T410 initial setup - Imaging and disk partition

[hts]

I am expecting to receive my T410 in a few days and am trying to strategize how to set up my T410. I am migrating from an Xp computer. I would like to image the T410 disk before creating the recovery disks and also create an additional partition on the 500gb disk in the T410. Here is my plan. Let me know if I am creating problems!

1. At first turn on enter the Bios and set the T410 to load with the DVD drive where I will have Clonezilla located for creating a T410 as loaded original image.

2. Hopefully clonezilla will be able to store an image to my NAS even though network connections would not be yet set up on T410.

3. After imaging, create Rescue & Recovery CD/DVD disk.

4. Reimage machine with image from (2) above.

5. Create new partition on drive with Aesus Partition Magic Pro.

6. Upgrade from Windows 7 Pro 64bit to Ultimate (for bitlocker to be used much latter)

7. Remove crapware.

8. Instal apps.

9. Use Thinkvantage Migration Tool to transfer Xp settings to T410.

10. Test setup and create 2nd image for ongoing use.

Does this approach seem like it would work?

[Harryc]

You lost me on 'create recovery disc'. If you are talking about a Rescue & Recovery CD or DVD set, it does not matter when you create them, the discs would be identical. Also you only get one chance to make them, then the prompt to create rescue media goes away... and they would restore the machine to a factory state over-writing any partition that you had created. So, maybe you want to re-think the steps with this in mind? If you are gong to make a lot of changes to the factory partition setup you 'll want to stick to a clone back-up scenario in conjunction with the internal Windows 7 tools for backup.

[hts]

Thanks for the info regarding the Rescue & Recovery CD/DVD. Yes, I need to reformulate my plan. I suspect if I image before creating the R&R CD/DVD that I would then be able to reimage at a latter date with that original image reloaded so that when I sell to a new buyer they would have a fresh instal with the opportunity to create their own R&R CD/DVD.

My concern about the R&R CD/DVD creation process is that it is my understanding that when the disk is created, a new partition on the harddrive is created. I have read of problems adding partitions to the T410 drive and thought that if I partition before R&R cd/DVD creation I could alleviate any problems that may arise.

Also does anyone have any experience with the Thinkvantage Migration Tool when migrating a machine from XP to Windows 7?