Partitioning Thinkpad 530

Hi
Does anyone here like the recipe for how to use the recovery DVD's so I can get two or more partitions on the hard disk. I have chosen Win.7 and I don't want Win.8.
I have tried to reduce the first partition, drive C, and then use the rest as drive D. But the result is a boot time of about 10 minutes.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Use "EaseUS Partition Master" will do that. Stay away from the MS tools including Disk Manager which should be able to do it. If you are lucky. EaseUS is free and available on CNET I am sure is where I downloaded it.
Its best to have an offline backup of the partition images (enter drive) just in case. I use Trueimage but there may be free tools as well. Don't use the Lenovo back as i can trash external storage and you have no way of knowing if you backup is good or what it did.
T520 Model 4239 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2860QM CPU @ 2.50GHz
Intel Sandy Bridge & Nvidia NVS 4200M graphics Intel N 6300 Wi-Fi adapter
Windows 7 Home Prem - 64bit w/8GB DDR3

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    Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.
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    our mods here do favour it, too.
    And member TomTom in my sugested thread has done it simply and fast.
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    Regards
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    Message Edited by Agotthelf on 10-01-2008 08:12 PM
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  • How I tried fix my partitions and restore a Dell Diagnostic Partition.

    UPDATED: 2 September 2012
    UPDATE: Now that I reflect back on the incidence, I realize that the Dell Utility partition had lost its ability to boot long before I had messed up my partition table. But I realized it only when I was testing all my partitions after fixing the partition table. But as I have already written this long post, lets just keep it here for future reference of anyone else stumbling across a similar problem. Read on to know about my experience.
    RECOMMENDATION: I do not recommend trying out all the steps below as they did not completely solve the problem for me. If you need the Diagnostic Utility, download the update package from Dell's support website for your model. This package can be used to create a boot-able USB drive and/or CD/DVD. These work fine and are pretty fast also.
    Something strange happened to me and I am now reporting my experience in trying to solve it (somewhat unsuccessfully!!)
    First of all, my setup is: Dell Studio 1555 laptop. I dual boot Windows 7 and Archlinux. So here's how it went:
    After using the partitioning tool Gparted under Archlinux to resize a partition, I found a problem had occurred. The Partition was NTFS formatted and all of my data files were stored on it. The partition worked fine under Archlinux as I was able to access my files fine under it. But in Windows, although the partition was listed under Windows explorer, it wanted to format it!! When I tried to access the partition it gave an error that it was not formatted (
    The drive is not formatted, do you want to format it now?
    ). Of course, that was not right and Gparted had messed something up. I fixed that using Testdisk under Archlinux (See the Details). So now the partition problem under windows was fixed. But now another problem cropped up under Archlinux. When I booted into Archlinux and started Gparted to confirm everything was fine I saw something strange in Gparted. The whole space on my hard disk was marked as "unallocated" under Gparted. Windows and Archlinux could "see" the partitions. By this I mean that I was able to boot fine under both my OSes. And I could access all my files under all my partitions. But somehow Gparted was not able to "see" them. Gparted was reporting my whole disk to be marked as unallocated. After that I researched a lot and lots of stuff happened experimenting to fix the problem. I used a lot of utilities. But actually only one fixed the problem-fixparts from the gptfdisk package. But it seemed like a lot of work trying to get the problem fixed (See the Details).
    Now we get to the point in discussion. I was able to get my partitions back under Gparted. But I lost the Dell Diagnostics Utility partition's ability to boot up. [Actually, now that I reflect back on the incidence, I realize that the Dell Utility partition had lost its ability to boot long before I had messed up my partition table. But I realized it only when I was testing all my partition after fixing the partition table. But more on this later.] It gave an error that the partition was not found.
    So, in short: After all this restoring partitions' visibility under Gparted, I realized that the Dell Utility partition on my Studio 1555 was not booting up. To explain this, it means that when I press F-12 when starting the laptop and select Diagnostics from the menu to run the Diagnostic Utility and after running the Pre-boot System Assesment tests when I consented to boot the Diagnostic Utility partition, it gave me the error that the partition was not found. When I tried to run the "Dell 32 Bit Diagnostics (Graphical User Interface version)" update package under Windows, it resulted in a similar error: Partition not found.
