Once again, I turn to the many knowledgeable people on the forum for advice.

I own an IBM ThinkPad whose hard disk died on me some time ago. I have located and purchased a new and identical 60GB Hitachi hard disk via the Internet which should arrive soon. I am presuming that it will be in virgin or pristine condition, i.e. completely blank.

My goal is to end up with a dual-boot IBM ThinkPad that has the following working options:

a Linux distro - which one is not yet decided
Windows XP Pro, SP3 with 2 drives (system and data)
IBM Rescue & Recovery accessed by its blue "Access IBM" button

The ThinkPad has a fingerprint reader that uses ThinkVantage Fingerprint software, 3 USB ports, but no internal CD Drive. Since the new hard disk will be blank, I wish to know just exactly how to correctly proceed in a step-by-step manner in order to achieve my stated goal.

Thanking all who may reply, I therefore welcome suggestions and/or instructions on how I should proceed.

Peter
a 72 year old fellow still willing to learn, living in Thailand

Sold all of mine except for the T23 I still have for testing purposes.
You forgot a link to a review of your model number Thinkpad which will help members help you.

A review of your IBM link from like http://www.notebookcheck.net
will help your cause a little better.

I only run Linux on my T23. But with XP. I know. Make recovery, XP, primary partitions 1st but divide the drive to allow extended partition for the linux install. Install Linux last. Let grub handle bootloading for Windows and Linux.

A distro install how to and distro recommendation cannot be made till you let the forum know what model IBM Thinkpad we are talking about here and exact system specs makes things so much easier also.

Have fun and know this is doable. IBM is Linux Friendly.

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki

1 members found this post helpful.

For rokytnji ...

Thanks for getting the ball rolling.

My machine is a ThinkPad X41, model type #2525E2A released in 2005, but getting the system specs at this time is probably impossible as the HD is non-functional. The Linux distro that interests me at this time is Kali Sana.

I do not know anything about using Kali or have any interest in doing so.

Sorry.

Penetration Testing is a hang-able offense like cattle and horse stealing here on the Mexican Border.

So I run something else on my Dell Xt2 Touchscreen instead.

Having said that. The best I can show you is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qN4jX8zbbM

For other members his specs are:

from: http://www.notebookreview.com/notebo...ew-pics-specs/

Hi,

You could use; Or use;Either way you could use your USB ports to boot a Gnu/Linux. You could then use that OS to prepare the new HDD for choice of installation for your chosen Gnu/Linux. You are sure that kali will meet your needs? 'kali' is the current buzz for penetrations usage. Maybe consider another popular Gnu/Linux like Get Slackware Linux by using Get Slack. LQ members at Slackware forum are friendly & helpful to new users.
Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

Greetings to the Helpers!

A bit of an update for you all. Right now, I am without a hard disk for my ThinkPad x41! I have located the same make and model via eBay and have bought it - all 60GB of it! Am now waiting for it to arrive and eBay has given an ETA in my village of Oct 15th or shortly after. The new HD will probably be completely blank so I'm trying to figure out what I'll have to do to make it useable. I got in touch with a friend who also has a ThinkPad of the same vintage and he has sent me some visualisation of how his is partitioned. I see 4 groupings:
1) Basic MBR
2) C: (NTFS)
3) D: (NTFS)
4) (Unallocated)

To see that, please look at the attachment 'ThinkPad Partitions.jpg'. He also sent me the properties of his HD. To see them, please view 'ThinkPad HD Properties.jpg'.

My original idea of installing "Kali Sana" was probably going to get me in way over my head, so I'm going to go for the distro "Debian 8.2 (jessie)" to get a simpler feel of a simpler Linux distro. The suggestion to check out 'Slackware' seemed as though its team have just revived itself so I thought that a more stable version would be a better intro to Linux.

My concerns initially revolve around making the blank HD useable and I gather that it should get partitioned and each partition formatted so that it can receive the software I wish to include in my dual-boot system. I repeat what I would like:

1) use of the "Access IBM" button to operate the Rescue and Recovery V 4.23 software. I
have to idea as to how the original IBM synched the "Access IBM" button with the
Rescue & Recovery software. My friend told me his "Access IBM" button simply brought
up the BIOS.
2) two Operating systems:
a) Windows XP Pro, SP3 having 2 drives: C: for system, D: for data
b) Debian 8.2
3) the Basic MBR

Your advice on how many partitions my "dream system" should have in total and how big each one of them should be and other considerations I should be aware of in order to make the new HD fully useable would be welcomed at this time. All of this is probably old hat to you folks, but I have never had the opportunity to prepare a HD so that it can be a dual-boot one or even a single-boot for that matter. I will be relying heavily on your counsel and suggestions to make everything turn out OK.

Thanks and regards,
Peter
in northern Thailand

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You might want to familiarize yourself with Linux naming conventions for hard drives and partitions. It doesn't use the same method used in windows which is basically a carryover from the 1970's when computers came with two floppy drives and a hard drive, hence the "c:" for your hard drive. A brief overview at the link below. If that doesn't help, do an online search for "Linux drive naming conventions" and you should get a number of links.

http://askubuntu.com/questions/56929...-naming-scheme

I'm not sure what you meant by your comment about Slackware but it is the oldest currently active Linux distribution with Debian a close second.


