X200s, New HD, Rescue and Recovery

Hi,

I'm planning on purchasing a X200s soon, and I will be installing a new hard drive on it with a clean install of XP Pro.

If I intend on using the Rescue and Recovery Utility, do I need to manually create a separate partition on my hard drive, or at least leave some free space when I create my other system and data partitions?

Or will the Rescue and Recovery installation utility automatically create the hidden partition somewhere on the boot partition?

Thanks!

 

You will need to boot into Windows on the stock hard drive first. Then you can burn recovery media (1x CD & 2x DVD).

You can then use the recovery media on the new HDD and it will create the requisite partition. Then install your clean version of XP over the Lenovo OS preload and you should be good to go.

Alternatively, if you have an enclosure or access to a desktop computer, you can just do a direct clone of the stock drive to the new drive (then expand partitions as necessary). This will be far faster if you have the option.

 

Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply! It's very appreciated.

So the only way to install a Clean version of XP and use R&R is to recover the cloned version of my original drive first? Do you mean recover the cloned version on the new drive, and then re-format the windows partition, and reinstall XP Clean?

How would the above procedure work if I wanted to have a total of 3 partitions (1 for Windows, and 2 for data)? Would I create the 3 partitions first, before restoring the clone on the new drive? Do I need to have some extra (say 10GB), non-partitioned, free space available for R&R?

Thanks again!

 

No, the recovery discs don't use cloning at all. If your X200s is shipped with XP you don't even need to do your own clean install -- it's all automatic. This is what you do:

1.On your factory preload burn recovery discs -- Start -- All programs -- Thinkvantage -- Create Product recovery media - first disk CD other two DVDs.

2. Save C:\SWTOOLS\APPS with the applications such as Roxio Creator and WinDVD install packages that ship with the factory preload -- they can be messed up on the recovery disks -- they were on mine -- and they can't be downloaded from Lenovo.

3. Install the new hard disk and boot from the first recovery disk. When it asks you if you have a supplemental OS disk and to insert that -- answer NO. Yes this is ridiculous but it's the way Lenovo set it up. Then second time when it asks you to insert a disk -- insert your second disk (called disk 1 lol) and answer yes.

This now creates a complete factory preload with all partitions set up identically to your old disk but utilizing the additional space for your C: drive.

4. Go to disk manager and shrink your C: drive to make room for the data partitions you want.

Second case: your preload is Vista and your X200s didn't come with a Windows XP downgrade option. Forget about getting a Vista recovery partition to work with an XP system partition, just do steps 1 and 2 above as backup and then do a clean install of XP. If you want, save also the C:\SWTOOLS\Wallpapers folder that contains the Lenovo backgrounds.

Third case: your preload is XP but you want a clean install XP system. In this case you will need a selfbooting disk burnt from one of the image copy programs such as Acronis. Also a way to attach your old disk to your new system -- USB enclosure or Ultrabay adapter.

Do steps 1 and 2 above and then do your clean install of XP ON YOUR ORIGINAL HARD DISK but wait with the extra data partitions, just create one C: partition.

Now install your new hard disk and do steps 3 and 4 above. Power off and attach your old drive in its enclosure to your machine. Boot from the image copying program disk and copy ONLY the C: partition from your old hard disk into the C: partition of your new disk.

 

Hi zillal,

Thanks for taking the time for such a detailed reply.

In my situation, I am only able to order the X200s here in Canada installed with Vista, but they also supply an XP recovery CD.

In addition, I own a copy of XP Pro myself.

My desire to install a clean version of XP Pro is to remove all the bloatware that I hear about in the forums that comes pre-installed by Lenovo, but to also use Rescue and Recovery on my new drive.

Before reading your reply, I didn't realize that all the apps that came with the an original XP install were available to be copied off. Do I actually need to install the Lenovo XP first on my new drive and then copy the C:\SWTOOLS\APPS folder to get the XP versions of the apps?

So after spending some time digesting your reply, I have to admit that I'm more than a little confused. Would you mine adding a bit more detail on what you think I should do given my scenario?

Sorry I'm not picking up on this faster.

Thank you.

 

Was looking on the web for the Lenovo XP clean install instructions for X200s. Couldn't find them but here are the Lenovo XP clean install instructions for my T500.

Assuming you want the recovery partition on your new hard disk:

1. Burn Vista recovery disks from your preload Start -- All programs -- Thinkvantage -- Create Product Recovery Media. Even if you never plan to use Vista, your X200s will have a higher value with a factory preload on it, when the time comes to sell it.

2. Save your Vista C:\SWTOOLS\APPS directory.

3. Boot into bios via F1 and change the Serial ATA setting from AHCI to Compatability mode (this will prevent the BSOD 0x7B error on booting the XP media.)

4. Do a clean install of XP from your own media on the old drive overlaying the Vista system. Just do a bare bones system without any drivers, save that for later, one bootable C: partition.

5. Install your new hard drive and after resetting bios to AHCI, boot from the XP recovery disks you got (I assume but don't know as I have never seen them that they are identical to the usual recovery disks - one CD and two DVDs.) Answer No the first time you are asked for a new disk.

