thinkpad R40 freebsd preperation questions...

[Rod Person]

On Thursday 06 November 2003 05:50 am, It was written:

>
> I have only heard of people using partition magic to do this, can I do
> this with fdisk, or other?

Hello,

I have an R40. I used partition magic to resize the partition, by far the 
easiest way to resize a partition. 

> Does this partition have to be FAT32 or can I use NTFS?

It's been sometime since I've done this about 8 month or something, but I 
believe that I told partition magic that the new partition would be used for 
linux, IMO it doesn't matter if it fat32, dos or ext2 since freebsd will 
reformat the partition anyway.

> After I reinstall XP on the newly created partition, I install FreeBSD,
> is it safe to install the freebsd boot manager just like one would on a
> normal pc, or will this disrupt IBM's hidden recovery partitions or
> other hidden things on the hard disk?

If you install the freebsd boot manager the hidden partition will show in the 
boot menu, mine was F3. Pressing F3 will not boot it.  The ACCESS IBM button 
still works on boot to enable you to get into the bios and recovery menu.

> One not so tech question (and, a XP question at that!! :), From what I
> have read on this and other lists, Thinkpads don't ship with a
> re-installation disk for XP, they have the "Recovery Partition" instead.
> It is my understanding that If I request the re-installation disk from
> IBM within the first 30 days I will get it free. Has anyone had success
> with getting their reinstall CDs with out extra charge from IBM?

It's true that you don't get a recovery cd. I didn't know you could get the cd 
free within the first 30 days until I had the laptop for a few months. Also 
the other software Lotus, DVD software etc is archived on the pc in a 
directory called support. I ended up burning 3 CDs to keep the software on.
I also removed the recovery partition, but you'll want to think about that, it 
all depends on how much you use XP - I only use it to play Morrowind so all 
the windows stuff isn't too important to me.

HTH

-- 
Rod

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