FORMATTING vs THINKVANTAGE FACTORY SETTING

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rayZR · #1 Post by **rayZR** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 5:36 pm

Hey guys,

while I keep waiting for lenovo to take their sweet time figuring ways to delay my shipment even .. I waste your time asking more questions.

Few days ago I was reading here on the forum, that it is now possible to Bring the T61 to its factory setting using the THINKVANTAGE button during bootup, and choose which Lenovo drivers and softwares One would like to keep, or just keep the XP and get rid of all lenovo stuff.

Talking to a friend who got his T61 yesterday, explained to me that a Lenovo laptop usually keeps approx 5GB of partitioned HDD space for all of its own stuff... and using the above method does not reclaim this unnecessary waste of space... instead what he's gone and done is Formatted his laptop and installed XP clean.

My Question to all you folks out here is which option do you guys think is better.
and If its true about the 5GB space lenovo hogs for its own stuff.
Is formatting and selectively installing all the drivers.. potentially worse?

Thanks again for your kind advice.
Cheers

#2 Post by **carbon_unit** » Thu Oct 25, 2007 5:44 pm

That 5gb of wasted space contains your restore partition. Before you blow everything away, make a set of recovery discs so you can restore it to factory condition when you sell it. After that do as you please because you can always go back using the rescue discs.

egibbs · #3 Post by **egibbs** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 6:28 am

Definitely make recovery disks, test them, and put them away safely first. Also make a PC Doctor CD.

I recommend keeping the recovery partition - it can come in handy when you least expect it.

See this poor [censored] for why.

Ed Gibbs

Ideasmiths · #4 Post by **Ideasmiths** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 7:34 am

I keep seeing this same question in this forum and many other notebooks (lenovo) forums that I go, I don't understand why people want to squeeze out every single GB unless they really need the space.

5GB? Have anyone take a look at their XP restore point? That's around 12GB of space (for typical 100GB harddisk) unless you have turned it off.

My BEST procedure that I have discovered so far (after years of doing more than 30 blue button recovery operation in multiple combination) is

a) Get an external HDD and clone the hidden 5GB partition. Use the 15 days free trial Acronis software to do it.

b) Then use the same HDD to do a recovery disc backup, because I have many many incidents of problems with Recovery discs, you burn them, their quality is unknown until the fateful day you need to do an emergency recovery.

c) I don't recommend burning CD Recovery disc. Ask for one set from lenovo nicely. If you need to burn RD, then test them at least once for full recovery before you store them in a cool safe place.

d) Leave the Hidden partition there until you really need that 5GB space.

e) Don't need to use external XP, just press the blue button and do a clean lean and mean thinkpad factory restore (search for one of my thread on how to do that).

#5 Post by **carbon_unit** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 8:31 am

I have the opposite experience. In fact two days ago I tried to restore a T60 using the factory discs and it failed. I was stuck with half installed XP bringing up sysprep at every boot. Then I used the restore disc set I created with another T60 and it worked perfectly. The factory cd's are burnt cdr's anyway so they could have errors. It is not like the old days when they were pressed cd's.
Create your restore cd's and test them. If they are bad contact Lenovo and tell them. They will probably send new ones for free if you cannot create good ones yourself.

Personally I would leave the restore partition there. 5 measly gigs isn't worth losing the restore capability.

#6 Post by **bill bolton** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 9:55 pm

rayZR wrote:instead what he's gone and done is Formatted his laptop and installed XP clean.

I suggest its time to get a new "friend" who knows what they are talking about when handing out advice.

Cheers,

Bill B.

rayZR · #7 Post by **rayZR** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 7:24 am

"I suggest its time to get a new "friend" who knows what they are talking about when handing out advice."

ha ha... I think this is the best advice Ive got in this forum so far

thank you BIll

The reason.. I;ve asked this question of formatting vs the factory settings is that... at my school, of the three people who have been using this machine, two of them are extremely unsatisfies with the performance and constanly curse lenovo since they find it to be very slow.. the third person is my friend who formatted his lenovo and removed every bit of lenovo software.
He is the only one who claims to be happy and seems to extract the maximum performance from the lenovo.

again... I am not too bothered about the 5GB as much as I am about maximum performance... since i use some hardcore 3d modelling and rendering applications.

So my question i think boils down to is simply this :

what is safer and better to extract the maximum performance from the T61.
1. Formatting the HDD and a clean install of XP or
2. using the thinkvantage button and simply bringing it back to the factory settings..( I see 'carbon unit' had a negative experience with this , one thread above.

Thank again guys,,, for your invaluable help
cheers
Ray

rayZR · #8 Post by **rayZR** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 7:50 am

I also suspect that with a clean install... the fingerprint reader might start acting up.. right?

rayZR · #9 Post by **rayZR** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 7:58 am

Another part to my earlier question is:

IF I am using the THinkvantage button for a factory setting... what programs should I remove to get better performance from this machine. the wireless network program for example???

apologies for the potentially stupid questions...:S

Sheridan Thinkpad · #10 Post by **Sheridan Thinkpad** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 9:12 am

I'm sure others will correct me if I'm wrong, but if you are concerned primarily with performance, then a bare bones XP installation without any of the Lenovo software would be better for you.

