T41 HPA Restores to FAT32. Can it Restore to NTFS?

[ParatoOptimal]

I used the HPA to restore my T41 to factory defaults.
It formatted the HD to FAT32. Is there anyway to set a restore to format to NTF?
Thanks

[ajkula66]

After the restore is done, it should convert it to NTFS, at least that was my experience...

[Harryc]

Agreed with George, also it is a (2) part process. It sounds to me like you created the recovery partition, but then did not go back in and restore to factory defaults.

[ParatoOptimal]

XP-Pro completed loading.
The drive is named IBM Preload in My Computer.
Checking properties, it's FAT32.
There was that glitch duffing installation where, at the end of XP's install, there was a blue screen with white text for an instant. It rebooted and asked to run checkdisk. I allowed it and XP was up and running in less than a minute.

[RealBlackStuff]

Can easily be done: http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.php

[ParatoOptimal]

By two step process do you mean the decompressing when hundreds of command lines scroll down the screen in DOS mode before the XP install starts which would be the second step?

[Harryc]

No. Step (1) is building the recovery partition. After that is complete you boot into Rescue and Recovery and select restore factory contents (step 2). Near the end of restoring factory contents (XP install in this case) the recovery program will automatically convert the drive from FAT32 to NTFS. That has failed in your case.

[ParatoOptimal]

Thanks RealBlackStuff. Geesh, I've forgotten so much. I remember using that before. Use it or lose it.

[ParatoOptimal]

Now I'm confused. I thought the partition was hidden and protected on the HDD and the BIOS calls on that partition to install.
I go this T41 at an auction. It used to be city property. They wiped the HDD but pressing the IBM magic button brought the Charlie Chan genie to life. He ran hundreds of DOS commands over the screen and poof, there was PX-Pro fully installed to a freshly formatted HDD.

No. Step (1) is building the recovery partition. After that is complete you boot into Rescue and Recovery and select restore factory contents (step 2). Near the end of restoring factory contents (XP install in this case) the recovery program will automatically convert the drive from FAT32 to NTFS. That has failed in your case.

[Harryc]

It's been awhile since I recovered a T41, so the process may be automatic as you say, but I am 100% certain that the last step is a conversion to NTFS. If that did not happen then something went wrong with the recovery. Try it again.

[ParatoOptimal]

I followed RealBlackStuff's instructions for converting to NTFS.
I will try from scratch again to see what it does and I'll get some tools to check the HDD.
I want to preserve the HPA even if I opt for W7 instead of XP on a new HDD.

The button to the lower left of the touchpad doesn't have much travel or springiness to it.
Is there anything I can do about that?

[Harryc]

I'll get some tools to check the HDD.

That would be a very good idea before you try another recovery. A couple of bad sectors will mess the process up entirely.