Info about Restoring a A22m using the 'hidden' partition

[BillMS]

Hi,

Another new member here (altho I have 600s, T21s and this A22m).

My a22m/1Ghz/512MB (with original W2K, bought from IBM in mid-2004) needs its OS restored (never did it before). I gather the restore partition is intact (it is there).

After a very bad bout with malware (think fixed now, but.....), some 'things' no longer work (like the network connections, and related). I gather some of the over zealous 'cleansers' (CClearner, and some esoteric utilities suggested by malware programs forum help folks) messed up desirable settings. Just my feelings, but I'm not sure; but something did some 'damage'. That, and the fact that all three of my antivirus/malware programs still fail to run 'properly', leaves me wanting to really clean out and start fresh. Just to make sure.

I've been resisting the restore for a number of reasons, mostly because I am not sure what all gets restored. OS/W2K yes, but about all the Thinkpad utils/drivers etc? I don't want to lose anything, due to restore (or re-formatting, see before).

[I have already made of copies the ThinkPad programs running now, but I don't know if they can be run after a re-installation of 2000. (Or, really another subject/message, if they can live through a XP Pro change/upgrade -- some time the future.)

One more question -- is there is any way to format NTFS (now is FAT32) before/during the restore?

Any words of wisdom, would be certainly appreciated.

[BTW, this a22m is not my primary system -- it is just one of my stable of compter friends.]

Bill

[agarza]

The restore partition reinstall everything just the way you received the laptop (or your friend's) with drivers/apps, etc.
W2K is somewhat an old OS and you could use a copy from a friend to install XP, although for recovery purposes just backup any important data, and to be safe backup the I386 folder and the IBMTOOLS folders on C: drive just in case the recovery process don't go well.
You can do later a boot CD with all the files on the I386 folder which contains the install files of W2K.
I've a similar machine, a A22e with .8GHz processor and 256MB RAM running XP nicely.

Good luck.

[BillMS]

Hello agarza,

Thanks for your informative message/response. Very much appreciated. You answered the key part of my question(s). I was worried about losing the special utilities. I *thought* they would be included in any restore -- But, I was not sure. So, my question here.

I do plan to update the Win 2000 to XP Pro -- probably anyway. I do have a usable XP Pro install CD (legal, etc). But I think I will first restore W2K, to make sure I can recover some lost functions (and see if I can get online etc -- make sure that the hardware is still OK, etc).

And, I would then like to re-format with NTFS, before installing XP Pro. Sometimes in/restalling the OS asks about re/formatting. I just don't know until I try.

Thanks, too, for your 'alternative/safe' way to protect against a real messup doing the restore (using \i386 folder etc).

Bill