Rescue and Recovery password?

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#1 Post by **carbon_unit** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 8:47 pm

Here is the story:
I changed motherboards in a T41P today using a 39T5451 board (I know it is a downgrade but at least it doesn't have a loose GPU). It has no passwords set and the security chip is disabled.
Now my problem is that I need to recover to factory condition So I made a set of recovery discs and went to use them. I put in the first one and it boots up to Rescue and Recovery and wants a password. Not knowing the password I reboot and hit the blue button and it goes into Rescue and Recovery and wants a password again?? OK, So I go get a boot cd for a T42 set that i know does not require a password, I have used it before. I put in the cd and it boots up to Rescue and Recovery and wants a password again???

What's going on here? The motherboard has no passwords, security chip is disabled and a known good Rescue and Recovery boot cd still wants a password.
Does anyone have any ideas?

#2 Post by **richk** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:00 pm

What version of R&R? I believe T42 recovery CDs, at least the newer ones that use recovery partitions instead of HPA) will not work on T40/T41. I use a different set (pre-SP2, unfortunately)

johnnydu · #3 Post by **johnnydu** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:12 pm

carbon_unit wrote:Here is the story:
I changed motherboards in a T41P today using a 39T5451 board (I know it is a downgrade but at least it doesn't have a loose GPU). It has no passwords set and the security chip is disabled.
Now my problem is that I need to recover to factory condition So I made a set of recovery discs and went to use them. I put in the first one and it boots up to Rescue and Recovery and wants a password. Not knowing the password I reboot and hit the blue button and it goes into Rescue and Recovery and wants a password again?? OK, So I go get a boot cd for a T42 set that i know does not require a password, I have used it before. I put in the cd and it boots up to Rescue and Recovery and wants a password again???

What's going on here? The motherboard has no passwords, security chip is disabled and a known good Rescue and Recovery boot cd still wants a password.
Does anyone have any ideas?

Hi there. That happened to me once - what worked for me was this:

- Go to BIOS and allow Pre-Desktop area to be seen and modified by user.

- Using partition magic or any partition manager, reclaim the pre-desktop partition and erase the contents.

- Recover the system to factory using the R&R discs.

I was able to restore my T43 to factory after erasing the pre desktop area using the discs the R&R discs. After restoration, pre desktop area will be reinstalled, password-less and available at your convenience

#4 Post by **carbon_unit** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:59 pm

richk wrote:What version of R&R? I believe T42 recovery CDs, at least the newer ones that use recovery partitions instead of HPA) will not work on T40/T41. I use a different set (pre-SP2, unfortunately)

I don't know which version of R&R either set is. I made a set of recovery discs on the T41P and they wanted a password so I tried a T42 boot cd just to see what happened. It still wanted a password and the password hint is the same. That is when I checked for BIOS passwords and seen there is none and the security chip was disabled.
I don't understand why it needs a password when booted to a cd. If wiping the restore partition will fix it that would be no problem. I just don't want to blow the partitions away only to find that I still can't recover to factory condition.

#5 Post by **richk** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 10:55 pm

The reason I asked about versions is this: The machine I use for what passes for real work is a T42p. I upgraded R&R to version 3 (almost 500 MB download). When I installed it, my old recovery partition went away and I had a smaller partition that let me boot into R&R, but it had no recovery data. I needed to make my own backups. Instead of factory contents, I had whatever the contents were at that time. (rapid recovery) I could then do additional backups that only stored changes from the last backup. I could password protect the backups. If that is what you have, the password is not on your machine, bur wherever you put the backups.

#6 Post by **ryengineer** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 11:08 pm

The following was mentioned on IBM's developer forum, which is down at the moment so I had to cache the page to display it:

Rescue and Recovery - Password?

#7 Post by **carbon_unit** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 8:42 am

Awesome! Thanks Ryan.
It seems that it does read something from the hard drive even when booting from a cd into Rescue and Recovery. As a test I removed the good hard drive and put in an old hard drive with nothing on it. When I booted to the same T41P boot cd I made earlier it booted right up and did not ask for a password like it did earlier. Woo Hoo!
Then I reinstalled the good hard drive and fired up windows. I renamed the c:\ (DRIVERS, IBMSHARE, IBMTOOLS, SUPPORT, Program Files\IBM) folders one at a time until I finally found that renaming just the IBMTOOLS folder to IBMTOOLS1 is sufficient to disable the password.

#8 Post by **carbon_unit** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 11:24 am

Update:
Renaming the IBMTOOLS folder will allow you to boot to a R&R boot cd without a password and recover your system with a recovery disc set but it will not allow you to use R&R from the restore partition. It still asks for a password. I'm already too far along to go back and see which other folders need renamed in order to use the onboard restore.

Steerpike · #9 Post by **Steerpike** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:59 pm

Argh ...similar (but worse!) problem here!

I just got a laptop back from a user who left on bad terms. I just tried to do a "product restore to factory" from R&R patition, but it wanted a password and I don't have it. So I tried to burn a set of Recovery disks, it says they've already been burned (but he has no disks in his drawers) so I can't burn another set.

I called IBM, they are shipping me a new set of recovery disks, but I'm in a hurry on this one. I really need to restore from the partition if possible.

Above, you imply that it should be just a matter of renaming files/folders; but could it not be something stored in the partition itself?

I did rename every one of those folders, no luck.

Thanks!

JDe · #10 Post by **JDe** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 4:09 pm

carbon_unit wrote:Renaming the IBMTOOLS folder will allow you to boot to a R&R boot cd without a password and recover your system with a recovery disc set but it will not allow you to use R&R from the restore partition. It still asks for a password.

On my T43 the password was stored in two files: in file C:\IBMSHARE\ibmpwhp.pyc in the Windows partition and also in file \preboot\utils\support\ibmpwhp.pyc in the R&R partition. Both files were the same, they contained encoded password and password hint in paintext. I renamed both files to ibmpwhp1.pyc. To rename the second one I booted Linux and mounted /dev/sda2. Then rebooted to R&R and it started without asking the password.

On the other hand, my happiness did not last long. IBM Product Recovery failed to restore the Windows into C: partition.

crashnburn · #11 Post by **crashnburn** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 10:18 am

Interesting. What to do if the Blue Button Restore fails?

I dont have the Recovery / Rescue Recovery CDs. I am wondering if its possible to install a Windows XP from another source and then Introduce the IBM License from the bottom of the T43.

Is that possible?
Does it have to be a specific source of Windows XP ?

#12 Post by **Johan** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 11:31 am

crashnburn wrote:I dont have the Recovery / Rescue Recovery CDs. I am wondering if its possible to install a Windows XP from another source and then Introduce the IBM License from the bottom of the T43. Is that possible? Does it have to be a specific source of Windows XP ?

Try see the sticky How to Fresh Install Win XP (Step-by-Step Guide). I have a PDF'ed version if the guide.

Johan

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