Filter
Top Products
3. Turn on your computer. At the prompt, press the
Access IBM button. (The prompt “To interrupt normal
startup, press the blue Access IBM button” appears for
only a few seconds. You must press the Access IBM
button quickly.) The Predesktop Area appears on the
screen. Next, double-click the “Recover to factory
contents” icon. The Product Recovery program main
menu opens.
4. Select the recovery options you want, and then follow
the instructions on the screeen.
5. When the Product Recovery program finishes, your
computer will restart and begin the configuration
process.
Using the recovery CD
You can delete the Predesktop Area partition by going into
the BIOS Setup Utility (F1 at IBM Splash Screen), and
then choosing Security -> IBM Predesktop Area -->
Disabled. This will make the Predesktop Area available to
FDISK. If you choose Disabled, the following warning
appears:
Attention! If you select Disabled, the IBM Predesktop Area
will be visible and can be reclaimed by the OS. Once the
area is overwritten by OS tools, it can’t be used with
Normal or Secure again and you will need to obtain a
Recovery CD to retrieve original HDD. Please confirm that
you wish to select Disabled.
FDISK will not delete the Predesktop Area unless you do
this, because it is not visible. You would have to use
ThinkPad Maintenance Diskette to completely wipe the
drive.
To create the Predesktop Area and install the preloaded
system from the recovery CD, do the following:
To create the Predesktop Area:
1. Erase all partitions on the hard disk drive, using FDISK
or a similar application.
2. Boot with the recovery CD (and the boot diskette if
required).
3. The following message is displayed: “Your computer
originally included a Product Recovery program ...
Reinstall the Product Recovery program? (Y/N) [ ]”.
Note:
If the hard disk drive contains any partition, you
do not receive this message; go to step 1.
4. Press the Y key. The Predesktop Area is created and
loaded with the Product Recovery program files.
Related service information
General descriptions 29