6. Once your XP factory preload is complete on your new disk, boot from it and go thru the Windows initialization routines, save the whole XP version of the C:\SWTOOLS directory including the DRIVERS, APPS and Wallpapers subdirectories.

7. Power off and attach your old drive in an enclosure. Boot from your image copying program DVD and copy ONLY the C: partition from the old disk into the C: partition on the new disk leaving the recovery partition and the MBR on the new disk unchanged.

8. Boot into bios again changing from AHCI to Compatibility mode and then boot what is now your clean install version of XP on the new disk and copy in the XP version of C:\SWTOOLS that you just saved. As you can see from the Lenovo clean install instructions you can install all the required drivers from the C:\SWTOOLS\DRIVERS directory instead of downloading each one separately from the Lenovo support site.

9. Install the IMSM driver, reboot changing bios back to AHCI once more. Install all other drivers, the apps you want to retain and choose the Lenovo wallpaper you want.

10. I don't have an XP system handy, so I am not quite sure the shrink partition functionality is the same in XP as on my Vista system, but anyway go to the disk manager in the Control Panel to try and add the data partitions you want.

ps If the APPS subdirectory in your XP version of SWTOOLS is missing it's a bug -- call Lenovo support and get new XP recovery disks. Also in such a case search all of C: on the XP factory preload for APPS -- on my T500 Vista recovery disks I found the APPS subdirectory in the C:\Program Files\MLSP directory but it wasn't complete. Also applications such as Roxio and WinDVD will probably install from your Vista 32 C:\SWTOOLS\APPS directory.

 

So you want to have 3 partitions (1 Windows, 2 Data) and the R&R partitions?

I will answer assuming you do, and also assuming that the new hard drive is larger (say 320GB vs. 160GB).

My recommendation is to clone your supplied 160GB drive to the new 320GB drive using either Acronis or Self-Image with the aid of a 2.5" USB enclosure.

After doing this clone, the partition table on the new 320GB drive should look like this:

Lenovo sevice - Primary, MBR, about 700MB
Vista Preload - Primary, about 140GB
Rescue and Recovery (Vista image) - Primary about 7GB
Unpartitioned - about 150GB (note that a "320GB" drive is really only 298GB)

You can then enter your XP install disc (note you will need to have the SATA driver slipstreamed into the install, or set your BIOS to SATA compatibility mode [not AHCI] to install XP).

Install XP over the Vista Preload partition, formatting it as necessary.

Your partition table should now look like this:

Lenovo sevice - Primary, MBR, about 700MB
XP Clean Install - Primary, about 140GB
Rescue and Recovery (Vista image) - Primary about 7GB
Unpartitioned - about 150GB (note that a "320GB" drive is really only 298GB)

Now boot into XP, start computer management, and create your data partitions as desired (note you may need to use extended partitions due to the limit of 4 Primary partitions on a single drive).

 

@jonlumpkin, as you rightly point out on the Vista preload the MBR is pointing to the service partition (S: ) that then in turn loads the Vista preload (C: ) partition.

I thought the XP clean install into the C: partition would change the MBR to point to the C: partition instead of the S: partition, which would mean that one could no longer enter the service partition by hitting Thinkvantage/F11 during boot time.

Lenovo has a utility to change the MBR back to point to the service partition, the problem with that is that they only make it available as a diskette image. So unless you can borrow a USB diskette reader it's not very practical.

That's why I suggested making the XP clean install onto a separate disk cloning it over with Acronis or other utility to the C: partition of the new disk. That leaves the MBR and thus the Thinkvantage/F11 functionality intact.

@knowthenazz. jonlumpkin's method preserves the Vista recovery partitions, not the XP recovery partition. My thought was that if you anyway wanted to restore the XP factory load to get at the XP version of C:\SWTOOLS\APPS you might as well also install the XP version of the recovery partition. But see my earlier comment that you can probably install the apps on XP from your Vista C:\SWTOOLS\APPS directory.

Also I don't know if you want to install the part of Thinkvantage Rescue and Recovery that runs in the XP C: partition. If you do I am not sure it would find the Vista service partitions as they are differently organized than in XP. (Vista comes with two recovery partitions as described by jonlumpkin, XP with just one large service partition.)

But if jonlumpkin or others confirm that software RnR under XP will find the Vista service partitions (it's after all the same software product for XP and Vista) then you can probably avoid using the XP recovery disks and get the remaining apps from the Vista C:\SWTOOLS\APPS directory.

 

To Jonlumpkin & zillall,

Wow you guys are great! Thanks for your time and effort thus far.

Things are starting to firm up for me a bit now, but they are still somewhat muddy. I had no idea installing a clean version of XP Pro was going to be so convoluted

Are the Vista apps in C:\SWTOOLS\APPS XP and Vista compatable?

Is there a significant performance gain from having your drives set as AHCI as compared to compatibility mode in the BIOS?

Does the Lenovo XP recovery CD contain XP Pro?

Does the Lenovo XP version have that much bloatware to significantly affect performance and boot times? Perhaps it might be worth me considering just installing the Lenovo XP version and be done with it.

