from IBM Tech support about Recovery CD

I just got an answer from IBM tech support regarding recovery CD (WinXP disk). I was surprised that it was not made official to me when I purchased it, but within 30-days of your laptop purchase you can request a free recovery CD with WinXP official installation disk. After 30-days, you will have to pay $35 fee. It also comes bundled with IBM Access recovery utilities, but those could be uninstalled later through Add/Remove program in Control Panel. BTW, the same could be done with your current Thinkpad setup. The best way to get rid off those IBM application is not to disabled it through MSCONFIG, but rather through Add/Remove program.

Also, please keep in mind, just because hard drive says 40GB or 60GB or 80GB, you will not get that exact amount after your reformat and partition it. Right from the start, you will loose at least 2-3GB just for that, and than with WinXP installation CD image on your Thinkpad you will loose another Gig. Than, when WinXP is actually installed, along with other utilities, you can loose another couple of Gigs there. So, its normal to get your brand new laptop with hard drive 4-5GB down in space.

Still, nothing beats IBM Tech suppport, when you call them up with a problem, and if it can not be resolved over the phone, you will get a pre-paid return box shipped to you the next day, and you can count on getting back your laptop in a mint condition within 5-6 days. Gee, I should do IBM sales on a side But, seriously, I'm speaking from experience of using/having Thinkpad 600x, T23, and T42.

 

Yea they don't tell you about the 30days to get the recovery disks, but I'm glad I found out before my 30 had expired. As far as the 3 gigs lost with their recovery partition, after you have the disks you don't really need the recovery partition and it can be deleted and recovered for yoour own use[ ]

Jack

The color of justice in america is green.
http://pbase.com/joneill

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by bootleg2go

 

If you install something that needs the windows installation files, you cannot use the disks that IBM sends you as it is not a windows XP disk, it is 4 CD's that does a full reimage of the partition and makes it just like new when you got the notebook. It also won't look to the hidden partition that also has this same data as the 4 CDs, because the partiton is hidden and windows cannot see it in anyway. The hidden partition is no better than having the 4 CDs except that you don't have to carry the 4 CDs and the reimaging of your hard drive will faster when you restore from the hard drive rather than the CDs. If you look on your C: drive there is a directory called i386 somewhere it may be a level down from the root and it has all the files needed, but you don't really need them at all and they just take up a bnch of space that you can use for something else. The reason you don't need them is that if you were to add something to your notebook or need to reinstall something, you would probably want the most up to date drivers anyway and those will be found at the website of the hardware manufacturer. Remember XP is about two years old, so any drivers in XP will be two years out of date.
I got rid of the support stuff that IBM puts on my drive as I don't wantg to give them access to my notebook in anyway and adaware even flagged the support stuff as a security risk. I also deleted all those installation files that are included with XP and put on the C: drive and got a hugh amount of space back. They also put a extra copy of all the software that IBM installs on your system, so not only are they installed, you have an extra copy. To give you an idea of how much waste there is, I deleted all the extra copies of programs and uninstalled many of the ones that IBM put in and used my own as well as got rid of the XP install files and made a "base install" that I can put on DVD for a fresh install if needed. It includes the XP operating system, panda anti-virus/firewall, full office 2003 PRO(word,excel,outlook,powerpoint)photoshop CS, acrobat reader, microsoft mappoint US full install,ghost, adaware,diskkeeper pro,Nero,quicktime,winzip,winrar and several more small utilities as well as a 300MB pagefile. Guess the size of all this... 3.3GB thats all and it has everything I need for my basic use. I did not strip anything of use out, the access IBM button still works and has all the help files and such. So ther is a lot of waste that can be deleted. If you wnat to get with me off line I can tell you more what can be gotten rid of or backed up on CD just in case. Also if you get the 4 CD's from IBM, you can just get rid of the hidden partition if you like.

Jack

The color of justice in america is green.
http://pbase.com/joneill

 

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the IBM notebooks come with a utility that will allow you to burn the info from your hidden partition back onto CD. This should therefore make the 4 recovery CD's so you don't have to buy them. I believe I read/heard this somewhere, but can't remember if it has ever been done. You may want to look into this.

-Vb-

 

Hi Venom,
I researched quite a bit and could not find anything about doing this. I think it would be a good idea if it were possible. Since the partition is hidden from windows, you can only get to it through the BIOS in DOS mode. To do this they would need to write software to control and write a through DOS. I have the proceedure to receate the hidden partition from the 4 recovery CDs and that is not exactly easy. It is best just to get the CDs that they should have given you anyway and doing the reimage of the hard drive that way is easy and straight forward.

One other reason I don't think it is possible is that if it were, I think that the people at tech. support would try to get you to do this before sending out the software.

Jack

The color of justice in america is green.
http://pbase.com/joneill

 

Well, I just received that recovery CD package - a grand total of 8 (!!!) CDs [:0] There is 1 bootable System Recovery and 7 Application recovery CDs?!? I only have WinXP Pro that came with my T42, what's up with all these CDs? The CD label says "recovery for R51, T42, T42p". Very strange.

