Rescue and Recovery, Windows XP/Vista and T60 8744

Greetings to NotebookReview.com's community !

Edit: sorry if my english is not that good, this is not my native language.

I have some question about the Rescue and Recovery system from IBM, I do not fully understand everything.

My father bought a thinkpad T60 8744 HDG. Windows Vista is installed and is in the factory hidden partition.He want that:

• I install windows XP;
• I replace the factory's vista backup with a windows XP backup;
• the thinkvantage button which allows to call rescue and recovery during the boot work with winXP, too.

The seller told us several things:
- If we want to install winXP, we will have some problems with that rescue and recovery system because it works with the windows preinstalled environment. If I install winXP, it will erase everything on the harddisk and the thinkvantage button will not work properly.
- I will need to install a windows version which have/support a windows PE system.
- It is really hard to change/configure the factory's backup.

Now, I have many questions about the R & R system and the:

1. If I install windows XP SP2, will it really erase everything on the harddisk and make the thinkvantage button unusable when the computer boots?
2. Is it possible to erase the factory's vista backup with a windows XP backup?

Can you help me, please?

I took some time to read the Rescue and Recovery 4 .pdf manual, it speaks about windows PE, I went to microsoft.com to seek more information about winPE ... I do not better understand what should I do.

 

Excuse me, can someone tell me at least if I can install windows XP without having problems witth the boot rescue and recovery partition ?

 

Err ... did anyone had the same problem ?

 

Yes you can definately install Windows XP and it will not delete the recovery partition. Make sure you have the SATA drivers lying around on a floppy (along with an external floppy drive!) because XP as far as I know doesn't natively support SATA.

However until you install Resue and Recovery 4 software in your new Windows environment you will not be able to access the recovery parition at boot time with the ThinkVantage button (the button will appear as doing nothing). That's because the hard disc's MBR was changed during the Windows XP and the button will not map correctly. Rest assured that the recovery partition is not deleted by default on a new Windows installation.

And as far as I know there is no way to convery a Vista recovery partition to an XP one.

 

Thanks for the answer !!

I found out (thanks google) that I have to go in the bios and switch the sata option from "SATA" to "Compatibility". After that, I was able to install windows XP.

There is something strange: when I started to install winXP, I saw both partition, one of ~6Gb (recovery partition I believe) and another one of ~100Gb. I did not touch the recovery partition but even with the R & R 4 installed, I still can not see what is in that 6Gb Partition.

Sad ... ok, thanks.

I encounter a new problem now. I made a backup of my system, then I had to try if it worked, so I restored the hard disk with that backup and noticed that the wireless installed device disappeared from the list of network adapter, only the Ethernet device is remained.

 

I recently got myself a new Lenovo Y300 and though its my 1st notebook, I wiped away everything, set my own partitions and installed XP as I would normally do with a desktop. I simply dont trust those hidden partition. While it may be more difficult to restore to the original OS/Setup, Ill leave at there as whats importantly is now.

As long as you had the activated 'compatilibity' mode in the BIOS, you will be able to install XP without the need of additional F6 Drivers.

 

The T60 is a good laptop, but if there were laptops as good as that T60 and without the thinkvantage/rescue and recovery, I would not buy it. I would wipe everything on the disk, too, to customize the install and system as I wish. I would not need all these options/softwares.

My father decided to bought it, and want to keep that rescue button and more, I just offer my help to him.

 

The problem with recovery systems is that you cant customise your install without having issues later. If you need the option, it is best to use the default os/system and remove manually what you dont need.