Missing F11 option for recovery!

[RustyMuppet]

Hi,

I am trying to rebuild my daughters boyfriends laptop (Thinkpad T42 - type 2373) following a virus he managed to infect it with deleted many required files.

I have looked at the support pages and after pressing the 'Access IBM' button it seems I should see an F11 option to restore from the hidden partition (the partition is still there).

All I have are the Esc, F1 and F12 options. The hidden partition is set to Normal in the bios.

Has anyone come across this before? Is there some trick i am missing to get it to show the F11 option?

If I cant get this to work I am tempted to try Ubuntu before reinstalling from another XP disk (assuming the laptops XP code will work with it) and spending many hours downloading drivers for it. Has anyone had any joy installing Ubuntu (or another Linux distro) on these machines?

The main things he requires is the wireless connection to work. He just tends to browse the net and watch DVDs on it.

Thanks in advance for any help

[andyP]

Hi RustyMuppet, welcome to the forum,

If you are sure the partition is still there try pressing the Access IBM button after you turn on. If that doesn't work and you have an usb floppy, or can beg / borrow or buy one, give the repair disc a shot.

[RustyMuppet]

No luck with that unfortunately.

I decided to reload XP with his key. That worked and I downloaded the wireless lan driver and managed to get all XP updates on.

I still have a few drivers missing/unknown so I guess i'll start adding more divers from the lenevo site and see if I can fix them (the only named one missing is the fingerprint reader - then 2 unknown).

I guess I could try and create the rescue disks if I can find the software on their site, otherwise I dont see much point in keeping the hidden partition.