 

Bootleg2go,
I was sure I saw something like that, but maybe it was just for reloading the OS from the Hidden Partition. I think IBM uses something like DriveImage to put their OS images into the hidden partition. You may be able to "extract" or restore the images to another HDD using whatever imaging program IBM uses and then make a Ghost image of that drive. This way you can make your own bootable Restore CD's.

Twister,
Regarding the amount of CD's you received. Manufacturer's sometimes tend to have pre-packed recovery CD's that include a range of models. I know HP does this as well. Just use the CD's that are for your specific model and you should be ok.

-Vb-

 

Hi Venom,
Yes, what you probably saw was that you can restore the OS from the hidden partition. You cannot however use driveImage or Ghost to copy the hidden partition as they do a great job of hiding it, neither ghost nor driveimage can see the hidden partition. I think if you wanted to ghost a whole drive with the hidden partition you could do that with ghost or driveimage by doing a sector level copying; like blindread program does, it just copies raw sectors without concern as to file names. IBM explains how to create the hidden partition on a new drive and then how to copy the recovery files to it. However you need the CDs to do this and for me anyway this is really a moot point after you have the CDs cause you can just store the CDs and delete the hidden partition and get that space back.

Jack

The color of justice in america is green.
http://pbase.com/joneill

 

Can you use Partition Magic to disable the "hide" feature so it shows the drive? i know you're capable of hiding a partition using Partition Magic, so it should work in reverse. If so, you should then be able to extract the data out and burn onto CD.

-Vb-

 

Hi venom,
No you cannot unhide the partition with partition magic 8 at least as it is hidden well enough that XP, ghost or partition magic 8 cannot see it. In fact the only way I've been able to see or get into it is by unhiding the partition using IBM BIOS settings and boot into IBM DOS.

Jack

The color of justice in america is green.
http://pbase.com/joneill

 

I have a buddy that's an IBM service tech. I'll ask him about this and see if he can offer any suggestions. I'll report back when I hear something.

-Vb-

 

I just thought I'd dig up this old post to point out the fact that IBM Australia are not so co-operative as their US counterpart. I have a Thinkpad T41p which is only a couple of days old, and they're only going to send the CDs out if I pay for them - or if my hard drive fails. Quite disappointing, I must say.

 

hi arcane,
I'm not sure how much you told them when you called, but you might try calling again. Tell them your notebook crapped out when you were try to do the SP2 update and then you tried to do the recovery and it is failing when trying to read some recovery file. I bet they send you the disks then; especially if you tell them the notebok is only a few days old and maybe you should just return it for a replacement if they cannot send out the boot disks. saying this will probably get them jumping as a they will then have to sell your notebook as a refurb...it is much cheaper for them to send you the disks.

Sometimes you have to play games if their going to[ ]

Jack

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" (Ben Franklin)
http://pbase.com/joneill

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by twister

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by infitro

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>To be honest, I have been so happy with my T42 since I got it almost 2 month ago, I never had a need to call their tech support again! But when I called them originally with a default tech support number they gave me, I've been told a different number for a special tech support team. Apparently, and that's very efficient in my opinion, they have a separate tech support team for all the new Thinkpad purchases (for the first couple of month). With that number I don't think I waited more than 3-5 minutes. Next time you call them, ask about it, unless you don't have the new laptop.

Now, out of curiosity, what laptop do you have and what kind of problems are you experiencing with it?
<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

hi, glad to hear that you are happy with your t42. []

i'm running t41, and so far have no bad experience with the machine. the nightmare was with ibm's toll-free number. it was quite encouraging though to learn that somebody, somehow, managed to reach their customer service through the toll-free number. most of my cases i only reached as far as the onhold melody. and i called the toll-free number provided by ibm (e-mail support) [V]

rgds,

 

Today I use these CD recover my hidden driver, the best things is all my dates are deleted.
I wanna cry~~~~~

 

I received my T42p a couple weeks ago (2373KTU) and I'm very impressed with the quality of the 14"sxga screen and keyboard... man what a difference it makes in typing velocity. I'm still getting used to the placement of some keys having upgraded from a Tecra 9100 and changed loyalty to IBM from Toshiba. I do however find that the laptop does get warm. This worries me a bit as I do put my laptops through hell - a lot of moving around, 8-12 hour days mainly for communications, crunching spreadsheets and database reports with a little graphic design proofing.

Getting back to topic, isn't the "Create Recovery discs" app what others are referencing on this thread? I haven't backed up the CD's yet but am pretty sure that it requires 7 discs and will give you the same thing that IBM sends you at a cost 30 days after date of purchase.

Bootleg2go, I would be interested in receiving your guidance creating a "customized" recovery disc. What IBM app's have you found worth dumping?


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