I'm not sure what your "Access IBM" is supposed to do. Access the BIOS? I don't see how you will have any Recovery software since with windows that was generally a separate partition on the drive and you could use your Recovery CD to set the operating system back to factory defaults.

As far as partitions go, I would suggest that you keep it simple and just create a root and swap partition.

Hi,
I am not sure where you got the idea that Slackware has revived itself. You can look at this timeline to verify the history;Please notice that Slackware is still alive since it's release back in 1993. Slackware is considered the best UNIX-like GNU/Linux that is available and Slackware is very stable.

If you are referencing 'Slackware -current' which is the development work for Slackware team & user testing before the next to be stable release. The Slackware team will release rc (release candidate) for a continued user testing then decide for a stable release. As PV & team advise that a user should not use '-current' in a production environment. Slackware's last release was 14.1 on '04-Nov-2013 09:44'. So you can see that the Slackware team is very patient and thorough. I wish I could say the same for some Slackware users.

Hope this helps to clarify things.
Have fun & enjoy!

This is how rok would roll. According to your friends image layout

Basic MBR = 55+GB > what the heck for (cuz that is big) ? 55gig for a boot/recovery partition?

c= 21gig > OK, sounds good and about right for a running XP system.

d= new volume > I would make that a extended logical partition to put Linux on there as there can only be 4 primary partitions and / and /swap need that space. So that is 2 extra partitions.

7MB = Unallocated > Not much there but I would allow /swap suck that up. Since we are talking older gear.

That is pretty small and you have big expectations in mind. I'd rethink this.
If you want to run Windows. Then use the whole 60 gig drive for XP.
If you want to run with Linux on it also.

Run a persistent usb install instead of dual boot on a 60 gig drive and use bios to boot from usb.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIUQSi0Dw1s

Usb drives are pretty cheap now. I bought 3 / 15 gig usb drives recently for 12 bucks for all 3.

In other words. I am agreeing and +1 ing what onebuck posted earlier. Only with a Kali linux video link.

Edit: I leave it to others to post a how to for a Slackware persistence usb install or full Slackware install to usb off of dvd or cd.

Slackware persistence might be tough. I actually would recommend (and I believe the OP is leaning toward) Jessie. I haven't done a whole lot with Debian yet. I'm just starting to use it as my main distro.

Anyhow, as for your disk partitioning, you could use a USB for Linux, but if you want to go all hard drive, keep it simple and just format one NTFS partition of whatever size sounds right (maybe around 10-30GB) and use Debian guided partitioning whole disk option to fill the rest with swap and /. The MBR is not a partition, and will not need any editing. Only bootloaders edit that upon install. It will be junk data until then.
So,
C:\ 10-30GB
/ and swap Whatever size Debian chooses for swap and /

Install Windows first, and using its partition editor, make the NTFS partition.

Then install Debian, and in the installer, use "Guided partitioning", select "/ and swap" or something like that, and use the values it tells you. You will be all set up.

Edit: I looked at the pictures and the section where it says: "Basic MBR 55.89GB" is telling the type of the drive and total size. If you used the same tool, you'd see approximately that too.

PS: I am setting up a laptop with the same size drive, and this is how I will do it. Windows (Vista!) is already set up with 11.4GB only for the sake of having Windows. Debian will have the rest.

Many thanks to onebuck, rokynji, and oldtechaa for lots of details and suggestions to ponder and review while awaiting the arrival of the new HD. Some comments about 60GB being not so big should keep in mind that the only replacement HDs I found on the Internet for the ThinkPad had sizes of 40 GB and 60GB. Their shapes aren't at all like the HDs I've seen in newer models either. It's a given that I can live with. Another point to ponder at first glance is that it might not even be necessary to have a bloated Windows XP on the machine at all! Definitely something to think about.

For yancek or vancek, the "Access IBM" button on a ThinkPad is not simply getting in touch with the BIOS, it's more like providing "an essential tool that enables users and administrators to restore backups, access files, diagnose problems, and make Ethernet connections if the Microsoft Windows operating system will not open or run correctly. It also enables deployment of critical updates to systems that are corrupted or off the network, as well as automatically apply patches to a system when a restore is performed.

This package is intended for systems running Microsoft Windows XP (32-bit)."

That's the info provided by "support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/migr-76226". Before my ThinkPad HD died on me, I had used the "Access IBM" button which provided the opportunities to do such things as an "Express Repair" and/or a "Quick Restore". This ability is one that I really want to keep available on the new HD. I had imagined that IBM had put the "Rescue and Recovery" software (still available at the above website) on the ThinkPad for emergency situations. When I had been able to use the ThinkPad before its demise, the Repair or Restore software was "invisible" which made me think that it was located on a hidden partition; all I could see with Win XP were Drives C: & D:.

I do appreciate all the ideas provided so far, well ahead of the time when the new HD arrives. I always like to do some advance planning, so-to-speak, to check out what the experts think. Thanks to all.