dual boot and ThinkVantage problems in T400

Hi,
I recently got myself a Thinkpad T400. It is a nice machine, esp if you run Windows Vista. Many Thinkpad features are meant to work in Windows only and that has started to make me sad, because I am a Linux user. Mac users are in a better position in this regard, IMO.

Well, let me get to my problem. I tried searching the thinkwiki, this forum and the lenovo forums for similar problems. Nothing has worked so far.

A. Problems

1. After using Vista for a couple of days, I used the Ubuntu Jaunty Live CD to shrink the Vista partition (again, sucked so much to know that 3 primary partitions had been taken up by factory installations- so I could only make an extended partition). I had plans of using a separate partition for grub so as to keep the factory boot-loader intact. I installed grub in a logical partition and set the bootable flag ON (added an entry in menu.lst for Vista and turned off the bootable flag of 1st partition) to see if it would work. After a reboot, surprisingly, the GRUB was working. But choosing Vista from the menu would give the following error:

Windows Boot Manager:
File:\Windows\System32\winload.exe
Status: 0xc0000225
Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt

I looked up the web for the error. I understood that this had occurred because Vista partition had been shrinked from outside Vista. I needed to insert a Vista DVD and select the "Repair" option to fix this. Since I didn't have a Vista DVD and Lenovo hadn't provided me with one, I decided to wait until I could borrow a DVD from a friend.

2. Meanwhile, after being unable to use my computer because Vista wouldn't start, I installed Ubuntu in a logical partition (created earlier) and let it install GRUB in the MBR.

3. After a couple of days, I borrowed a Vista DVD from a friend and clicked on "repair" from the menu. It did something and then restarted the computer to check the filesystems. After this step, I can now boot into Vista, and even reach the login screen. I enter my password, after which a message "Preparing Your Desktop" appears for a long time. Then an error message is displayed. It says something like, it cant install the ATi drivers and so on. When I choose the integrated graphics from BIOS and boot Vista, it doesnt show error, but a plain sky-blue screen. I can press Ctrl+Alt+Del and start Task Manager. If I click on "New Process" from the Task manager and enter a process path, then the following error message comes up:

Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item.

4. From Ubuntu, I can access all three partitions that were made at the time of shipping: Lenovo, Service and SW_Preload (containing Vista). Their files seem to be intact.

5. I edited Ubuntu's menu.lst to see if I can boot into the first partition (Lenovo Recovery). When I choose that option from the GRUB menu, the following error is displayed:

BOOTMGR is missing
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

B. Expectations
Although the experience has left me a little frustrated, especially because of the Windows-dependent nature of this machine that I wanted so much, I realise I made a few mistakes along the line: shrinking Vista from Linux and not burning a recovery disk before installing Ubuntu.

Is there some way for me to take my machine to an earlier state, ie. where I can boot into Windows Vista, press the ThinkVantage button to access "Recovery and Repair" and so on?

What do I need to do? Any help will be highly appreciated.

Thanks,
Bibek

 

Did you delete the recovery partition? If not you should still be able to burn recovery discs using the start menu utility, restore the system to factory, and start over.

 

No, The all the partitions are intact, i havent deleted them. How do I burn recovery discs and how do I access the start menu utility? if I didnt make it clear in my previous post, I'd like to inform again that currently, I can't use Windows Vista and also can't make use of the ThinkVantage button.

Thanks,
Bibek

 

I got a little lost in the length of the post.

If Vista will NOT boot you need to find someway to get it to boot. I used fixntldr.exe ( available here) to repair a couple copies of XP that were giving me problems. Vista uses a different bootloader, but you can try the fixntldr.exe method or this guide.

If you are able to get Vista to boot you can launch the utility to create the recovery discs. You can do this by double clicking on the recovery partition (Q: IIRC), or typing recovery disc into the start menu and starting the process. It should require 1 CD for the predesktop environment and 2 DVDs (or 8-13 CDs) for the recovery image.

Alternatively, if you can borrow the boot disc for the predesktop environment (should be identical for all current ThinkPads) it may be possible to recover your OS from the recovery partition at the end of the drive.

 

i'm sorry about the confusion.

From my first post:

I borrowed a Vista DVD from a friend and clicked on "repair" from the menu. It did something and then restarted the computer to check the filesystems. After this step, I can now boot into Vista, and even reach the login screen. I enter my password, after which a message "Preparing Your Desktop" appears for a long time. Then an error message is displayed. It says something like, it cant install the ATi drivers and so on. When I choose the integrated graphics from BIOS and boot Vista, it doesnt show error, but a plain sky-blue screen. I can press Ctrl+Alt+Del and start Task Manager. If I click on "New Process" from the Task manager and enter a process path, then the following error message comes up:

Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item.

So, I don't know if that qualifies for booting up Vista or not. And if your suggestion works in this case. The Bootloader for Vista seems to be working, doesn't it?

Bibek

 

I would say that qualifies as being able to boot (at least the bootloader is in working order). You should try booting in safe mode (F8 after BIOS, but before Windows starts loading). That may allow you to bypass some of these problems.

If you can boot into Windows but you don't see anything you should open up Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc). Then select Flie > New Task > Explorer.exe. That should boot up the filesystem explorer. You then should be able to launch the Recovery disc wizard either via the start menu application (something like "Create Recovery Media") or double clicking the recovery partition. Just follow the prompts, make your discs, and then restore your system.

