[ale] thinkpad recovery

[Ken Cochran]

Sounds to me like a BIOS password has been set somehow.
(duh) Trying to remember here but I think resetting THAT
requires partial disassembly of the machine & flipping a
small dip-switch or pushing a teeny-tiny button or such.
Instructions should be on Lenovo's website.  IBM's site always
had VERY detailed repair information (even down to exploded
engineering assembly diagrams with assembly part numbers) and
IIRC, the password-reset was in a FAQ they had.  *However*,
if you (or it) somehow set its hardware security/crypto thing
(the "security chip") then they say the only recovery from
THAT is replacement of the main system board.

-kc

>Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:01:35 -0500
>From: Geoffrey <lists at serioustechnology.com>
>To: ale at ale.org
>Subject: Re: [ale] thinkpad recovery
>
>Christopher Fowler wrote:
>> Ron Mellema wrote:
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Geoffrey
>>> Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2009 7:40 PM
>>> To: ale at ale.org
>>> Subject: Re: [ale] thinkpad recovery
>>>
>>>> Jim Popovitch wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 19:04, Geoffrey <lists at serioustechnology.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>>>> Hints would be greatly accepted...
>>>>>>
>>>>> Is it possible that your current R&R disk is outdated?   I would
>>>>> suspect that the original T60 R&R disk would pre-date security
>>>>> "enhancements" in SP2 and SP3.
>>>>>
>>>> I created the disk from the current environment.  It is running XP and
>>>> will only boot if you boot to safe mode.  I booted to safe mode and
>>>> created the rescue disk.
>>>>
>>>> All I want to do is reload this thing from scratch.
>>>>
>>> On all IBM/Lenovo laptops there is a R&R partition, D: drive, that you can
>>> use to perform the recovery. To boot from this partition at the initial bios
>>> screen push the blue button on the keyboard that says "Access IBM"? It will
>>> load a screen that offers many options but one of them is restore factory
>>> files. I don't remember exactly the wording but if you follow the obvious
>>> and say I do not want to save any files it will result in a complete factory
>>> re-install. It will wipe the HD.
>>>
>>
>> How does that work?  Does this tell the BIOS to boot the second Windows
>> partition on disk?
>> Or does this work only with the Windows boot loader?
>
>I'm not sure how it works, but I will say that whether you boot the
>recovery facility via the recovery disk or the 'blue button',
>(ThinkAdvantage on this laptop) you get the same boot screen and
>password prompt.
>
>--
>Until later, Geoffrey