    For some background on what makes the Dell Utility partition so special, please read this thread and the third post on this thread.
    WARNING: You and only you are responsible for your data. Please make a backup before performing any of the partitioning steps below.
    NOTE: Please read the entire post before actually performing the steps.
    So, to try and fix this I did the following:
    Boot into Windows 7.
    Open Disk Management under the Computer Management console (To open the Computer Management console, right click on Computer in the Start menu and select Manage).
    Reformat the Dell Diagnostic Utility partition as FAT(not FAT32). This is the first partition on the drive (marked as Healthy (OEM Partition) under the Status column). [This step may not be required, however I had done it. See Notes below.]
    UPDATE: After reading around a bit I found that these steps to format the partition might not actually be necessary. Simply changing the type of the partition (as detailed below) might also work. However as I had done that, lets just keep these steps over here.
    Reboot into a Linux distribution Live CD (I had Ubuntu 10.10). Or, If you dual boot with a Linux distribution that does not complain about the now inconsistent fstab entry, you can also boot into that distribution directly. I had to boot into Live CD to fix my /etc/fstab.
    UPDATE: After considering all the aspects from start to end I have come to a conclusion regarding the efficacy of this method on dual boot machines with Windows and Linux installed. I doubt anyone with a dual boot Windows/Linux setup would be able to boot into the Dell Diagnostic Utility even with the Utility Partition restored. This is detailed below.
    (As noted above my Archlinux install did not boot up after I had reformatted  my Dell Diagnostic Utility partition. This is because I was mounting the Dell Utility partition at boot using fstab inside Archlinux. And I was using the UUID to mount the partition. After reformatting the partition its UUID changed. So, it wouldn't mount. And because of how my fstab was setup Archlinux won't boot. So, I had to boot into a live environment to fix this. This step applied only to me. YRMV.) Fix the fstab entry.
    (This step also applied to me.) Boot into the repaired Linux Distribution.
    And open a Terminal.
    In the open terminal run fdisk on your drive, e.g.,
    fdisk /dev/sda
    This is how it looks:
    [abhishek@Nitaichand ~]$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda
    Password:
    Command (m for help):
    To change the partition type give the appropriate command, i.e.,
    Command (m for help): t
    Specify the partition, i.e.,
    Partition number (1-10): 1
    Type L to see available codes:
    Hex code (type L to list codes):L
    0 Empty 24 NEC DOS 81 Minix / old Lin bf Solaris
    1 FAT12 27 Hidden NTFS Win 82 Linux swap / So c1 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
    2 XENIX root 39 Plan 9 83 Linux c4 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
    3 XENIX usr 3c PartitionMagic 84 OS/2 hidden C: c6 DRDOS/sec (FAT-
    4 FAT16 <32M 40 Venix 80286 85 Linux extended c7 Syrinx
    5 Extended 41 PPC PReP Boot 86 NTFS volume set da Non-FS data
    6 FAT16 42 SFS 87 NTFS volume set db CP/M / CTOS / .
    7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT 4d QNX4.x 88 Linux plaintext de Dell Utility
    8 AIX 4e QNX4.x 2nd part 8e Linux LVM df BootIt
    9 AIX bootable 4f QNX4.x 3rd part 93 Amoeba e1 DOS access
    a OS/2 Boot Manag 50 OnTrack DM 94 Amoeba BBT e3 DOS R/O
    b W95 FAT32 51 OnTrack DM6 Aux 9f BSD/OS e4 SpeedStor
    c W95 FAT32 (LBA) 52 CP/M a0 IBM Thinkpad hi eb BeOS fs
    e W95 FAT16 (LBA) 53 OnTrack DM6 Aux a5 FreeBSD ee GPT
    f W95 Ext'd (LBA) 54 OnTrackDM6 a6 OpenBSD ef EFI (FAT-12/16/
    10 OPUS 55 EZ-Drive a7 NeXTSTEP f0 Linux/PA-RISC b
    11 Hidden FAT12 56 Golden Bow a8 Darwin UFS f1 SpeedStor
    12 Compaq diagnost 5c Priam Edisk a9 NetBSD f4 SpeedStor
    14 Hidden FAT16 <3 61 SpeedStor ab Darwin boot f2 DOS secondary
    16 Hidden FAT16 63 GNU HURD or Sys af HFS / HFS+ fb VMware VMFS
    17 Hidden HPFS/NTF 64 Novell Netware b7 BSDI fs fc VMware VMKCORE
    18 AST SmartSleep 65 Novell Netware b8 BSDI swap fd Linux raid auto
    1b Hidden W95 FAT3 70 DiskSecure Mult bb Boot Wizard hid fe LANstep
    1c Hidden W95 FAT3 75 PC/IX be Solaris boot ff BBT
    1e Hidden W95 FAT1 80 Old Minix
    Type the desired code, i.e.,
    Hex code (type L to list codes): de
    Write the partition table with:
    Command (m for help): w
    The partition table has been altered!
    Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
    WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy.
    The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at
    the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8)
    Syncing disks.
    [abhishek@Nitaichand ~]$
    Download the required Diagnostics Update Package from the Drivers Download page for your model. Got mine from here.
    Run the downloaded package under the OS you it downloaded for. That is, run the .exe on Windows. Or, if you downloaded the .bin file for Linux then first make it executable:
    chmod u+x CL1367A0.bin
    And now run it under a Linux distribution with an older version of python installed (I think <2.7). I say this because the .bin package didn't run on an updated Archlinux for me, probably because it has the latest python. I ran it from the Ubuntu 10.10 Live CD and it ran fine under that.
    On Windows, If you are not automatically prompted with an option to update your Utility Partition then you need to browse to the location where the package was extracted (for me it was C:\dell\drivers\R239866).
    Now you need to manually run the extracted file (for me it was DDDP.exe). Most probably you'll need to right-click it and run it as an Administrator. And if all went well, it will extract/update the diagnostic utilities to/on the Dell Utility Partition.
    I believe the above steps should be sufficient for someone who's lucky and who's update package is smart enough. However these steps were not sufficient for me. My "Partition not found" error was gone because I had changed the partition type. And so the update package was able to recognize the partition and extract the necessary files to it. But I was still not able to boot the utility partition. After the Pre-boot System Assessment although I no longer got the "Partition not found" error, but I was just dropped onto the GRUB boot menu prompt.
    [UPDATE: As stated above, I realize that the recovery partition had lost its ability to boot long before I had messed up my partition table. But I realized it only when I was testing all my partition after fixing the partition table. Please refer to this forum thread for further Details. I  do not think that it is possible longer to boot from the Dell Utility Parttion on my setup which has GRUB installed to the MBR. But the rest of the post documents my attempts to slove the problem without the knowledge from the forum post.]
    Anyways, it was a pain to again and again set up/update the partition and test it after waiting half an hour or so for the Pre-boot System Assessment to complete. But I was determined to solve the problem at-least partially, until next time. So I created a GRUB entry to boot the Utility partition. Assuming the partition is the first partition on the drive (which is the case here), the grub entry is simply:
    title Dell Utility
    rootnoverify (hd0,0)
    chainloader +1
    I tried downloading an older update package. I updated my Partition with it. And tested. Still, I was unsuccessful. I researched a little bit and found this link. Out of frustration,I decided to use brute force this time . So, the below are the steps which let me have at-least a glimpse of The Dell Diagnostic Utility booting up from the partition:
    Backup your partition table using the sfdisk command (not fdisk).
    Follow the instructions in the link I gave above (i.e., http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/1123) and build your Utility Partition from scratch.
    Now after that when you try to boot into the OS you'll be presented with an blue bar on top. This is because the mkup batch file from the Dell Diagnostic/Drivers CD/DVD wiped your partition table and rewrote it with only one partition on it- the Dell utility partition.
    Boot into a Live environment and restore your partition table from the backup created earlier using sfdisk.
    Now boot with a Windows disc to repair your Windows boot problem. This applied to me but may not apply to you.
    Again boot into a live environment and restore GRUB to MBR.
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    Now when on GRUB prompt don't boot any other OS.
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    After this initial run I was unable to run the Diagnostics GUI from the GRUB menu entry again. I haven't tried to re-run the Pre-boot Assessment and wait to see, if I'm able to boot it from there. But now, I'm satisfied that at-least the file there are in a running condition.
