IBM Thinkpad R40 2683

Hi, does anyone know hoe to recreate a restore and recovery CD on an IBM Thinkpad R40 2683.

I have been looking all day on IBM's website and it appears all information leads me to the fact that I have to buy one which I think is crap.

I also cannot see and restore and recover utilities in BIOS, in fact the BIOS options look shit.

Also does anyone know how to format the hard drive on one of these machines and then will the recover CD reinstall fresh the XP Pro operating system and all neccesary drivers which is what I ma trying to achive.

Thanks, Sam.:confused

 

Formatting the hard drive can be accomplished any number of ways: booting to an XP install CD will give you the option to format when you begin the install process; you can download the drive utilities from your hard drive maker's web site which will include a bootable suite of utils that allow you to partition and format; you can visit the drive utillities download section here at MajorGeeks and get one of the many free utilities available there (I recommend SuperFDisk or PartitionLogic). As for IBM's CD: I'm not sure if it will actually contain the Windows install files, or if it's only the drivers and applications CD. Be sure to find out before paying for it; I'd be PO'd if I paid good money for the CD and it didn't install Windows.... anyway, good luck, and let us know how things go.

hd2k

 

Did you buy this thing new or used? If new, did it come with a system restore CD? If not, is it supposed to have a Recovery partition on the hard drive? Open My Computer. Do you see a Recovery partition there?

In recent years, the trend by manufacturers has been away from packaging a Recovery CD/DVD disk with the computer and, instead, putting a Recovery partition on the hard drive. But, the idea is that the user can burn their own recovery disk from the Recovery partition.

Nevertheless, I believe the manufacturers usually will send a recovery CD or DVD for just a small fee for legitimate owners of such a computer.

I recently bought a Compaq Notebook PC. It came with a Recovery partition. I tried burning a Recovery DVD but the procedure failed to work. I called HP support and they sent me a Recovery DVD at no cost.

 

Hi thanks for the advice, the computer was bought second hand, given its age I cannot see a partition so I do not think a system recovery partition was installed. Thus also I have no recovery CD. So if I format from copy of windows xp then I will have no drivers and nothing will work. I am therfore concerned that I will not be able to use anything on the machine like the display, mouse so that I can access the internet to downlaod any drivers. Ideally I would like to create a copy of all the drivers on the system now and windows if possible so I can reinstall at anytime from one disc.

I assume cerating a partition is the best way to install windows ie improove performance of the machine going forward.

 

Well, I wouldn't say "nothing will work." Windows may have drivers for some devices, so you will at least be able to function even though you may not have the best drivers. Indeed, I'm quite sure this is the case. You could then proceed to update drivers as needed.

However, if you have a flash drive you can connect to that computer or a CD/DVD burner, I would visit Drivers and software - ThinkPad R40, R40e BEFORE and download the drivers you think you may need.

 

If you didn't get a manual with the laptop download it from the site USAFV supplied.

It gives detailed instructions on how to create a recovery disk, amongst other things.

 

As far as I know, when the notebook is booting, will give you a key to press to go to recovery utilities (F11), if not, then you have to start from the begining. When I did this (a couple of times) I had been able to go to Lenovo site, activate the autoscan and download the updates that they recomend with no problems et all.

 

Sorry studiot was is USAFV?

 

I believe he was abbreviating my username, usafveteran, as USAFV.

 

yes of course, credit where credit is due, good link mate. Choose manuals from the lsit on the left. It's free

 

If you install the ThinkVantage System Update 3.0
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/TVSU-UPDATE.html

It will help with the updating of recommended drivers, etc. Think of System Update as IBM's version of Windows Update but for IBM/Lenovo products (not sure if that is a good analogy, but the closest thing I can think of right now). Very neat utility. Searches to see what you need. And helps you download it/them.