting will indeed get rid of it. Also a good idea, backup all you drivers or create an image of your system right before doing the clean sweep so, later if need be, you can patch the factory image up with the latest drivers and all in case you need to reinstall the factory image again.

[simms]

Thanks Chris.

If it is removed on a format then it's not really a partition! I think I'd rather play it safe and keep it on even through formats.. does IBM provide software that installs it on?

[christopher_wolf]

True, it is more of a "Protected" area rather than a true partition.
This article on ThinkWiki has abit more on it

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Predesktop_Area

I haven't heard of one actually being able to place new software on there. Yet, in *Theory*, you could use the FirstWare tools to come up with an image of just about anything you would like to restore to.

[w0qj]

The Pre-Desktop area is around 7GB if I remember correctly; I haven't deleted it as it is still there and came in *very* handy once. If you do decide to delete it, I would make sure you make a set of Recovery disks and keep them in a safe place, then you can blow it away if you want to. I think formatting will indeed get rid of it. Also a good idea, backup all you drivers or create an image of your system right before doing the clean sweep so, later if need be, you can patch the factory image up with the latest drivers and all in case you need to reinstall the factory image again.

Wow!
Many thanks for everyone's quick help!

BTW, I've moved my Rescue & Recovery image of my C:\ drive to a portable USB hard drive... which has all my favorite Windows Settings already done (it takes forever to customize Windows to the way I work after full Product Recovery).

[davidspalding]

Sounds like you did as I did... sort of. I made an "out of the box" R&R disc set (1 CD-r, 1 DVD-r), which is ... well, in the original box for safe keeping ... and a "out of box, configured a bit" (including NAV removed, and drivers updated with IBM Software Installer (ISS)), which is in the proverbial Safe Place (firebox, server room).

My R&R "pre-desktop area" does not boot ("missing operating system" error), no doubt due to my creating more partitions with Partition Magic, but I've confirmed what others assured me - there is little or no benefit that the 5 GB HPA area offers that the R&R discs don't. It's a faster-booting convenience, but not essential. Those R&R disc sets are the ones you want to protect like the golden goose.