    Also, the update package can be used to create boot-able USB drives or boot-able CD/DVDs which can run the Diagnostics just fine. They are almost as fast as the partition (especially the USB which seems even faster). They are recommend, instead of going into this trouble to recreate the partition. That is unless you are a purist/perfectionist .
    Notes:
    At first, I panicked and tried a lot of steps that are not exactly documented above for the sake of convenience to others who might refer.
    I have thus rewritten the post in a manner to make it very general in nature as it did not become very fruitful for myself.  If you attempt to use this guide, use common sense where necessary .
    Of course, if you are trying to build a Utility partition on a bare hard drive or you're feeling adventurous, you can always follow this link .
    Last edited by bhadotia (2012-10-08 19:03:18)

    bhadotia wrote:Anyway's the file downloaded from dell to update the partition for Studio 1555 is corrupted (checksums don't match). My partition still doesn't boot. I'm working to fix this and will update my post when I'm done.
    The file seems to create the CD/DVD/Image and USB just fine. So I used this only to create a CD image which I then wrote on a blank CD which seems to work fine. Also, I played around a bit and had some partial success in booting the partition. I've updated my original opening post with the new findings.
    Whew!! what a waste of time! Never want to do all of this again .
    Last edited by bhadotia (2012-03-03 00:05:22)

  • How to install Windows 7/Vista as 2nd OS and retain predesktop environment (service partition)

    This is a step-by-step instruction how to install Windows Vista or Windows 7 as a second OS on a Lenovo Thinkpad that originally shipped with Windows XP AND how to retain the access to the Lenovo Service Partition.
    I have been searching the internet for instructions like these but could not find anything useful. So I am posting it
    here. Maybe this helps other users.
    I have tested the procedure below with installation of Windows Vista Ultimate (64bit) and Windows 7 Ultimate (64bit). I believe that the procedure will also work with the 32bit versions of these OSs. I am not totally convinced that this works when the OS to install is Windows XP (64bit or 32bit). XP has a completely different boot sequence compared to Vista or 7. The basic steps would remain the same, but the XP setup is less forgiving when it finds an unknown partition. If somebody wants to try it out, please post your results as a reply to this forum entry.
    Never never never try to install an older OS (like Windows 2000 or NT) as a second OS when XP is already installed! This is doomed to fail.
    The procedure below does NOT work for Linux installations. I am not a Linux wizard, but any Linux bootmanager I know about is incompatible with the Lenovo Service Partition.
    The procedure was tested on a Thinkpad R61 model 8918-B9G. It should work similar on other models.
    You definitely need a service partition with Rescue&Recovery version 4. It will NOT work with older versions of R&R or if the service partition is not a type12 partition (see below how to find out about that).
    I assume that the harddisk partitions are unmodified, i.e. still have factory settings. This is likely the case if you
    never attempted any OS install or recovery action. If this is not the case, the procedure may or may not work.
    You also need a bootable CD with a tool that can change the size of your current system partition. I was using gparted live version 0.5.2-9. ( http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ )
    Everything you do is at your own risk. I am in no way related to Lenovo, other than being a customer using their
    products.
    Step 1) Make a full backup of your harddisk. Get yourself recovery CDs for your Thinkpad model if you don't have any. The changes we are about to make can completely screw up your harddrive. A typo is sufficient for that to happen.
    Step 2) Power on the system. Check that you can boot into the Service Partition by pressing the Thinkvantage button when the startup screen appears. (Older systems may have a differently named button.) If there is a problem booting the service partition now, it is likely that the rest of this procedure will not fix it.
    Step 3) From the service partition choose 'Warmstart' to reboot the system. Reboot Windows XP, logon.
    Open a command prompt. CD to the following directory:
    \Program Files\Common Files\Lenovo\BMGR
    On a german language system (like mine) it is
    \Programme\Gemeinsame Dateien\Lenovo\BMGR
    If you have an older IBM system the directory may be named
    \Program Files\Common Files\IBM\BMGR
    or something like that. Maybe you need to search around.
    In the following, I will call this the "BMGR dir".
    Enter the following command:
    bmgr32 /info /v
    You should get an output similar to this:
    C:\Programme\Gemeinsame Dateien\Lenovo\BMGR>bmgr32 /info /v
    It's a Lenovo  MBR
    Opened Master Boot Record to see whose MBR it is.
