Reinstall cd's for a Thinkpad T20

[Dark Savant0]

I recently bought a Thinkpad T20 from ebay, and it works great under a live cd. The hard drive that it had was busted (as advertised, so no worries), and I had to order a new one (Ah well).

Anyways, I was wondering if anyone had the restore cd's for aT20 2647-46U (W98 COA) that they would be willing to part with? And if not, how would I get those cd's?

Also, would those cd's reinstall the preboot area (or whatever it is called for the T20)? It would be great to be able to restore the hard drive without extra cd's at a later point.

Thanks for any help.

[tfflivemb2]

If you PM me with your name and address, I can send out a copy to you on Monday.

[Dark Savant0]

My other questions still stand, for anyone who can help. Thanks.

[dsvochak]

Also, would those cd's reinstall the preboot area

My recollection is that what was originally called "Disk-to-Disk Recovery" using a "hidden service partition" began with T22's.

Earlier models (T20 & T21) used the recovery CD method to restore the IBM Preload.

[Dark Savant0]

So then why does PXE (or something similar) load up when the "Thinkpad" button is pressed on boot?

[dsvochak]

"PXE" messages are appearing because the machine is trying to boot from a network or the Intel Boot Agent, not because the Thinkpad button was pressed. Pressing the Thinkpad button has no effect when your machine is booting.

The only keys that impact what happens on booting are "F1" which loads the BIOS Setup Utility and "F12" which allows you to choose a temporary boot device. On certain machines "F11" will invoke the IBM Product Recovery Program, if the system is designed for Disk-to-Disk recovery and if the recovery partition on the drive is intact.

The boot sequence is controlled in the BIOS. You can access the BIOS by turning on the machine and pressing "F1" when the IBM Logo appears.

At the initial BIOS screen you can select "Startup" and "Boot" to view the device order on your machine. The default sequence is something like "Removable Devices-->Hard Disk-->Atapi CD-->Network Boot-->Intel Boot Agent". If there's no floppy disk, working hard drive or bootable CD, the sequence will skip to the network boot choices. Hence the "PXE" messages.

Also, on the BIOS "Startup" screen, if your machine is capable of "Disk to Disk Recovery" one of the startup options listed will be "IBM Product Recovery Program Prompt (F11 key message)

[Dark Savant0]

Thanks for the information!