IBM Thinkpad recovery query

[cyberspace]

I have been creating a company procedure for secure disposal/dontation of laptops

On IBM Thinkpads there is a built in recovey feature which can fully restore the OS and settings etc.

I was just wondering about the exact details of where this is stored? Is it on a hidden/locked partition?

I did a DOD erase of the C drive and the recovery was still available and i'm just curious as to how!

I have known HP built in recovery to totally fail as a result of a DOD wipe so how does the IBM one survive.

More importantly, is there any security issue with that?

'When all else fails.......read the manual'

 

[bchizary]

the recovery info is on a different partition, i used to have a thinkpad, i did a fresh install of xp (from an xp disk) deleted all the partitions on the machine, including the recovery one, and created a single partition on the drive. All the drivers are available from the IBM website, and any future installations can be done from the disk rather than the recovery.

I prefer this method as i think the recovery option puts on a lot of manufacturer rubbish you really can do without.

 

[cyberspace]

Yeah I prefer a non-bloated install aswell personally, but the IBM recovery option is pretty decent for a non techy

The recovery partition isn't viewable (at least not by default) from Windows, so I take it that no sensitive data will have been stored there by accident

'When all else fails.......read the manual'

 

[bchizary]

no its not updated, it a total out of the box restore, anything you have since installed or saved is not part of the recovery