Thinkpad T43 2686A37 Recovery/Restore Procedure Questions

[hotshot]

Hi,

I am a proud owner of a brand new Lenovo Thinkpad T43 2686A37.

So far I've quite enjoyed this machine. I'm an experience computer user but i have not owned/used a laptop with a recovery partition so i have a few noob related questions.

For starts I've used the IBM utility within Windows XP to make copies of the recovery disks. Two DVD's were burned, one containing 300MB of data, the second containing several GBs of data. I have also manually backed up the IBM_TOOLS folder from the hard drive to a DVD disk.

I'm quite used to zeroing or doing low level formats on my computers' hard drives due to sensitive/personal data. I may wish to zero the Thinkpad's hard drive but I want to make sure that the recovery disks I burned are all that is needed to re-install Windows and all the add-ons and/or reconstruct the recovery partition.

On a side note the top left hand corner of my Thinkpad T43 (near the USB ports) there seems to be high pitched squealing noises. They only are audible when the AC connector is plugged in and the laptop is switched on/standby mode or from battery. It doesn't make any noise when completely turned off. I have turned off power saving but the noise still is there. I've also used no battery and a different battery and the noise is still there. It's not that noticeable but it is a worry that it may cause an electrical fault in the future.

I do exhibit some buzzing in the same area but have concluded that the hard drive supplied is causing an echo of vibration which can be heard through the vents and gaps of the notebook (proven when the hard drive was completely removed from the system the buzzing went but the squealing remains).

I have a feeling that the recovery disks I have burned will be all I need to re-install windows from a low level formatted hard disk drive and the high-pitched noise is normal operation, but I just wanted to confirm this before I modified the system.

Thanks very much for your time.