BTW, my aim is to keep the original Vista drive in tact for the future, and install a new 7200RPM 500GB SATA drive for a performance and capacity gain.

Thanks Guys.

 

Don't know.

Yes

Yes

Yes exactly.

 

Since the laptop will be coming with XP Pro recovery cd's, my recommendation is to just use that and uninstall what you don't want. I find some of the Thinkvantage Software useful (in particular Power Manager, Access Connections and HDD Active Protection) and others just so-so. Check out the capabilities of each and see if it is something you think is useful. As for bloatware, all my Thinkpad came installed with is a trial of Office 2007, a anti-virus, and maybe something else. I think the level of bloatware is actually small compared to the brick and mortar store bought laptop.

 

Thank you everyone for your advice and the information.

I'll go ahead and just install XP Pro from the recovery CD then.

I didn't realize there was so little bloatware that came pre-installed.

Thanks again!

 

It is still worth burning the Vista recovery disks before installing from the XP disks.

 

I completely agree. It's cheap insurance.

Thanks again!

 

Wow, that is some fantastic advice given here. I wish I read this yesterday.

I just got an x200s with Vista, and I'm pretty much in the same boat. I want to upgrade my HD to a bigger one while downgrading my OS from Vista to XP Pro.

The only difference is that I do not have an official Lenovo XP Recovery Disk, but I do have my own XP disk that I used.

Here's what NOT to do. ->

Do not install your new HD and then do a clean install of XP from your own disks. I did that and I was missing a ton of drivers as well as a whole bunch of other stuff that was with my Vista install. Including all the ThinkVantage Stuff. Downloading it from the Lenovo website one at a time is a nightmare. It would be nice if there was a "Lenovo Update" like there is a "Windows Update".

Anyway, I only did this last night so I haven't had a chance to work out a solution what to do next, but I would love to hear if you were successful.

 

See the third sticky in the Thinkvantage forum.

 

Thanks, but it doesn't look like TVSU works for the x200(s)

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/thinkvantage_en/systemupdate314-2008-10-20.txt

It also looks like TVSU is being discontinued......

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-72207.html

 

Yeah, System Update has been discontinued. You'll have to download and install each of the updates one by one, unfortunately.

 

Actually, most people would recommend doing a clean install from your own windows installer disc. It's the best alternative to using the XP Recovery Discs. Of course, you would have to know how to get all the drivers, which isn't really that difficult.

 

@midnightsun
@ajdedo
pls look at the third sticky in the Thinkvantage forum for a though cumbersome and inefficient nevertheless bypass for that TV System Update stopped working.

As described there it installed 36 drivers and downloads automatically for me when doing a Vista 64 clean install.

 

I believe that when you use the XP Recovery Discs, it actually let you choose which software to install and not install, while installing all drivers to make your computer fully functional.

 

That's no longer true -- Lenovo discontinued the custom install option when using the recovery disks.

 

True, when I use the recovery disc to install to a new HDD there are no options of custom install at all. After I did the recovery, i just start over again with the recovery which is already inside the hdd, then I have the custom install and remove all the unnecessary crap.

 

Hi ajdedo,

Sorry for the delay in my reply... I was out of town for a couple of days.

Anyways, from what was discussed earlier, I'm pretty sure I'm just going to to install my new HD and install from the XP Pro Recovery disk and call it a day.

I really look forward to availing myself of the ThinkVantage utilities, and features like Rescue and Recover could be invaluable one day

I hope you managed to get all your drivers though. The Lenovo support page seems to be pretty good, so hopefully it wont be too difficult.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

 

Hi jonlumpkin,

I was just wondering if you were aware of the partition sizes created by the XP Pro Recovery disks. Is it the same as for Vista? 140GB seems pretty generous for the XP partition.

Are the partition sizes created the same regardless of the size of the hard drive?

Thanks!

 

The recovery disks whether Vista or XP have no possibility of changing partition sizes. Q: and S: partitions are fixed size and C: partition is set up to fill remainder of hard disk. So if you install a new larger disk and run recovery disks it will use all of the new disk.

You can change partition sizes and add new partitions after you run recovery disks. In Vista you can use the disk manager (rightclick on My computer and choose manage) to shrink a partition. But a better way is to use diskpart.exe (in C:\Windows\System32) that works for both Vista and XP. (I am sure diskpart.exe comes with the XP system on your recovery disks but if not it can be downloaded from Microsoft.)

 

Thanks for the prompt reply!

I must have misunderstood jonlumpkin. I was under the impression that it would only partition a part of the disk, not all of it.

I didn't realize you could modify the size of an existing XP drive partition without loosing data. Thanks for the tip!

During a disk size reduction, will it automatically copy existing data to the remaining part of the original partition so all of the original data isn't lost?

Thanks!

 

I tend to prefer the Linux based System Rescue CD for my disk resizing needs. You can shrink any disk down to its occupied size. It will take some period of time because it has to relocate data that is in an out of bounds sector.

 

Hi,

Thanks for the tip on SystemRescueCD. I've used Knoppix a few times to do some work on my Linux server, but, I'll give SystemRescueCD a try.

Thanks again!