T61 766417U - two questions

Hi guys

I just purchased a T61 which will be used by my sister in her business. I'm not a huge tech guy but I'm trying to learn (just built my own desktop rig, the first for me).

My sister wanted to run XP Pro so we got a Vista Ultimate machine and the XP Pro downgrade discs. I did the downgrade process but I got an error message just after running the very first disc (1 of 1, 'Rescue and Recovery CD') and attempting a restart (this disc seemed to be running something called the PreInstaller). Sorry I don't have the text that was in the dialog box, but it specified a pathname (X:\....) and a specific line of code. I got the option to Abort, Retry or Ignore. I clicked retry and the box went away but the computer didn't restart.

I manually powered it down then up again, and I was prompted to complete the downgrade process. Everything seemed to go smoothly. XP PRO seems to be fine.

The thing is, this is my sister's main business laptop and I really want to make sure that the OS downgrade I did is not corrupt, that it's 100% stable. Is there anything I can do at this point to check for problems?

Second question is, I did a Google search for 'Lenovo bloatware' and I got a bunch of hits and a lot of guys are suggesting that there are a bunch of programs that can be taken off. Problem is, I did not find an actual list of programs that I can safely take off, or instructions for taking them off (Add/Remove programs, although I suspect that some of the bloatware isn't that easy to get off). Any indication about which programs I can/should ditch would be appreciated.

Thanks for any comments

 

Umm.. yes, well, I did a search here on the site itself and got some indication about which bloatware I should take off.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=138044

However, a lot of guy are saying that the way to get rid of it is to do the 'custom factory reformat'. However, that's not what I did, I don't think. I used the Lenovo discs to downgrade to XP PRO and there are a lot of programs on there.

Another thing... I did not make Recovery discs for Vista - the tech support guy at Lenovo said he would mail them to me. So I no longer have Vista on my machine at all, now that I have downgraded, right? What about the hidden partition?

One other thing I forgot to mention, the Lenovo guy told me that the error message I got might have something to do with Vista not wanting to be downgraded i.e. it's a Vista thing that I don't have to worry about.

Any truth to that?

 

bump this up on Saturday

 

The recovery partition should still be there. Press the blue button when you your computer is starting up and perform a custom install.

 

One persons junk is another's valuable program. The best thing you can do is go through them to see what you need and what you do not.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2407893#post2407893

 

Okay, if you could just clarify here. I have finished the downgrade process and WIN XP is loaded.

You suggest I now do the whole process again? Is that what you mean by a 'custom install'?

Sorry, I just have no idea if this means reformatting the drive and redoing the XP Pro install, using something that resides in the Hidden Partition to diagnose my current XP install, or whether you mean reverting to Vista (wouldn't that be all that's in the Hidden partition?).

If it isn't, then do I need any tech knowledge to do a 'custom install'? Is it simply a matter of following the directions, like doing the downgrade was? Reason I ask is that I don't want to start the process and then be in the middle of it and find a question or a request for instructions which I can't answer, and it's the holidays and you guys are off partying as opposed to being my tech support

: )

I am in the middle of running the hardware diagnostic right now. To my dismay, the CD-R test has failed. So my next thread here is to ask why this might have failed and what I can do about it. However, I will call Lenovo first to see what they have to say about it.

I will look for 'custom install' on the main Rescue and Recovery page when the hardware System Test is complete. Meanwhile, any more details are appreciated.

 

Perfect, thanks Zaz.

Any if you want to comment on doing a 'custom install' and how that differs from the downgrade process I just completed, I would appreciate it.

Please keep in mind that the hardware test just failed the CD-R function, and I assume this is a driver issue since the DVD-R functions all tested out ok.

 

The custom install is very self explanitory. Just boot up and press the blue ThinkVantage button when you see the ThinkPad logo and it'll boot into the hidden partition, aka the recovery partition. It will be an XP recovery partition because you downgraded. So go through as you would to perform a recovery until you see the option to perform a custom install.

From there, you will see a list of programs it would install by default with boxes to check or uncheck. Check what you want and uncheck what you don't want. It will make your system the way it was when you first received it, aka the factory state. But instead of Vista, it will have XP.

 

Ok, Arkit3ekt, thanks a lot for the info. I'll do that as soon as I figure out if I have problems here. I understand that if I have a corrupt XP install, then I should be able to solve the problem by doing the custom install you mentioned (is that correct? or is it true that if the downgrade was bad, then the Hidden partition will also contain a corrupt version of XP pro and the custom install will also be unstable?)

I don't want to start another thread to ask this so I am going to ask here. Last question for the time being, I promise. The Full System Test is still going on (a very long procedure!! HD Surface scan was long).

I already have the one error on the hardware test - CD-R failed. So any comment on that would be great.

The other question is - Lenovo told me that I could somehow check if the XP install was corrupt or not. They said I could do this by pressing the ThinkVantage button and getting into the hidden partition. Problem is, I scanned the options there and it was not immediately clear to me which one of them was the 'diagnose your XP install' option. There's that list along the left side of the screen. I started this Full System Test even though I knew it was a hardware only test.

Does anyone know how to check that this WIN XP install is okay, i.e. not corrupt?

Does the fact that the Full System Test has failed the CD-R mean that I have a corrupt XP install?

All of this is because it is my responsibility to make sure my sister has a clean running machine.

Sorry for so many questions. Any final comments are appreciated.

 

What full system test are you referring to? I would like to run this on my computer as I also have Windows XP.

Does your optical drive work? Does it read CD's ok?

CD-R has to do with the optical drive, maybe you can try removing the optical drive and then running a full system test. If it still comes up with an error then we can assume it's HDD/OS related, if not, then it can be your optical drive.

 

That's the 'Diagnose Hardware' option in Rescue and Recovery. It gives you the option of testing individual hardware components separately or doing the entire system. The Full System Test takes about 3 hours to complete and you have to have all the different media your optical drive is capable of playing on hand, in blanks, as well as CDs and DVDs with data on them.

I tested the CD drive and it seems to be working fine so I'm not sure why I got that result. The Lenovo guy told me that the System Test operates without seeing the drivers and so maybe that's why it failed my CD-R test.

Tomorrow I will check to see if I can write to CD.