    It's a Lenovo MBR
    Opened drive for reading
    Partition 0 the SP? no, type 0x07 is not correct
    Partition 1 the SP? (512)  Label is SERVICEV
    Using version 2.05 of Lenovo Boot Manager
    Reading: \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0
            MBR Sector 1 Index: 1   Checksum: 00    Disabled
            MBR Sector 2 Index: 4   Checksum: 03    Passed
            MBR Sector 3 Index: 5   Checksum: FD    Passed
            MBR Sector 4 Index: 6   Checksum: 58    Passed
            MBR Sector 5 Index: 7   Checksum: 96    Passed
            MBR Sector 6 Index: 8   Checksum: 7F    Passed
            Data Sector  Index: 3   Checksum: F1    Passed
            Original MBR Index: 2   Checksum: BD    Passed
            No Patch Sectors
            Checksum Byte: 00
            Think Flag: 1
            WinPE Partition (0-3): 1        Alt Boot Partition (0-3): 1
            Boot Config: 2 (Service Partition containing two Service OS's)
            Boot State: 0                   Alt Boot Flag: 0
            (Normal booting operation, will boot to Customer OS)
            RRU: 00000000 00000000          Prev Active Part: 255
            Previous Partition Type: FF     Patch IN: 0     OUT: 0
            CIRT Disabled
            TOC: 0000000000000000           Lock: 0
            Show Error: 0                   Halt on Error: 0
            CIRT Load Return: 0
            CIRT Execute Return: 0
            Pause Duration: 10              Scan Code: 0085
            F11 Msg: To boot to the Rescue and Recovery Environment, Press F11
            Check Msg: There has been a signature failure
     #  active  type      start CHS      end CHS      startLBA       size
     0   0x80   0x07      1   1   0   239 255 255           63    301296177
     1   0x00   0x12      0 193 255   239 255 255    301296240     11279520
     2   0x00   0x00      0   0   0     0   0   0            0            0
     3   0x00   0x00      0   0   0     0   0   0            0            0
    C:\Programme\Gemeinsame Dateien\Lenovo\BMGR>
    The important thing to look for is the 0x12 partition type in the partition table at the bottom. This is the service
    partition. If you do not have a 0x12 partition, then you can stop here because the rest of the procedure will not work
    for you.
    Step 4) Shutdown and boot gparted from CD. Shrink the system partition to the desired size. Do NOT touch the service partition! Do NOT attempt to create another partition! Leave the new white space on the disk untouched! Apply changes and restart the system.
    Step 5) Reboot XP. gparted has set the NTFS dirty bit. This will cause XP to run a full CHKDSK. Depending on how much files there are on the partition this may take considerable time. Let CHKDSK run to completion. When CHKDSK finishes, the system will automatically reboot.
    Step 6) XP reboots now. Logon. When loading the desktop, XP will show a popup window, stating that system settings have been changed and new devices been discovered and that the system should be rebooted. This is ok. XP actually recognized the shrunk system partition and applied the necessary changes to its own system parameters. Click YES to reboot the system.
    Step 7) XP reboots. Logon. Open a command prompt, CD to the BMGR dir and enter:
    bmgr32 /info /v
    The output you get should be similar to the output you have seen in step 3, except that the partition 0 size column
    shows a smaller value.
    Step 8) Shutdown, restart. Check that you can still access the service partition by pressing the blue Thinkvantage button when the system startup screen appears.
    Step 9) From the predesktop environment choose warmstart. Reboot XP. Logon, logoff, shutdown.
    DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!!! If you start the Windows Vista/7 install right after shutting down from the predesktop
    environment, the Win Vista/7 setup program will screw up your harddisk! The Lenovo MBR bootmgr reboot takes two steps for completion. The first step is the shutdown and the second step is executed when booting from harddisk. A boot from the Windows CD will skip this second step and disaster finds its way...
    Step 10) Insert the Windows Vista/7 DVD and boot it. Start the setup. Choose "Custom (advanced)" install. It will show the partitions on the disk. Select the white space (unallocated). Click on "disk options (advanced)". Click on "New" to create a new partition in the white space. Keep the default size, click "Apply". Click "Format". A popup window appears stating that the partition may hold OEM data. Continue. Click "Next". Installation starts.
    Continued in the second post...

