Creating backup discs of the hidden partition

[AndyKH]

Hi

I own an IBM R50, and since I got it, I have always been wondering how to make backup discs of the stuff in the hidden partition including the pre-dekstop environment. IIRC I never had any start menu item that looked like it could do such a thing. Also, some months ago, i removed alll IBM drivers and programs to "start over" as I was experiencing that some old programs like message center where residing in one place in start menu "Access IBM" while the most of the other utils where residing in the thinkvantage menu folder.

I installed everything sensible when re-installing with software installer, but no program to create the CDs where installed.

How do I download the required program, is it the R&R program I have to use, or....?

Thanks in advance
Andreas

[carbon_unit]

Does your R50 have a cd burner? I have seen a few R50's with only a cd drive and they did not have the option to make a set of recovery cd's. The R & R program is what allows you to make a set of recovery cd's.
You could always try pressing F11 during a cold boot and see if the recovery partition is indeed there. I think that if you restored from there with a cd burner in the ultrabay you should be able to make a set of recovery cd's.

[AndyKH]

Thanks for the reply

Yes my R50 has a cd-burner. I find a little strange that the Rescue and recovery software required to create backup cds of the hidden partition is not installed by software installer.
However, I don't know what you mean with "I think that if you restored from there with a cd burner in the ultrabay you should be able to make a set of recovery cd's." Do you mean that I should press F11 during boot to access the util to create the cds? I thought that I had to install the Rescue and Recovery software available on Lenovos homepage to make the cds from Windows.

Please advice

Thanks
Andreas

[GomJabbar]

The program to burn the Product Recovery Disc set should be installed on a new ThinkPad (if you have a ThinkPad given to you by your company, they may have put a different image on the hard drive which does not include this).

Go to Start > All Programs > ThinkVantage > Create Recovery Media > Product Recovery, and burn a set of these discs. On older ThinkPads, go to Start > All Programs > Access IBM > Create Recovery Discs. On my T42 with the second, older method above, the actual program is C:\IBMTOOLS\utils\spi\reccd.exe.

[carbon_unit]

However, I don't know what you mean with "I think that if you restored from there with a cd burner in the ultrabay you should be able to make a set of recovery cd's."

What I meant was if you have the recovery partition intact you could restore the computer from the recovery partition using F11 during a cold boot. It seems that you already have a cd burner in the ultrabay so this would restore the hard drive to factory condition and would enable you to burn a set of recovery cd's. This would wipe out your existing installation of windows and replace it with the factory supplied version.