 

Thanks,
After I entered the "Safe Mode", the "Preparing your Desktop" screen still appeared for 4 minutes. But I finally have the start menu and the desktop after starting "explorer.exe" from the task manager, albeit in poor-graphics.

Now, a few questions: will the "restoring" process overwrite my Linux and Windows partitions? I would want to make backups if it will. And because the windows partition is intact and the bootloader is fine (i don't know what isn't fine, but I guess some components like drivers are missing from Vista that is keeping it from starting properly), can I take my system to a usable state without restoring to factory-state?

Would be very grateful for help.

THanks,
Bibek

 

The restore will wipe EVERYTHING, so make your backups first. It may be possible to rescue your current install, but starting over is probably easier (you now know what NOT to do).

 

Great. Thanks a lot for the help. Yes, I know where I blew it. And since this is my first Thinkpad, I want to make the best of its features- thanks again for the help.

Btw, my disk layout is like this:

/dev/sda1 -> Lenovo partition
/dev/sda2 -> Windows partition
/dev/sda4 -> Extended partition
/dev/sda5 -> 100 MB
/dev/sda6 -> Linux swap
/dev/sda7 -> Linux /
empty space -> for data and other OS'es in the future.
/dev/sda3

sda3 is at the end of the hard disk, I hope this won't create problems during the recovery disk preparation and restoration process.

I intended to make sda5 a grub partition so that the lenovo and windows bootmanagers in the MBR would remain intact. I don't know if this is possible from a logical partition, but last time I had succeeded in booting up the GRUB of sda5. For this, I had to turn off the bootable flag at sda1 and turn on the same flag at sda5.

The next time I make partitions, what do you suggest? Alternatives:
- the way I am planning, or
- erasing the recovery partitions and making room for a primary boot partition
- letting GRUB overwrite the MBR and keeping the recovery partitions intact

Thanks,
Bibek

 

Ok, I faced a few problems while creating recovery discs. In the start menu, there are 3 options, all of which don't work. The options and the corresponding problems are:

Create Product Recovery Media: Clicking on this gives this error message:
CDRecord.dll is not installed.
This process has been cancelled.

Create Recovery Media: Clicking on this gives this error message:
Create Recovery Media has stopped working
Windows is checking for a solution to the problem...

Rescue and Recovery
Nothing happens. The drumstick/hourglass (whatever the Vista circular cursor is called) shows for a while, and that's all.

Did I do something wrong?

The previous post wasn't published as it was intended to:

sda5, sda6, sda7 and empty space are inside sda4 (as logical partitions)

Thanks,
Bibek

 

Is there no help for me now?

Bibek

 

I'm a little short on ideas at this point. My best suggestion would be to try and borrow a Rescue & Recovery boot CD from a friend that also has a ThinkPad.

Failing that you may have to order a set of recovery discs from Lenovo (this will most likely NOT be free).

 

Once you get the recovery partition sorted out, either by making your own or by buying them you should do a clean install of vista. Since you have access to a friend with a Vista Disc this should be a big help. If you have your recovery discs then you can wipe your drive and then do a clean install of Vista and then an install of Linux. This way there will just be one partition for Vista and whatever partition scheme for Linux that you want. Then if you want to bring the machine back to factory state without Linux, you can just pop in the recovery discs and it will wipe everything. I am dual booting Vista Business 64 and Debian Lenny 5.0 perfectly on my T61p and it works beautifully.

 

Thanks. My first reaction to my problem is: which step of mine bring me to this stage? My computer is a mess right now. And my second reaction is: for such a great machine like Thinkpad, why did Lenovo have to blow it by making it so dependent on this crap named Vista.

I have a friend nearby who has a T400. Would it work if I burn the recovery discs from his computer?

Btw, I don't have a licensed DVD of Windows Vista (neither does my friend- it's an illegal copy). Does the rescue-recovery process install Vista into my machine or do I have to install it myself from the borrowed DVD?

Yes, just one partition for Vista, but I think the rescue-recovery process will also create 2 other primary recovery-partitions. that will leave only 1 choice, creating all other partitions (including Linux) inside an extended partition, which will bring me to my initial predicament: whether or not to overwrite the MBR with GRUB. I guess, after overwriting the MBR, the ThinkVantage button won't work. I won't prefer this. Ideally, I would want GRUB to be in a separate partition and MBR intact. In the future, I will be installing other distros in my computer. So, I'd better start planning

And in the future, when things go wrong after I have a lot of files in my computer, how can I recover the computer to factory-state without wiping out certain partitions (eg: Linux)? Or is it not possible?

Any suggestions will be highly welcome.

Bibek

 

By definition a recovery to factory wipes out EVERYTHING. You will need to make a custom image using software like Acronis or Self-Image after you have set your partition tablet if you want to restore to a custom state.


If my theory is right you will only need the 1st disc from your friend (the R&R boot disk). Hopefully you can restore your system to factory using the recovery partition that is still on your machine.

Alternatively, you can probably use your friends entire R&R set, but ideally you'd want to maintain your own Vista license. For this I recommend using Activation Backup Restore (procedure in the clean install guide).