Travel Technology - windows XP CD for thinkpad T42

I have a IBM T42 thinkpad that got corrupted with a virus...(including the 'built in' XP bits). Box doesn't have enough horsepower for Vista so best way to reinstall windows?:
* buy off the shelf?
* get it from Lenovo?
* or ???

I have a IBM T42 thinkpad that got corrupted with a virus...(including the 'built in' XP bits). Box doesn't have enough horsepower for Vista so best way to reinstall windows?:
* buy off the shelf?
* get it from Lenovo?
* or ???


IBM used to offer free recovery CDs for all users, I think they stopped it with the T43 machines but I would give them a call. Worse case is they charge you $15 for them.

Are you certain the built-in OP is corrupted? I thought it was very secure. I would try to make the recovery disks from it and try reinstall. You can buy the OP from Lenovo as noted but it takes 10-14 days.

MisterNice

Are you certain the built-in OP is corrupted? I thought it was very secure. I would try to make the recovery disks from it and try reinstall. You can buy the OP from Lenovo as noted but it takes 10-14 days.

MisterNice

didn't realize I could make recovery disks from the built-in bits....thought that I could just reinstall XP by pressing F<something> during bootup...don't remember the F-key and I'm not at home to try it...anyway that method just gave lots of errors and eventually locked up

I didn't know this could be done. Don't mean to hi-jack buy if I purcase a vista laptop, can I install xp ?

Here's the link explaining the recovery partition on your T42 and also how to order a recovery CD/DVD:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-4M7HWZ

I agree with other posters above - the recovery partition on your hard drive is very secure and you should be able to recover using that alone. On a T42, press the blue "IBM Access" button at startup and it should take you to a screen where you can re-load.

I've got a T42 as well. You definitely should be able to use the blue "Acess IBM" button on your keyboard during startup to get to the recovery partition. In the event you've removed it you might need to order a set of disks - but I'd highly recommend creating the disks from AccessIBM once you have the OS re-installed. I've used those disks to get the OS on an upgraded hdd.

- cheapo

Update:
* purchased recovery disks...$45 + $3 shipping but very friendly & fast (arrived the next day)
* however installing the recovery disk has the same problem as trying to restore from the recovery partition..."not enough free space" error...looking at some thinkpad support sites I think I know my problem...I am dual bootable with linux & XP and somehow the linux partition and/or the MBR is getting in the way

Suggestions were to use fdisk to delete the partitions...OK but no fdisk in c:\windows or on the purchased recovery CDs...

So how can I delete the partitions??...note that I don't have a diskette drive on this laptop.... a T40P

I have a USB enclosure for 2.5" hdd's. I'd recommend getting one ($20-$30?) and placing your thinkpad drive into it. You will need to remove any HDD password using the thinkpad BIOS before placing your HDD in the enclusure. You can then plug it into some other computer and make the change w/ the Disk Management utility in XP's computer management.

This is the enclosure I use:

http://www.centralcomputers.com/commerce/catalog/product.jsp?product_id=28718&czuid=1185590022750

OK, got the recovery CD from Lenovo...very quick & easy ($45 + shipping currently)
The machine was dual bootable with Suse Linux so I discovered that I had to delete all partitions on the disk (with Linux fdisk) to give the install enough room to operate.
Install succeeded but when the machine reboots it goes into a Grub prompt...I don't know how to get rid of that to allow it to go straight into XP...I didn't install the dual boot stuff that's why I'm grub ignorant...can anyone help?