Installing Vista or W7 - predesktop area?

Hi

My thinkpad T60p has XP Professional in the recovery partition, but i would like to install my Vista Ultimate or perhaps Windows 7 instead by clean install - however i would not like to ruin my predesktop area thing with recovery partition.
On my old Thinkpad R40, i was unable to boot into this and recover when i installed Linux because the grub bootloader ruined that possibility, and im a little afraid this will happen as well if i decide to do a clean install of Vista or Windows 7.

Anyone got some experience with this? Will i be unable to use the predesktop area / recovery if i do a clean install of Vista on my thinkpad?

Thanks in advance

 

Yes, any clean install ruins the possibility to enter the predesktop area (S: partition in newer Thinkpads.)

If you have an extra hard disk, do the clean install to that disk and when you are satisfied with it make an image copy. Then on your primary hard disk restore the C: partition only leaving the MBR, track 0 and the predesktop area intact. For more details see this thread.

First burn recovery disks so that if something goes wrong you can restore your disk to factory settings which includes setting up the predesktop area correctly. You find Create product recovery media in the Start -- All Programs -- Thinkvantage folder.

NOTE: when you do your clean install to a second disk -- be sure to physically remove your primary disk first or the new Vista system will corrupt the old C: partition so it never can be booted as C: again. The same thing goes the other way, while working on your clean install never boot your old system leaving the second disk connected or the clean install will be ruined so it never boots as C: again.

 

thanks alot

 

Should have mentioned the Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) compatibility issues also:

Your XP factory preload is set up with a predesktop area using Windows PE 2004 (1.5) based on XP SP2

Vista ships with Windows PE 2.0 and WIndows 7 with Windows PE 3.0.

I never got into the details but I know that the partitioning changed between PE 1.5 and PE 2.0. I also know that you can get Windows PE 2.0 to support the old XP partitioning so that you can load an XP system with PE 2.0. But if loading a Vista system from an xp partition using PE 1.5 will work I have no idea.

Minimum either your backup restore program needs to be able to convert your clean install Vista partition into an xp partition on your primary disk or alternatively you have to get Windows PE on your Vista clean install to use xp partitioning. The latter I think can be done -- the details should be somewhere on the microsoft support site.

 

Actually, you can (at least for Vista). I've clean installed my Vista Ultimate x64 in my T61p and I can access the pre-desktop area.

Use this great guide for a clean Vista install:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=144783

Afterwards, assuming you haven't removed the partition, re-enable the F11 function with this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=213168

 

Well yes and no.

You can restore the MBR with the .iso version of the Lenovo diskette on a T61. But I prefer not downloading ISOs that I have no knowledge of how much malware they could contain. It would be different if Lenovo provided the .iso and not just a diskette image.

Also I am not sure this solution will work on the Vista R400/T400/T500/W500/W700 where not only MBR but also track 0 needs to be restored.

So I much prefer a way that never destroys the MBR and track 0 like I described using a second disk.

 

The ISOs have no malware. They were made by me.

I think I've seen 400/500 owners saying that they could restore the MBR with this method.

 

If you already destroyed your MBR be grateful to arlab for providing the .iso to restore it, but if you didn't, use a method that preserves it.

 

Thank you for the responses. Im still a little unsure if i should try it out, will try it out,when my semester is done i think, so i have more time and don't risc standing with a computer that has problems during exams.

Thanks