So I just made recovery DVDs for T400...

I made a cd for the first disc, and two dvds for the last two discs.

Anyway, then I proceed to delete that partition and its completely wiped away, the space going to my main partition. I thought that the recovery partition would simply be wiped but would remain there. I wanted to install Ubuntu on that sucker but now I need to create a new partition altogether. I hope I dont screw up my Vista install.

Also, one last question, if i were to acquire a 32 bit vista dvd and install that on my T400, could I just use the product code on the bottom of the T400 and get Vista 64. My computer came preinstalled with the 64 bit version, but it has the lenovo bloatware. If I simply got a 32 bit disc and used my product code, could I get the 64 version without the bloatware?

 

You need an x64 DVD for an x64 Vista—and, yes, the code will work, but so will ABR ( http://directedge.us/content/abr-activation-backup-and-restore).

 

hey what about reformating altogether.

do i just put in start recovery disc into the tray, boot from disc, and the process should be fairly simple correct?

i'll just get the vista install that came preinstalled with my computer right?

 

The process is pretty much straightforward with the exception that at one point it asks for something you don't have, just hit cancel then it will ask for the discs you do have.

You'll end up with effectively a factory fresh install. YOU WILL LOSE ALL OF YOUR DATA ON THE COMPUTER BY DOING THIS. Consider yourself warned.

 

oh yeh i know that. i'm asking now because i'm used to reformating straight from a partition or simply using a windows xp disc.

never done this recovery cd route.

whats the command to boot from disc? is it f1? the thinkvantage button?

(btw i'm reformatting because somewhere down the road something happened and the sleep command never works. my computer goes to sleep, boots back up, but the monitor never turns on)

 

I think by default it'll boot from a bootable CD. Otherwise hit thinkvantage button and BIOS should give choice of things to do, one is choose a boot device.

Before you do the reformat, did you double-check that your video driver is up to date? I thought I saw something about that in an update that came through.

 

yeh i tried updating my driver but realized the latest driver came out a month or two prior to me getting my t400.

i was sort of in the middle of the update and then cancelled, perhaps that caused the problem.

but regardless, it seems like i just installed a bunch of crap on this thing recently and want it fresh and clean from all the uninstalls i made.

 

i'm gonna upgrade to the 8.9 catalyst driver before i reformat.

i thought i had that already but i guess not.

is this the driver http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=vista64/common-vista64

because when i go to update driver through device manager it tells me that my driver is up to date.