    Step 11) Win Vista/XP will reboot several times during installation. You will always see the Windows bootmanager with an entry for "Earlier Windows version" and "Windows Vista/7". DO NOT DARE to touch the blue Thinkvantage button on any reboot or press any function keys!
    Step 12) When the installation is finished, check that you can successfully reboot Win Vista/7 by selecting it from the Windows bootmanager.
    Step 13) Reboot XP by choosing "Earlier Windows version" from the Windows bootmanager. Open a command prompt. CD to the BMGR dir. Enter the following command:
    bmgr32 /info /v
    The output will now look like this:
    C:\Programme\Gemeinsame Dateien\Lenovo\BMGR>bmgr32 /info /v
    Opened Master Boot Record to see whose MBR it is.
    Opened drive for reading
    Partition 0 the SP? no, type 0x07 is not correct
    Partition 1 the SP? no, type 0x07 is not correct
    Partition 2 the SP? (512)  Label is SERVICEV
     #  active  type      start CHS      end CHS      startLBA       size
     0   0x80   0x07      1   1   0   254 255 255           63    109675692
     1   0x00   0x07    239 255 255   239 255 255    109676544    191619072
     2   0x00   0x12    239 255 255   239 255 255    301296240     11279520
     3   0x00   0x00      0   0   0     0   0   0            0            0
    C:\Programme\Gemeinsame Dateien\Lenovo\BMGR>
    startLBA and size will of course differ, depending on the actual partition sizes you have set. Note that Windows setup moved the service partition to entry 2 of the partition table. If you do not see the 0x12 partition then stop here.
    Otherwise the following step will likely screw up you harddisk.
    Enter the following command (case sensitive?):
    bmgr32 /Fbootmgr.bin /m0 /IBM /v
    The output will look like this:
    C:\Programme\Gemeinsame Dateien\Lenovo\BMGR>bmgr32 /Fbootmgr.bin /m0 /IBM /v
    installing MBR
    finding free sectors
    Sector 9 is free
    Sector 10 is free
    Sector 11 is free
    Sector 12 is free
    Sector 13 is free
    Sector 14 is free
    Sector 15 is free
    Sector 16 is free
    Opened Master Boot Record to see whose MBR it is.
    It's a Lenovo MBR
    Opened drive for reading
    Partition 0 the SP? no, type 0x07 is not correct
    Partition 1 the SP? no, type 0x07 is not correct
    Partition 2 the SP? (512)  Label is SERVICEV
    Setting Think bit
    C:\Programme\Gemeinsame Dateien\Lenovo\BMGR>
    This command reinstalled the Lenovo bootmanager in the MBR that was erased by the Win Vista/7 setup program.
    Enter the following command:
    bmgr32 /info /v
    The output will now look like this:
    C:\Programme\Gemeinsame Dateien\Lenovo\BMGR>bmgr32 /info /v
    It's a Lenovo  MBR
    Opened Master Boot Record to see whose MBR it is.
    It's a Lenovo MBR
    Opened drive for reading
    Partition 0 the SP? no, type 0x07 is not correct
    Partition 1 the SP? no, type 0x07 is not correct
    Partition 2 the SP? (512)  Label is SERVICEV
    Using version 2.05 of Lenovo Boot Manager
    Reading: \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0
            MBR Sector 1 Index: 1   Checksum: 00    Disabled
            MBR Sector 2 Index: 11  Checksum: 03    Passed
            MBR Sector 3 Index: 12  Checksum: FD    Passed
            MBR Sector 4 Index: 13  Checksum: 58    Passed
            MBR Sector 5 Index: 14  Checksum: 96    Passed
            MBR Sector 6 Index: 15  Checksum: 7F    Passed
            Data Sector  Index: 10  Checksum: 01    Passed
            Original MBR Index: 9   Checksum: 12    Passed
            No Patch Sectors
            Checksum Byte: 00
            Think Flag: 1
            WinPE Partition (0-3): 2        Alt Boot Partition (0-3): 2
            Boot Config: 0 (Service Partition containing one Service OS)
            Boot State: 0                   Alt Boot Flag: 0
            (Normal booting operation, will boot to Customer OS)
            RRU: 00000000 00000000          Prev Active Part: 255
            Previous Partition Type: FF     Patch IN: 0     OUT: 0
            CIRT Disabled
            TOC: 0000000000000000           Lock: 0
            Show Error: 0                   Halt on Error: 0
            CIRT Load Return: 0
            CIRT Execute Return: 0
            Pause Duration: 10              Scan Code: 0085
            F11 Msg: To boot to the Rescue and Recovery Environment, Press F11
            Check Msg: There has been a signature failure
     #  active  type      start CHS      end CHS      startLBA       size
     0   0x80   0x07      1   1   0   254 255 255           63    109675692
     1   0x00   0x07    239 255 255   239 255 255    109676544    191619072
     2   0x00   0x12    239 255 255   239 255 255    301296240     11279520
     3   0x00   0x00      0   0   0     0   0   0            0            0
    C:\Programme\Gemeinsame Dateien\Lenovo\BMGR>
    So you have actually regained the Lenovo bootmanager. But you are not done yet.
