What exactly can the recovery discs do?

[Dead1nside]

You've probably read one of my many boring posts about the T41p I'm getting.

Today I found out that it doesn't come with the Windows XP cd, is this standard? All my experience with laptops so far is with an Acer Aspire 5022Wlmi which also didn't come with the XP disc.

Annoyingly it is FAT32, from the recovery discs can I reformat it to factory settings? If i was to wipe the hard drive, could I also do a full reinstall?

Thanks for any answers.

[Orevin]

Windows XP comes with a tool (convert.exe) to convert the HD to NTFS. No data will be lost, no reinstallation necessary.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodte ... rtfat.mspx

I guess, when you use the recovery disks, the HD will be FAT32 again

[Dead1nside]

Thanks for that Orevin, that's really useful. Will give that a look on my current laptop.

Would still appreciate some clarification of what the recovery discs can do. Thanks.

[Kyocera]

The recovery discs simply recover your hd to the state it was when it was turned on for the first time out of the box. If you use the recovery discs to format your HD it will convert to ntfs automatically. It will also recreate the recovery partition on your hard drive so you can recover using the f11 key.

[Dead1nside]

But is factory state with Windows XP installed and Thinkpad specific utilities loaded?

[Kyocera]

yes

[christopher_wolf]

I, errr, can't see how factory state would be anything other than the Windows XP OEM and utilities preload you get once you open the Thinkpad from the first time from the factory.

Another thing to note, you can only burn one set the first time; however, when you use that set to re-image the preload on the Thinkpad, you get the ability to make another set.

[bill bolton]

Today I found out that it doesn't come with the Windows XP cd, is this standard?

For laptops in general, its been standard from the major brands for quite a few years now. It also now quite common with major brand desktop systems.

As PC systems have come equipped with CD (or DVD) burners as standard, a Windows "factory install" image has increasingly been provided on a hidden partioon (or similar) on teh hard disk, with a utility fo some sort that allows the user to burn their own "recovery" CD (or DVD) image.

Cheers,

Bill