Could someone please explain to me what's on the partition?

[vtohthree]

...and why is it so critical, and seemingly almost irreplaceable?...

here's the situation...

Ok, well I just got a used T41, and I want to install a fresh copy of xp pro with sp2, etc. etc. because I have a more recent disk of xp pro, the xp pro loaded on my machine is rather old and needs every single update you can imagine from microsoft a long with being a registry mess and possibly a recipe for instability down the road.

Allow me to try and organize my thoughts and specify my questions, but...

first of all:
What exactly is on the hidden partition that makes it so critical?
Is a copy of an OS embedded on there too? Because I've been told that I don't need an XP pro cd to reinstall it on my system.



secondly:
I noticed that there are two partitions on my hdd both are labled along the lines of "IBM partition":

C:partition1 (IBM_PRELOAD) [NTFS] 53660 MB
D:Partition2 (IBM_PRELOAD) [FAT32] 310MB

I'm trying to figure out how those partitions got there and do I need to restore them(I'm figuring yes), and how I restore them(I'm assuming the blue button had something to do with this..)


Ultimately:
when Re-installing XP pro with MY OWN DISK, I'd like to delete a partition in order to freshly install it on there(effectively replacing what's on there now). But I'd hate to find out that none of my thinkpad exclusive buttons will work anymore.

How the heck do I re-install my fresh(more new/updated) version of xp pro on to this thing? And make it work like a thinkpad should, with all the thinkpad exclusive buttons, and drivers installed.

sigh...


---------------------------------
some notes:

*I have a COA

*I attempted to make a set of "recovery disks" by using IBM rapid restore, which made an image on my hard drive, then I tried to "archive" it by burning it on to CD-R's so I don't lose it when I swipe my drive clean, this was just for security/cautious measures incase something went wrong or just for my safety, should I ever sell the system. BUT...something is probably wrong with my CD-R I'm assuming because it keeps spitting out the blank media discs, I doubt it's my blank discs because they work on my other two computers.

[ashleys]

The IBM hidden partition contains the pre-load copy of the OS that first came with your TP. It includes an image of the system partition and a pre-desktop area. The pre-desktop area is what you boot into when you hit F11 and the pre-load copy is what you restore when you do a factory restore.

I understand other manufacturers use similar mechanisms to enable system recovery.

Apart from being able to restore the system for subsequent selling, I find the concept of a factory restore useless. If I were to do a factory restore of my TP now it would be over four years out of date. For getting my system back up and running quickly I want it to be four days out of date not four years.

My solution ...
Backed up the IBM folders (IBMTOOLS and SWTOOLS) from C:.
Disabled the HPA in the BIOS.
Ran full Windows install and within SETUP deleted all partitions and then allocated a C: (system) and D: (user data) partitions.

Restored IBM folders and installed required base levels of utilities.
Downloaded required IBM updates from T30 driver matrix and installed by hand.
Installed RnR on system partition which will result in the pre-desktop area being included on the C: partition.
Created RnR bootable CD, aka Rescue Media (Note : This only contains the pre-desktop area, not a copy of the Factory restore partition).

Use RnR to make weekly backups of the system partition to an external USB device. (Note : I have also tested that a full system restore works by using the bootable RnR CD and by using the Pre-desktop area via F11).
My user data partition is backed up almost daily using an incremental XCOPY.

Therefore, I now have no hidden partition but can use RnR to completely restore my system to a version that is only ever a maximum of seven days old. Furthermore I have all the correct IBM utility software installed and working.

[vtohthree]

The IBM hidden partition contains the pre-load copy of the OS that first came with your TP. It includes an image of the system partition and a pre-desktop area. The pre-desktop area is what you boot into when you hit F11 and the pre-load copy is what you restore when you do a factory restore.

I understand other manufacturers use similar mechanisms to enable system recovery.

Apart from being able to restore the system for subsequent selling, I find the concept of a factory restore useless. If I were to do a factory restore of my TP now it would be over four years out of date. For getting my system back up and running quickly I want it to be four days out of date not four years.

My solution ...
Backed up the IBM folders (IBMTOOLS and SWTOOLS) from C:.
Disabled the HPA in the BIOS.
Ran full Windows install and within SETUP deleted all partitions and then allocated a C: (system) and D: (user data) partitions.

Restored IBM folders and installed required base levels of utilities.
Downloaded required IBM updates from T30 driver matrix and installed by hand.
Installed RnR on system partition which will result in the pre-desktop area being included on the C: partition.
Created RnR bootable CD, aka Rescue Media (Note : This only contains the pre-desktop area, not a copy of the Factory restore partition).

Use RnR to make weekly backups of the system partition to an external USB device. (Note : I have also tested that a full system restore works by using the bootable RnR CD and by using the Pre-desktop area via F11).
My user data partition is backed up almost daily using an incremental XCOPY.

Therefore, I now have no hidden partition but can use RnR to completely restore my system to a version that is only ever a maximum of seven days old. Furthermore I have all the correct IBM utility software installed and working.

Thanks for the tip! I'll look more into it. I agree with ya, I don't see the point of having a restore for a very old OS setup.

Currently I'm making the restore cd's, it was spitting out good discs earlier but I ended up slowing down the write speed and now it's pressing out discs. I've been sitting here doing this for hours now, quite annoying.