Question

HELP...Trying to ghost IBM Thinkpad R51 laptop

Asked by: rsnellman

Hi, I am trying to ghost some IBM Thinkpad R51 laptops, but the IBM Rescue & Recovery hidden partition is making life difficult.  After I have ghosted the laptops, they boot up with an error message that repeats.  Something about a signature error or something along those lines.  I have run into this before and couldn't recall how I fixed it...I vaguely recall using the fixmbr command, but when I do that it boots back up into the IBM Rescue & Recovery partition.  Giving options to recovery to factory status.

I did notice when booting to an XP Pro SP3 CD after this happens, it displays the two partition, 1- D:\Windows  2- C:\MinINT .  Now I found that a bit weird.  

What makes this even stranger, is when I go through the configuring of the ghost for the client side, it shows the same thing on the partitions page of the ghost setup.

The master ghost image laptop is the EXACT same model that I am trying to ghost to.

We have a Ghost Server that we are using and it has worked fine with several ghosting sessions this year.

I am convinced it has something to do with the IBM Rescue & Recovery partition.

I tried deleted that partition and now the laptop boots up saying no OS found.

So, am I on the right track with the fixmbr or have I totally lost my mind?

Anyone else run into this scenario?  If so, how did you fix it?

I hope I haven't left anything out.

Thanks for your time.

Bob

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Asked On
2009-09-12 at 06:45:16ID24726793
Tags

Microsoft Windows XP Pro

,

Symantec Ghost

,

IBM Thinkpad

Topics

Windows XP Operating System

,

PC Laptops

,

Norton Ghost Backup Software

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
3

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Answers

 

by: pinkboyPosted on 2009-09-12 at 06:54:48ID: 25316531

Can you try running Fixboot via the XP Recover Console by booting from the XP CD?  What is the exact message it says when it cant find the OS?

 

by: thinkpads_userPosted on 2009-09-12 at 07:57:12ID: 25316710

It's hard to say for sure.

1. Ghost (Symantec) usually works fine for my clients. Try remaking the Ghost images and try again with the machines.
2. If you have already tried ghosting once and it didn't work (your first post), use FDISK on the target machine to remove all partitions and then FDISK /mbr . Then try Ghosting again. Be sure your model image includes the recovery partition if you expect it to be on the target machine.
3. Even the Ghost works, you can also use Rescue and Recovery to create a full image on a set of DVD's or on a Server and then restore this image to the target machine. This works as well.

... Thinkpads_User

 

by: SJH01Posted on 2009-09-12 at 12:41:08ID: 25317618

I have experienced the same issue on IBM/Lenovo laptops. It is related to the Rescue and Recovery partition and the boot manager.

There are several articles on the Lenovo website that address the issue:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-57590
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-4VXJZU

I have also use Acronis True Image 2009 to successfully create and deploy system images on Thinkpads.

Good Luck and will look for your updated comments.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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