Latest information on reinstalling Win XP Pro with SP2?

[iev]

Hello!

I am a new owner of a ThinkPad T60. Although I am a computer engineer, I had never before a laptop. Don't ask why, I just chose not to buy one. But now the University that I am working at decided to buy me a laptop, so I had no choice

I was amased by the number of applications that come preinstalled with the laptop. I am using the laptop for 2 weeks now and I came to the conclusion that I actually need only 2 or 3 of them. A friend has an old ThinkPad with a Pentium II and 256MB and the startup times are almost the same for both machines! Therefore, I am thinking to reinstall the operating system, without all these applications of course.

Searching in this forum I found the following thread:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... sc&start=0

which has a link to:

http://www.4saad.com/WhatsNew/Fresh_XP_ ... /index.htm

which explains how to create a bootable CD and accomplish this task. However, it is a little bit old. The version of Windows XP Pro that came with my laptop already includes SP2. So, my questions are as follows:

1) Is it safe to assume that I can just skip the steps to integrate SP2 into the i386 folder?

2) As the laptop actually belongs to the University, I would like to keep the hidden partition, in case they need it when I finally hand over the laptop again. I assume that it is also safe to skip Step 10, that describes how to make the partition visible and merge it with another partition?

3) The second message from the end of the thread (Page 8 ) mentions a utility called "slipstreamer", which supposedly automates all the procedure. Has anyone used it successfully to create the bootable CD? I tried to use it and it seems to correctly recognize the version of Windows under the i386 folder and creates an ISO image. However, I would like to know if someone else had some experience with it. What about the product keys in this case? Do I use the same procedure as in Step 9 in the above link, i.e., look in the file unattend.txt?

4) Can I still use the Software Installer application from IBM to install all necessary drivers after my clean install?

5) Anything else that I should know about newer ThinkPads, with respect to the procedure described in the above links?

I hope that someone can provide some guidance on this, as it is the first time that I will do something that this and, most importantly, on a laptop that does not belong to me.

Thank you!

Ioannis

P.S: Since I will eventually make that clean install, I was thinking to repartition the disk and keep some space to also install Fedora Core 5. Does any one have a guide for this? I found a link somewhere, but the guide was not there anymore. Moreover, if I make this repartitioning, what will happen if I try to use the recovery disks that I created through IBMs "Create Recovery Media" application?

[fbrdphreak]

That method still works fine. I used it to reimage a T60 myself.

1.) If your laptop came with SP2, you do not have to do that.

2.) From my experience, if you mess with the main partition AT ALL, you lose access to the hidden partition. You can't boot to it or anything. Maybe someone can shed more light on this

3.) Just follow the instructions on that page and use nLite. Make sure you check the option to create a Bootable ISO and you'll be fine.

4.) Yes, but Software Installer is being replaced by System Update. Same principle, but I liked Software Installer better.

5.) The proper audio driver doesn't install using the automatic update, you have to manually find the file and update it. I'm trying to find that now...

P.S. If this is a laptop that doesn't belong to you, I highly recommend you leave it alone. Regardless, burn a set of factory recovery install media. These should recreate the hidden partition again I believe.

[fbrdphreak]

Here's what I found about the audio driver:
http://www.laptoplogic.com/forums/showt ... #post16846

[Hushpuppy]

I installed XP pro SP2 on my T60, after receiving it from work. I did it on a second partition. There are some crucial steps that aren't mentioned in the thread or 4saad.com website:

For the install to work, you have to boot and go into your BIOS, and change your drive's SATA mode from "AHCI" to "Compatibility". The machine requires drivers to talk to the chips which speak AHCI to the disk.

(The following discussion was necessary for myself, as I have a Windows XP disk of an older vintage. YMMV. -ed.)

Also, you can download all the drivers and funky little ThinkVantage software pieces from the IBM T60 Thinkpad web download page- with one possible exception: Audio. --This means: "Audio *and* Modem". Before you install any drivers that require an audio device, you need to get Microsoft's UAA bus driver. The audio drivers installation *will* error out if you do not have the UAA driver installed first.

Why do the manufacturers have all the software you need with the exception of this audio driver, you may ask, rhetorically? Dunno. Seems odd to me, too.

To get it, you have to call Microsoft with your serial number ID and jump through the appropriate hoops. Or- you can get it from
http://tw2005.giga-byte.com/Motherboard ... 945P-G.htm. Then you don't have to wait... but! When you try to open the "Microsoft UAA driver" you will not see any text; rather you'll see all question marks. Just pretend like everything's normal and it will create a nice directory structure, where you can find the "en" folder. At that point you can go in and install the driver.

I would venture to guess that at some future date the driver will disappear from that Website. Dunno why Microsoft is so tight with their driver all of the sudden. I suspect it will show up built into more up-to-date XP disks but it wasn't in mine. So maybe you already have it. I would be interested to know if you need to download the UAA driver.

That's about it. Everything else installed pretty well, although I notice that my T60 starts out with about 230 Meg of garbage gobbling up my RAM. Contrast that with the 100 Meg used on my T21. Sheesh, what is all that extra junk? Everybody wants to have something running, it's crazy.

[fbrdphreak]

Hushpuppy,
Welcome to the forums

Thanks for mentioning those facts, I forgot about that. However in regard to the audio issues, refer to my previous post. You can download a host of "recommended" module updates from lenovo that includes this fix.

Also, to re-enable AHCI mode for SATA (which I believe is recommended for performance/stability purposes), you will need to replace the Intel driver with the one from Lenovo. Follow the instructions at the bottom of this page:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-62909

[Hushpuppy]

Try this:

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

...my old (6.0) version of Partition Magic hung on startup on my T60. Gparted worked like a champ, and claims to not need disk defragmentation before using! ...But I shut off my virtual memory and defrag anyway, cuz I'm a injuneer and I'm pertikular!

[Hushpuppy]

Thanks, fbrdphreak! I missed your previous linkage, that one's even better!

BTW, for those reading this thread, you can go here: http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.ws ... MIGR-62928 for most all your T60-specific drivers (except for that UAA thingy). Why they don't include it there, again, I dunno.

But if you get a regular ol' WinXP, then load all that junk from the link I mention, plus the UAA stuff from the link fbrdphreak mentions, you should then have a T60 that's got all the goodies as per from the factory. At least it looks like it's got all the goodies, to me, cuz there sure are a bunch of them!

BTW, to iev, I hope this thread helps you. I found repartitioning and adding a new Windows partition to my machine pretty easy. Soon I'll tackle Linux on it... I understand that ATI does have drivers for the X1300 video card, so I'm eager to get to work.

[ThinkZ61]

I fixed the hickup after clean XP installation by following recommendations from found in the Z series: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=19495 and downloading the HDA Audio Bus driver from http://acmserver.cs.ucr.edu/~amitra/hda_bus/. After than I installed the audio and modem drivers... Finally everything is working fine.

[iev]

Hello Hushpuppy,

I am following closely the thread and I assure you that all this information is really helpful to me! I hope that I can find some time tomorrow to make the fresh install on the laptop.

Thank you all for your help on this!

Ioannis

P.S: I hope that I will not need to return here with questions after the installation