I just spend an entire week coming up with a viable/reliable/easy way to build a base XP image, back it up and restore it so I can eliminate the need for Virtual PC (VPC)-based demos. At this point I am very glad I have a ThinkPad. Once I discovered their recovery CDs, I was able to build a base system very quickly. But it did not have XP SP2 or the dozens of updates since then. These CDs also did not have the dozens of upgrades to the IBM-provided components that make the ThinkPad sing. Fortunately, IBM has also been working on this issue. I discovered a (relatively) new program called the “ThinkPad software Installer”. This replaces the older application that never did work correctly. Unfortunately, this program would not run when installed. It seems that the people at TechPower Solutions (here in
Now that I had an updated/current/stable XP base image to work with I (naturally) thought that Norton (Synmantec) Ghost would be able to backup the drive/partition and let me restore it. Ah, no. While Ghost 9.0 (the latest) could backup the partition (if the moon is in the right alignment), the restored version would not boot. I called the so-called support people at Symantec and discovered (as many, many people have discovered) that their support staff in
I also discovered that my Thinkpad would not recogize a couple of older drives (12GB Toshibas) for some reason. IBM says they aren't supported. Sigh. I went out and bought another 7500 RPM Hitachi 60GB drive.
To get around some of these issues, I called IBM support and talked to someone in the deep south--
I installed the new IBM Rescue and Recovery beast (about 900MB). It could not have been much easier. There is a major problem with it though. I pointed the application at my 120GB USB drive and when I started the backup it unceremoniously formatted it. I lost a ton of stuff—fortunately all backed up elsewhere (I think). I think the program should warn you that it’s going to format the drive twice and require a note from your mom before proceeding—especially when it finds data on the target drive. I’m going to send some mail to IBM about this. The program backs up the hard drive very fast and restores even faster. It also made the USB drive bootable. This means the next time you boot the system with the USB attached, the Rescue and Recovery program (which is also integrated into the boot loader) boots into a recovery mode. By integrating the R&R program into the boot loader, you can restore with a virgin hard drive and a DVD or backup USB.
It seems that the R&R program is also usable on other systems. While I have not tried it (yet), I think it will be a great way to perform systems backups that can actually be restored—unlike some other products. Where are those Ghost Busters when you need them?
hth
Hi,
Was just wondering how you got the serial number & model type Bios issue fixed ?
I've had a systemboard swapout recently and they engineer didn't set the details.
Cheers
Terry
I was told that only IBM techs have the program "Maint172" to make this change. I took it back to the people at TechPower Solutions here in Redmond and they got the program from IBM and ran it. It also turns out that the latest BIOS updates seemed to "adjust" this setting as I was prompted in a similar way when it was applied.
hth
I lost also data from my USB hard disk the same way. Truly ironic as the program was supposed to protect my data. I'm also thinking of letting IBM know that they must do something about this.
Are you saying there is no way for me to Disk-To-Disk two hard drives using Ghost for my IBM Thinkpad X30? Ive tried it 6 times now with different configs and I cant get the new drive to boot. Im trying the Seagate Momentus 5400.2 100gb and the Hitachi 7500rpm 60gb. So... I have to use my network to do all this? How did you get the IBM Rescue and Recover to reconnect and restore the original data that was backed up?
Bradley
That's just what I'm saying. I downloaded the R&R program from the Lenovo site and use it to save an image of my T40 drive. It's persisted to a large USB 2.0 hard drive. WARNING: R&R formats the drive on first use. After that you can boot from the drive and choose the image you want. Note that these are not really images in the binary sense. They are composite backups. This means you can still choose an image to restore but you have to keep all previous backups as these are used to create the restored image later. I find this program fast and safe--and more importantly, it works where Ghost does not (in this case). No, I have not tried the new Ghost 10. I'm probably not going to stay with Ghost (or Symantec) because their support people (in India or Whoknowswhereistan) are, well... unacceptable.
Glad to read about this. I will sure try R&R out: in August, I tried the R&R program but it couldn't work well, maybe due to insufficient backup disk space. So I got a larger backup disk with USB drive and tried Ghost. What a horrible Ghost. Changed hard disk, changed motherboard - still cannot boot up from restored disk, that's mean can create image but cannot restore.
My notebook T42 already have R&R. Bill, do you advise me to download R&R again from Lenovo site? Do you think the version you downloaded in April is more up-to-date than my notebook which I got it in August? (you don't know, nevermind. Thot you may know)
BTW, Symantec is one of the many companies that outsource in call centre service to India. Philippinos and Singaporeans speak better English, but the Philippines is weaker in IT and Singapore is expensive. China labour is cheap but their English sucks. So outsource to India. Maybe they should try Malaysia.
There might be other issues at play. I have had considerable difficulty using Ghost to restore to a system where the motherboard has been upgraded. This seems to be a security constraint in Windows itself. As to the lastest version of R&R, I've had no luck installing it on my T40 laptop. I'm still using the older version.
You should know that there is a switch "-IB" that you must use in Ghost when you have a special service partition like those on all ThinkPads. And use the 8.0 version!
I am wondering how you get into the Ghost program.
Just got a used IBM T30 and I cannot get past the [OK] button in Ghost
because neither the USB mouse nor the Trackpoint will work.
Therefore Ghost is completely unresponsive.
It seems that the Ghost floppies need more support files.
Have tried every way I know of to activate [OK] including
Tab, Enter, etc. I know I can use arrow keys once I get past the initial ghost screen.
I would much rather have a single Ghost image than composite backups
I am using Ghost 8.2 floppies that have USB support.
They work fine on several other desktops that have USB mouse.
I gave up on Ghost for my Thinkpads years ago. I use the Lenovo R&R program that can be downloaded from their site.
I cant remember my rescue and recovery password and my T42 is useless (won't boot). Appearently the only thing I can do is reinstall R&R but you are supposed to uninstall first! I can't uninstall if I can't boot. Any one have any ideas?
Bob
I just downloaded the R&R program, and it now asks whether or not it should destroy exsisting data