Rescue and Recovery 3.1 only creates the rescue disk

[MarT40]

I have a t40 that is more than 3 years old and is out of warrantee. Several days ago I did a recover to factory settings from the IBM Predesktop area and had XP at the SP1 level. After many hours of installing updates to XP and ThinkPad drivers and programs I have a working up-to-date system. I then installed Rescue and Recovery 3.1 and attempted to Create Recovery Media. Only the startup disk was created - not a series of disks. I then attemped the Create Recovery Media again and again only the startup disk was created. Create Recovery Media is from the start menu and the program only mentions rescue media.

The Predesktop area is now Lenovo and the startup disk has 433 MB of data including I386 and Preboot. The disk will boot but I didn't try anything else.

I am afraid to even try a recover to factory install from the Lenovo Predesktop area that is on the hard drive for fear of messing up the system entirely. Anyone know why I cannot create recovery disks?

[GomJabbar]

I wish I could give you a good answer. I know the T40's recovery area is a bit different than the T42's, and I am not very familiar with the differences as far as your questions are concerned. I did find a little information. Basically it says you should have made the Recovery Disks before installing Rescue and Recovery 3.1. Personally I remained with the factory installed version of R&R on my T42. I believe it is better not to upgrade Rescue and Recovery unless you have a compelling reason to do so.

Symptom
Any machine that has IBM Rescue and Recovery with Rapid Restore Ultra 1.0 or IBM Rescue and Recovery 2.0 factory preloaded, then installs Rescue and Recovery 3.0, will lose the ability to have Rescue and Recovery installed on the machine after a Restore to Factory contents action is selected when booting from the computer's hard drive.

Rescue and Recovery 3.0 updates the contents of the recovery environment stored on the computer's hard drive. Restoring to Factory contents does not alter the recovery environment and could result in an inconsistent configuration. Therefore, the ability for the factory preload to install IBM Rescue and Recovery with Rapid Restore Ultra 1.0 or IBM Rescue and Recovery 2.0 after Rescue and Recovery 3.0 has been installed was purposely disabled.
Solution
It is recommended that you create Recovery CDs prior to installing any software. If this is done, Restoring to Factory contents using the Recovery CDs will restore both the recovery environment as well as the preloaded version of Rescue and Recovery into Windows. If the Recovery CDs were not created before installing Rescue and Recovery 3.0, before doing a Restore to Factory Contents you may wish to copy the Rescue and Recovery 3.0 installation files off to external media so you will not have to download from the Web again.

A couple of links:
Rescue and Recovery v3.1 - Considerations

Rescue and Recovery v3.1 by Lenovo

[MarT40]

The T40 came with Rapid Restore and I don't think it had the ability to create Recovery Disks. It would create backups to a hard drive partition and I think those were only available as long as the hard drive functioned. The reason I installed Rescue and Recovery and tried to run it was because I don't have recovery disks and the machine is out of warrantee. The machine still runs well but I am vulnerable to a hard drive failure.

I guess the best bet is to finish loading my programs, clean the junk as well as possible, and make backups of the system using a good backup program. Any ideas? It must be able to restore to a new hard drive. Since I had the ability to recover from the Predesktop area I only created backups of my user data using Record Now (not a lot of user data on the drive). I may still have the ability to recover as long as the hard drive functions but I am not going to test it now.

I could try to obtain recovery disks from Lenovo now or purchase a copy of XP Professional later (when it costs less).

[GomJabbar]

If I am not mistaken, you can make a full backup with Rescue and Recovery to an external hard drive, CD's, or DVD's. If your hard drive fails, boot up the Rescue Media or Startup Disc you burned previously, then from the Rescue and Recovery program there you can restore your backup to another hard drive.

My experience with Rescue and Recovery for making backups to DVD's or CD's is that it is very slow and does not do a verify operation. This was with Rescue and Recovery 3. I myself do not use Rescue and Recovery or Rapid Restore for backups. I use StompSoft Backup MyPC to back up my hard drive. Backup MyPC runs much faster than Rescue and Recovery and does a verify operation, but you need a Windows install CD to do a restore to an empty hard drive. I made my own using a method similar to the one in the Sticky in the Windows OS forum.

Cloning is a very good option used by many. It is a relatively fast method and works very well. I started cloning my hard drive until I needed the spare disk for Windows Vista beta. If you buy the Ultrabay Slim 2nd hard drive adapter, it comes with cloning software on a floppy disk. I already had a USB floppy drive, so this worked fine for me. You can get a new 40gb, 5400rpm Fujitsu notebook hard drive for around $50. I just bought one from Compuvest.

[MarT40]

Have you ever done restores using Stomp Backup MyPc to either the original hard drive or to a new hard drive after using the XP install CD you made? When I was a working person I did many OS backups but never did do a restore - almost had to once and my heart was in my throat.

I had planned to try to create the XP install CD but decided it was easier to use the Predesktop Area - I can't remember when I had done the previous clean install. Now I might as well create it though I won't test it until it becomes necessary - if it ever does. The system may die of other causes than a hard drive failure or a catastrophic software failure before I need it.

It seems my first decision is to purchase either an external DVD writer or an external hard drive. I'm not sure if I want to remove the DVD/CD-RW that is in the ultrabay - I could easily damage it. Then I can make at least one backup using Rescue and Recovery. After that I might switch to another backup program. There are a number of options but they all cost more than I had planned.