Help with Recovery on T61p

hi,
i recently tried to install the Mac os on the thinkpad with hackintosh's iAktos, and it totally messed up the partitions on my laptop, i tried my Vista's install disc but it says cannot locate the drives? and R&R could not do it either, it seems that the drives are not viewable (could this be the result of me accidentally converting the basic into dynamic drive?)

im really lost, is there a recovery disc available? or software that will restore the system, i just got the laptop so full swipes are not a big problem as i dont have much on it

thanks for all the help

Freeman

 

Did you switch your BIOS SATA to Compatibility before beginning the Vista install process?

 

well, considering that Vista was on there before, i havent changed anything, is there a BIOS set up i should do? maybe FDISK.exe?

 

i should add that i can see the original system files when i usb-boot with Slax, but im not sure if that will get me anywhere

 

By default, BIOS SATA is set to AHCI. You need to switch it to Compatibility to install Vista. Then you install the SATA drivers to enable AHCI again.

From my guide:

 

i will give that a try right away, but there is another problem, i cant get into the bios, when it restarts and i push the thinkvantage button, it just goes directly to R&R, can i do the job there?

 

i should also mention that i can get to the vista install until just after the language selection, after which when i press install now, it says something along the lines that "info could not be retrieved from the disk"


yeah, the same message appears, and i tried to troubleshoot with the repair function on the vista disk, but it asks me for drivers, but i cant even see my old 'system' partitions so there is no way for me to do it that route... this is definitely not a great experience, im worried that i will have to bring it to a shop for repair

 

To get get into the BIOS, just keep tapping F1 as it boots. F1 is what it is for ThinkPads, don't know about the other Lenovo systems though.

 

When you're in R&R pre-boot environment, switch to the "Advanced View". This way, you'll be able to see the option "Go to BIOS" (or something like that).
F1 also works.

Also, if you really don't care about loosing all your data, you can make a "Factory Restore" through R&R. I'm not sure, but I think that should solve your problem.

 

-there is no need at all to put the setting in "compatibility" mode in order to install vista.vista certainly recognize the AHCI mode.but putting it in compatibility mode is preferred ONLY IF you have problems.as this setting is the basic and you should always set the options to the most basic ones when you are troubleshooting.

-as said,press f1 to enter bios to after entering r&r click go to bios

are you trying to install using a retail version?what do u mean you are able to see system files?

 

okay, to clarify everything

i had the hard drive partitioned into 3 when i installed Vista ultimate (including the hidden partition that's 4 partitions), so when i made a new partition for the mac os, every went from basic into dynamic (which i cant restore)

i tried the full system restore in R&R, it fails every time, so basically all the hype on thinkvantage brought me nothing

i can still see the system files when i boot up with Slax, so they are not deleted

i can see the drives in the hackint0sh installation "disc utility", but i am afraid to make changes there (such as formating the whole hdd)

i think part of the problem is that i edited the boot-up to dual boot with the mac os i made changed to the startup ex. commands such as "fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0" and i flagged the drive that i thought Vista was installed

now im back at square one, with no operating thinkpad, the main problem seems to be recognizing the harddrive (maybe a format error) as the vista install disc is not able to "retrieve info about the harddrive"


i hope this helps those that knows much more about partitions than i do,

Freeman

 

okay, i got creative and used the mac os install disc to fix the harddrive, and reinstall vista back on, thats a relief, but i noticed that my HDD is only 187GB out of 200? is that normal, because i think i formatted the hidden partition with that, so shouldnt it be close to 196gb?

 

The actual size is about 93% of the advertised so 187GB sounds right.

 

well, all is well, now that i have reinstalled everything, thanks to everyone for their help, especially Arkit3kt

as for now, im contemplating about restoring the hidden partition, should i even worry about that? from now on i will be backing up everything on a external 80gb HDD, no more careless mishaps

Freeman