Yay! New laptop! How do I make a restore disk!?
Discussion
Thanks to everybody who helped in my various laptop threads!
Ordered an IBM T42 from an online refurbisher which I am now typing from and it seems great so far! Good nick, the only slight minus are well used shiny keys, but I think I can live with that!
Quick question though - it came with XP preinstalled with a few setup questions when I initially booted. Can I make myself a restore disk of some sort? Usually I wouldn't bother and would just reinstall from an XP disk as necessary but this seems to have some IBM specific bits.
Worth doing or when it needs rebuilding should I just go with a vanilla XP install plus goodies downloaded from IBM/Lenovo?
Ordered an IBM T42 from an online refurbisher which I am now typing from and it seems great so far! Good nick, the only slight minus are well used shiny keys, but I think I can live with that!
Quick question though - it came with XP preinstalled with a few setup questions when I initially booted. Can I make myself a restore disk of some sort? Usually I wouldn't bother and would just reinstall from an XP disk as necessary but this seems to have some IBM specific bits.
Worth doing or when it needs rebuilding should I just go with a vanilla XP install plus goodies downloaded from IBM/Lenovo?
My advice is to do the following:
1 - As soon as you get the new computer install the latest firewall (download to another machine, then copy over) then get online and do all the friggin MS updates. These have to be done in several traches as so many of them need a reboot. Also customise the appearance (i.e. desktop etc) and put on your favourite programs, eg office, firefox etc etc.
2 - Then turn off, put the HDD into another machine (not as operating system drive) and make a DVD backup of it.
Then, when your machine goes t1ts up, you simply put the HDD back into another computer (not as operating system drive) copy off the docs etc you need then wipe the HDD. Then copy the DVD back onto it and put the docs files back. You'll find it much faster to recover the machine as it will have all bar the last x months of updates on it, i.e. you'll not be back to square one if you see what I mean.
HTH
1 - As soon as you get the new computer install the latest firewall (download to another machine, then copy over) then get online and do all the friggin MS updates. These have to be done in several traches as so many of them need a reboot. Also customise the appearance (i.e. desktop etc) and put on your favourite programs, eg office, firefox etc etc.
2 - Then turn off, put the HDD into another machine (not as operating system drive) and make a DVD backup of it.
Then, when your machine goes t1ts up, you simply put the HDD back into another computer (not as operating system drive) copy off the docs etc you need then wipe the HDD. Then copy the DVD back onto it and put the docs files back. You'll find it much faster to recover the machine as it will have all bar the last x months of updates on it, i.e. you'll not be back to square one if you see what I mean.
HTH
Will a simple filecopy work?
I do like that idea (although sadly have no way of reading a notebook drive in my desktop machine)...
It does seem to have lots of nice goodies on it (rather than the usual shite that new laptops come with)
So far, it's windows updated up to the hilt, firefox, avg, and spybot installed
I do like that idea (although sadly have no way of reading a notebook drive in my desktop machine)...
It does seem to have lots of nice goodies on it (rather than the usual shite that new laptops come with)
So far, it's windows updated up to the hilt, firefox, avg, and spybot installed
May I suggest Acronis True Image 11 Home? A fantastic product that has just been released and represents the cutting edge in backup technology whilst being cheap and easy to use. It will image your entire disk plus provide loads of other useful features.
I have an interest here in that my company is an Acronis reseller but we don't do home users so it's not really an issue. I'd suggest buying from Acronis UK or a UK-based reseller.
I have an interest here in that my company is an Acronis reseller but we don't do home users so it's not really an issue. I'd suggest buying from Acronis UK or a UK-based reseller.
NiceCupOfTea said:
Will a simple filecopy work?
If done like this, then yes. However you do have to access your drive using a second computer, else it can't copy operating system files which are in use.NiceCupOfTea said:
I do like that idea (although sadly have no way of reading a notebook drive in my desktop machine)...
Get one of these bad boys then, costs all of £4.99.http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?TabID=1&Mo...
Link to fullsize photo:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/images/Full/zv01.jpg
NiceCupOfTea said:
So far, it's windows updated up to the hilt, firefox, avg, and spybot installed
Then now's the perfect time to do it!What you should find is that you have a factory pre-install on the machine.
To access from bootup you either press F11 or the 'blue' button to access 'Rescue and Recovery'. One option from this is to restore back to the factory settings. Basically it will wipe the disk, install Win XP and all the Windows/Intel/Lenovo drivers specific to that machine.
So it would be worth checking if you've got the pre-install on the machine - it's on a hidden partition.
What I would recommend is to use 'Rescue and Recovery' to backup your drive.
I wouldn't be without it.
K
To access from bootup you either press F11 or the 'blue' button to access 'Rescue and Recovery'. One option from this is to restore back to the factory settings. Basically it will wipe the disk, install Win XP and all the Windows/Intel/Lenovo drivers specific to that machine.
So it would be worth checking if you've got the pre-install on the machine - it's on a hidden partition.
What I would recommend is to use 'Rescue and Recovery' to backup your drive.
I wouldn't be without it.
K
Nice! 
It should be called 'Rescue & Recovery' - the latest version is 4.1, which you can get here: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/documen...
K
K
Here you go ....
Download 'System Update' - that will pick up the right software downloads for you
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/documen...
K
Download 'System Update' - that will pick up the right software downloads for you
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/documen...
K
If it has all the ThinkPaddy stuff on just use the (IIRC) Rescue and Restore prog to make a set of restoration CDs - do all the updates first, it will only let you make one copy of WXP; thank you Microsoft...
Have a look around the pre-boot area - press the blue Access IBM button on boot - there should be a system restore option - it uses a hidden partition - which is probably what was used to provide your "as new" installation.
If not search for "software installer"(or perhaps updater) on the IBM/Lenovo site which will d/l and install all the ThinkPaddy goodness, including the R&R utility.
Personally I run Ubuntu on mine.
Have a look around the pre-boot area - press the blue Access IBM button on boot - there should be a system restore option - it uses a hidden partition - which is probably what was used to provide your "as new" installation.
If not search for "software installer"(or perhaps updater) on the IBM/Lenovo site which will d/l and install all the ThinkPaddy goodness, including the R&R utility.
Personally I run Ubuntu on mine.
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