x200 and DVD Drive

[ellinj]

So, I am thinking about replacing my aging t42 and a shiny new x200, but I of course have some questions first mainly around the fact that I would like to avoid purchasing the dvd drive and base.

1. My old machine did not come with a recovery cd. Can anything else be used besides the dvd burner to create the cd? Can a ordinary USB burner be used?

2. If the hard drive fails can I use a regular cd drive to recover the machine.

3. What about bios upgrades and such, does this task still require a dvd drive?

[akao]

yes. yes, if the drive is bootable. no.