# system restore for IBM Thinkpad T41



## kokaik (Sep 23, 1999)

Hi guys,

need your advise. am going to do a system restore for my office T41 after 3 years, and realized that ibm did not include the CD but was told it's in one of the HDD partition.

I did not know how to do it. anyone can help to enlighten me? thanks in advance.


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## qldit (Mar 18, 2005)

Good Afternoon kokaik, I am not positive about your particular machine, but most often these machines use a program that places an image of the operating system and original programs in a partition at the end of the hard drive.

The destruction manual usually suggests copying this partition to a CD when the machine is initially recieived.

Most often as the machine begins to boot there will be a keystroke command for initiating the restore program.

It may be worth carefully re-reading the manual otherwise you may find your friend Bill will be smiling at you when you have to buy another operating system disk and all the programs that were originally received.

Sometimes the place of purchase are helpful.

If all else fails and you can't afford to be ripped-off by friendly Bill, you may consider a Linux Program, this is similar to windows to operate and a bit more learning is required but it would be free and you wouldn't have the benefit of poor security or need for all the malware protection.

BTW, a Linux program may allow you to inspect your hard drive and assist you to copy any recovery partition to another media if it is neccessary.

Quite obviously there is reason for your enquiry with regard to your present operation, if the machine is virally affected it may require a different consideration.

Cheers, qldit.


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## kokaik (Sep 23, 1999)

thanks mate, appreciate your help.

will do a thorough check before performing the task. btw i google and found the following:
http://groups.google.com.my/group/i...53bc7?lnk=st&q=&rnum=7&hl=en#3188e03e71253bc7

The following is from IBM's site:

TP General - Purpose of the non-DOS service partition on the hard disk 
drive

Symptom 
IBM ThinkPad systems may come pre-configured with a non-DOS partition 
known as the service partition on the hard disk drive. This partition is 
used to store original system files necessary to restore the system to 
its out of the box condition should the need arise.

Affected configurations 
IBM ThinkPad Machine Types:

ThinkPad A21e (2655), A22e, A22m, A22p 
ThinkPad A30, A30p, A31, A31p 
ThinkPad G40 
ThinkPad R30, R31, R32 
ThibnkPad R40 
ThinkPad R50 
ThinkPad T22, T23, T30 
ThinkPad T41 
ThinkPad X20, X21, X22, X23, X24, X30 
ThinkPad i Series 1171

Not all models come with this partition. Most newer models have the 
service partition. There are two ways to check your system:

If your machine displays the message "Press F11 to invoke the IBM 
Product Recovery Program" or "To start the product recovery program, 
press F11" during system startup, then your system has the service 
partition. 
If the instructions located in the User's Guide concerning recovering 
preinstalled software state to recover your system by choosing F11 at 
bootup, then your system came pre-configured with the service partition.

Solution 
For systems with the service partition, to restore your system to its 
original state, please use the following instructions.

NOTES:

All files on your hard disk drive will be deleted and unrecoverable once 
this procedure is initiated.

Please refer to the section on Recovering preinstalled software in your 
user's guide before starting this procedure. 
During system power on, press the F11 key while the message referencing 
to press F11 as noted above in this document is displayed. 
Continue to follow the instructions provided on screen.

Additional information 
This service partition should not be removed.

Applicable countries and regions 
Worldwide

Document id: MIGR-4W5QVB 
Last modified: 2003-10-07 
Copyright © 2003 IBM Corporation


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## qldit (Mar 18, 2005)

Good Afternoon kokaik, sounds like you have the solution there.
Interestingly this recovery program is probably stored using a different kind of simple operating system apart from MS.

If the hard drive develops a problem all this data may be lost, so you do have some considering to do.

I understand this recovery program is invoked by (in your case the F11 key at boot) which most likely directs the other hidden partition to boot using a small program in the MBR of your hard drive.

Chances are you could also use a floppy or some other media with this boot information to initiate the recovery.

This kind of limits the type of non-factory software utilities you might run that may be prepatory for re-loading your system to preserve the current MBR.

Thanks for the IBM info.

Isn't it exciting how these organisations create so much excitement for the owner by simply not issuing a CD with their product?
The saving would be quite simply a CD.

All these partitions would be visible to a Linux program and should also allow the recovery partition to be copied to a large flashdrive or similar media if you need to.

By the way, running SIW on your current system (if it is functional) should allow you to see the Windows installation key-code, it is a good idea to record all the installation keys on paper just in case you don't need them!
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/siw.html

Cheers, qldit.


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