If you have a separate copy of XP lying around, you could install that all by itself, completely bypassing the recovery CD's. The only wrinkle is that you would need to get all the drivers first and install them manually. You can get all this at Lenovo's site. The other alternative is, as you mentioned, to do a custom factory refresh and simply deselect all the Lenovo software.

But take some time to research all the Lenovo software - you might like some of it. You can always add it in one at a time through Lenovo's website. Personally I use none of it, but undoubtedly there are others here who swear by some or all of it.

steveg47 · #11 Post by **steveg47** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 9:59 am

rayZR wrote:My Question to all you folks out here is which option do you guys think is better.
and If its true about the 5GB space lenovo hogs for its own stuff.
Is formatting and selectively installing all the drivers.. potentially worse?

I thinks it's safe to state that in this situation if you have to ask the question you shouldn't be maually installing your own OS. That being said if you have the technical skill and experience there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that a manually installed OS (non-lenovo) will be superior in every way to the pre-installed OS. IMO

rayZR · #12 Post by **rayZR** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 10:04 am

If you have a separate copy of XP lying around, you could install that all by itself, completely bypassing the recovery CD's. The only wrinkle is that you would need to get all the drivers first and install them manually. You can get all this at Lenovo's site. The other alternative is, as you mentioned, to do a custom factory refresh and simply deselect all the Lenovo software.

thank you for the comment, sheridan.. however you still didnt say whether the custom factory refresh will be better os the manual OS install ..

thanks again

agarza · #13 Post by **agarza** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 1:49 pm

steveg47 wrote:
rayZR wrote:My Question to all you folks out here is which option do you guys think is better.
and If its true about the 5GB space lenovo hogs for its own stuff.
Is formatting and selectively installing all the drivers.. potentially worse?
I thinks it's safe to state that in this situation if you have to ask the question you shouldn't be maually installing your own OS. That being said if you have the technical skill and experience there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that a manually installed OS (non-lenovo) will be superior in every way to the pre-installed OS. IMO

I second steveg47 opinion and think that manually installing XP gives you a very fast/responsive machine. The moment I received my new T42p I decided to wipe the entire disk and install XP my way. I'm the kind of guy who thinks that every byte counts.

If I have trouble booting into Windows I fix it using the Recovery Console included in every XP CD.

Sheridan Thinkpad · #14 Post by **Sheridan Thinkpad** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 1:53 pm

rayZR wrote:
If you have a separate copy of XP lying around, you could install that all by itself, completely bypassing the recovery CD's. The only wrinkle is that you would need to get all the drivers first and install them manually. You can get all this at Lenovo's site. The other alternative is, as you mentioned, to do a custom factory refresh and simply deselect all the Lenovo software.
thank you for the comment, sheridan.. however you still didnt say whether the custom factory refresh will be better os the manual OS install ..

thanks again

Well, I don't know for sure if it will be. The key difference obviously is that by installing a separate copy of XP you are guaranteeing that no extra Lenovo software will be installed, whereas with the factory refresh method, some of that stuff could conceivably end up on your system, despite all the unchecking you do in the custom restoration setup. I'm not sure about this, maybe just paranoid

So assuming you don't need any of the Lenovo software and are comfortable downloading and installing a variety of drivers from Lenovo on your own, I'd say that the manual XP install certainly isn't any worse than the factory refresh, and could possibly be better. Definitely a little more work though.

#15 Post by **carbon_unit** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 2:01 pm

rayZR wrote: 2. using the thinkvantage button and simply bringing it back to the factory settings..( I see 'carbon unit' had a negative experience with this , one thread above.

Wait a minute, I had trouble using the factory restore discs one time, I have never had trouble using the ThinkVantage button.
Actually there can be a problem with any disc whether it is an optical disc or a hard disc. I was just countering Ideasmith's notion that the restore discs you make yourself are more problematic than factory discs. The simple truth is that you can never have too many backups. Make a set of recovery discs and do an image to an external hard disc. Then you have two chances to recover.

Sheridan Thinkpad · #16 Post by **Sheridan Thinkpad** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 2:12 pm

Another benefit to installing a fresh copy of the OS versus the factory refresh - it's my understanding that removing the recovery partition after using the factory install is a little trickier and dangerous because you are kind of merging two partitions together? I don't know too much about the process so if it is actually an easy safe one I hope someone can chime in and explain it.

I do know that installing the OS on your own it's straightforward to delete and remove the partition. And if you ever want it back, you can always use the factory CD's and restore your system to exactly how it was when you received it, extra partition and all.

FORMATTING vs THINKVANTAGE FACTORY SETTING

FORMATTING vs THINKVANTAGE FACTORY SETTING

What are you going to do with a miserable 5GB?

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