    Step 14) Shutdown. Restart the system. DO NOT PRESS THE BLUE THINKVANTAGE BUTTON AT THE SYSTEM STARTUP SCREEN!!! IT DOES NOT WORK YET! When the system startup screen DISAPPEARS, quickly press F11 (maybe several times). The system should now boot the predesktop environment from the service partition.
    Step 15) When the predesktop is there, choose "warmstart". When the system startup screen appears, press the blue Thinkvantage button. The system should again boot into the predesktop. The blue Thinkvantage button now works permanently.
    Step 16) Check that you can boot Win XP and Win Vista/7 from the Windows bootmanager. You're done!

  • Win 8.1: Reset vs Install on partitioned drive (XP- upgrade 8- upgrade 8.1) now need clean install

    This is a little complicated.
    I have a Thinkpad T-60 (4GB) and a T-61p (8GB)
    Both machines have SATA drives partitioned in 3 (System, Images, Data)
    Originally, both had XP (the T-61p was RAM upgraded to 8 GB before upgrade (remember the $50 early-bird special?)
    I upgraded the T60 without problem (as I recall).
    I had to get the 64-bit physical upgrade as you could only download the version you already had (32-bit; remember that disaster?) for the T-61p.
    Figuring I had 4 GB on the T-60, I used 64 bit as well, ending up with only 3 GB active.  I take it this was a waste and should have just used the  32-bit, right?
    I clean installed (as I recall) 8.1 using a generic 8 key (right?) and then an 8.1 key (right?, or is that an 8 key that will still activate 8.1?)
    So here it is 3 years later +/- and both 8.1 installs are pretty trashed so...
    I downloaded both the 8.1 32-bit and 64-bit .iso's
    I have my serial #'s
    I tried a Reset on my Server last night (whole disk, no partitions) - it worked, and gave me an option to wipe all disks, or just the C: system disk (which I did, others intact). It is fine, all settings gone, no trash.
    Now the question is what will happen with my partitioned drives. I want a clean install on the C: partition, and D: and E: left alone.
    Will Reset trash all the partitions and load the entire disk? (NOT what I want) .. or ..
    Should I use the Install option? (which I assume will go through the partition manager) and allow me to clean install on C: only.
    Lastly, if I have read correctly, there is no point in putting 64-bit on the T-60 (4 GB) as all you end up is 3 GB active anyway, so I should go back to 32-bit and avoid the 64-bit headaches?
    Thanks!!!

    Hello qudrcps,
    About the ThinkPad T-60 can’t only recognize 3GB ram, please take a look the follow thread.
    http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T61-and-prior-T-series-ThinkPad/T60P-Windows-7-64-bit-only-using-3-GB-of-RAM/td-p/377623
    Intel Chipsets 945GM and 945PM do not support more than 3GB system memory (RAM), even when a 64-bit operating system is installed.
    Please contact the  manufacturer to confirm if the laptop support 4GB ram.
    Please note: Since the website is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.
    Please explain a bit about other requirements.
    What do you mean about the physical disks 0,1? Do you have several disks?
    About reset the Windows 8.1, please refer to the following article.
    How to refresh, reset, or restore your PC
    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-HK/windows-8/restore-refresh-reset-pc
    How to perform a clean installation of Windows
    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-HK/windows-8/clean-install
    Best regards,
    Fangzhou CHEN
    Fangzhou CHEN
    TechNet Community Support

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