Rescue and Recovery 4 and X31 HPA Restore Your Backups

Question

Good morning!
Installed a new hard drive on my X31. I used a purchased set of official restore media to do a clean install of Windows XP with the HPA Predesktop Area in place.
Two weeks later all of my Windows and ThinkPad updates are complete and I am ready for a clean backup.
I installed Rescue and Recovery 4.23 and after a false start, I successfully made a backup to a USB Hard Drive that will boot into ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery. The Windows software seems to be fully functional.
On normal bootup, however, if I use F11 or the Access IBM button, I am taken to the original Predesktop HPA interface -- so the partition is really there. The Factory Restore appears to now be functioning if I ever wanted to use it.
My problem (or questions) relates to the "Restore Your Backups" icon. When I select it, I get the message: "IBM Rapid Restore PC is not installed. Press the enter key to reboot to Windows and install IBM Rapid Restore PC."
Therefore, that portion of the HPA is not accessible.
And, therefore, other than a factory restore, there is no way to run restore from the HPA.
So, here are my questions:
1. Is there anyway to put the Rescue and Recovery 4 predesktop area in this HPA?
2. If so, would it wipe out the Factory Restore option?
3. Should I have made at least one backup with "IBM Rapid Restore PC" before the "Rescue and Recovery 4" installer removed it?
4. Is there any space on the HPA I can recover?
5. Is there a tool or method to delete the "Restore Your Backups" icon if it is non-functional?
This may all seem not that important but I do care about this awesome X31 and I really would like to know how all of these competing technologies interface with each other.
Thanks for any help.,
Charlie

Answer 1

> ... it does not support X30 or X31, this could be part of the problem.
It also says that it *** may *** work on other systems. My experience is that if the IBM/Lenovo software supports the X32 (and RNR4 does), then it will work just fine on the X31 (example: Access Connections; exceptions: drivers that are specific to the very few hardware differences like CDC daughter cards -- Bluetooth).
The existing version was uninstalled and it was "way older" than what is covered in those special instructions (thanks, I did check it out -- no directory or utility present).
This is probably the end point for me -- good advice: "If that does not work, and if R&R under Windows works, you might create Recovery media and then boot from that if you want to restore from backups."
So, here is one new idea and one new confusion:
The last "official" RNR that supports the X31 was version 3.1 but it contains this somewhat cryptic (to me) caveat:
Consideration 12 
computers that have a hidden protected area (HPA), also referred
to as PARTIES, and have the Rescue and Recovery program installed
will not be able to boot into either the PARTIES or Rescue and
Recovery workspace after recovering the original factory contents.
To enable the PARTIES area again, restore a backup using either the
Rescue and Recovery program in the Windows environment or by booting
from rescue media and then uninstall the Rescue and Recovery program.
My thought: Should I uninstall RNR4, install RNR3.1, and then upgrade to RNR4?
My confusion: There are apparently two types of predesktop areas: HPA and Type 12.
Do RNR3 and RNR4 only use Type 12? If so, can it coexist with the HPA, can it replace the HPA on its own, or do RNR3 and RNR4 not install the Type 12 space nor update the HPA if the installer finds an intact HPA?
To recap, what I have now is an HPA as it would have existed in 2004. I have a working RNR4 in Windows. The Access IBM button and F11 boot to the HPA. What I would like is an RNR4 predesktop area that can do a factory restore.
Any more help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Charlie