[Thinkpad] new T43, Acronis, partitions and Access IBM

So I received my new T43 last night and promptly had a problem during
setup. I think it was me pressing the Access IBM button before XP had
finished its initial install.

Anyway, I did a complete IBM system restore (man, that takes a long
time!) and all seems fine now.

But I have a question: for years, the first thing I did with a new
computer was wipe it clean, partition the drive and perform a clean OS
install. This was mostly because I wanted to get rid of the crap usually
installed on machines and I preferred keeping data on D:, programs and
OS files on C: (I know some people go even further, separating OS,
programs and data files). I used Ghost for years, but recently switch to
Acronis True Image (far better solution these days, IMO).

I have read here that the software that comes with ThinkPads isn't bad -
and I'm definitely interested in using/keeping the Access IBM or (Think
Access or whatever the name is) stuff. I want to use the utility for
managing network connections for instance.

So here's my problem: If I want to create separate partitions (C and D),
is the best way to do this to create an image of my current (factory) C
drive, wipe everything, partition the drives (using XP install), then go
back and put the factory C image on the new, smaller C partition?

Is this the easiest/best way to retain the utilities while also creating
a D: partition?

Can I download all of the IBM utilities and do a clean install? Do other
people do this? I don't really want the Norton stuff on my laptop, but
that's the only one that I'd probably get rid of. It's almost not worth
the trouble of a complete install and separate setup of all the
utilities to get rid of one program.

For the record, I use D for all data files (ex: MyDocs, /localhost,
etc.) and backup D: regularly (using SyncBack). I then use Acronis to
create images of C: after software installs and hardware changes.

This is what works for me. However, I'm open to other people's
strategies/advice/etc. and would appreciate any help.

Thanks.

-- 
Ken Green
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