Pro and cons of wiping that HDD

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rhema83 · #1 Post by **rhema83** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 2:50 am

I just received my T42 2378-FVU and I am about to do what many people do - erase the HDD clean and set it up according to my needs. (i.e. partitioning, OS and software installation.)

I know I will be removing the recovery partition, so I will be getting the recovery CDs from IBM. Other than not being able to recover with the blue button, what other problems will I be looking at?

For you information, I have done it on my girlfriend's X31 at her request with no problems so far. We never needed the CDs. We've got a Windows XP Pro SP1 CD as well as a CD-RW with all the drivers (downloaded with my desktop). But I won't know what problems might arise later.

T41mbi · #2 Post by **T41mbi** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 3:32 am

hey how do you wipe a HDD clean making sure no partitions what so ever exist... making sure its absolutely blank... i want to do that to my hdd, but cant see hidden partitions and i know their must be a few... how do i get rid of ALL of them?

Roy_W · #3 Post by **Roy_W** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 6:57 am

rhema83 wrote:
I know I will be removing the recovery partition, so I will be getting the recovery CDs from IBM. Other than not being able to recover with the blue button, what other problems will I be looking at?

I did exactly what you want to do and have subsequently encountered no problems whatsoever, except for typical minor drivers updates etc ......

Assure yourself that you do indeed have either the Recovery CD's or a SP1 slipstreamed OEM XP Cd before scrubbing the disk, the serial number on the bottom of your TP works with XP OEM version.

Otherwise be carefull to make a backup of the applications furnished with your machine, Norton etc ...... I dont think that they are available via the IBM website. The installable versions of the applications can be normally be found in either c:\ibmworks, c:\ibmtools, or c:\drivers........

T41mbi wrote:hey how do you wipe a HDD clean making sure no partitions what so ever exist... making sure its absolutely blank... i want to do that to my hdd, but cant see hidden partitions and i know their must be a few... how do i get rid of ALL of them?

*** Word of warning ****
You WILL destroy all data on the disk, dont forget to backup your data beforehand.........

1 : If you want to recover the IBM hidden partition, first change the appropriate security option in the BIOS.

2 : The cheapest method of formating /partitioning would consist of a "DOS boot disk" which has the program "fdisk". There are many available internet sites explaining its usage. The interface is basic but it works.

3 : A more expensive solution, longwinded but with a graphical interface, would be to remove the hard disk, put it in a another machine as a slave drive and use Partition Magic to format/repartition the disk as required.

Leon · #4 Post by **Leon** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 10:37 am

so, Norton (and other factory installed APPLICATIONS) are NOT on the Recovery CD's... so I really can't get back to original factory status if everything gets wiped?

Stingray72 · #5 Post by **Stingray72** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 11:29 am

Everything is on the recovery CDs (OS, applications and drivers) and they will restore your pc to their original factory settings. The whole process should take not more than 2 hrs to restore.

If u r using a retail copy of XP or created a bootable cd of the i386 folder found in ur c drive to install however, u need to backup IBMTOOLS and Drivers folders (burn on CDs perhaps). When u install xp, u need to restore the folders to their original locations and install all the drivers and apps from there.

I've wiped out the hidden area the day i got my T41 and im glad that i did... i saved abt 5 gig of HD space and will a clean install things became smooth n clean

taphil · #6 Post by **taphil** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 12:37 pm

Here's a way of truely wiping the drive clean, which doens't require the use of a DOS boot disk with fdisk and having a floppy drive:

1) In the BIOS, keep the Recovery Partition set to "normal".
2) Boot the computer.
3) Press the blue Access IBM button.
4) Run PC Doctor.
5) On one of the tabs, there's an option to wipe the hard drive clean or zero (low-level format the drive). If you choose that option, it will give you a warning message that everything on the drive will be deleted, including the Recovery Partition.
6) I don't remember how long the process takes, but it could be a while. You can cancel it after 5 minutes, at which point everything will have been wiped out anyway for all practical purposes.
7) Reboot computer.

In the BIOS, change the Recovery Partition to "disable".
9) Change bootup to boot from CD.
10) Begin recovery from the recovery CD.
11) Be sure to choose "no" when it asks you if you'd like to restore the recovery partition.

That's what I did from memory. I believe if in step #1 you set the option to disable, you will not be able to use the Access IBM button to get to PC Doctor. An alternative is to go ahead and disable the recovery partition and then boot from the the recovery CD, which will let you run PC Doctor and wipe the drive clean.

synapse · #7 Post by **synapse** » Fri Aug 06, 2004 9:21 pm

taphil - How do you start PC Doctor? I tried clicking Hardware Diognostics but that just brings me a blue screen where I select my model and then some errors come up and a promt - no tabs. I just want to wipe the hidden partition away but still retain the Blue Access IBM funtionality of bringing up the recovery tools in case the OS crashes. Is that possible? Thanks!

-Dan

mtbiac · #8 Post by **mtbiac** » Sat Aug 07, 2004 1:19 am

Stingray72 wrote:Everything is on the recovery CDs (OS, applications and drivers) and they will restore your pc to their original factory settings. The whole process should take not more than 2 hrs to restore.

If u r using a retail copy of XP or created a bootable cd of the i386 folder found in ur c drive to install however, u need to backup IBMTOOLS and Drivers folders (burn on CDs perhaps). When u install xp, u need to restore the folders to their original locations and install all the drivers and apps from there.

I've wiped out the hidden area the day i got my T41 and im glad that i did... i saved abt 5 gig of HD space and will a clean install things became smooth n clean

what if I did a fresh install of XP and didnt put the IBMTOOLS folders back? I did install ALL of the drivers and most of the utilities though. Am I missing anything?

thanks

rhema83 · #9 Post by **rhema83** » Sat Aug 07, 2004 7:04 am

I erased and re-partitioned the HDD and it's working perfectly fine. However I forgot to backup IBM applications because I thought I had the recovery CDs anyway. Now I'm missing WinDVD and RecordNOW. Is there a way we can extract the installable versions from the recovery CDs without doing a full recovery? I would hate to do all the configuration all over again, not to mention saving my stuff on CDRWs.

synapse · #10 Post by **synapse** » Sat Aug 07, 2004 10:31 pm

Ok, I found out PC Doctor was not working due to a faulty install. Where do I choose whether or not I want the hidden partition reinstalled when I recover the contents? Do I instert the Rescue and Recovery CD (Disk 1 of 1) or the Product Recovery CD (Disk 1 of 7)? Do I click on restore factory contents? Thanks for your help and sorry about these basic questions.

Pro and cons of wiping that HDD

Pro and cons of wiping that HDD

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