RE: Cleaning old AS/400 machine

Ok, these are made up dates so only use them for examples.
Let's say V4R5 came out on Jan 1, 1994.
And you installed from that media.
Now let's say IBM came out with numerous PTFs and rolled out a new cume
for V4R5 on the average of twice a year. Some of these PTF's are really
critical. Perhaps "system automatically powers off after Nov 1, 2005" or
some such thing. Now you clear off your system and lose all PTF's and
reinstall from original media. You now no longer have these fixes. And,
if you follow the install instructions it will clearly state something to
the effect of put on the latest cume and IPL the system to let the INZSYS
run.

However, if you rebuild from your saves you will have these PTF's.

I would also tend to use a GO SAVE, 21 and not any custom program you may
use to do saves. A lot of people still think they are working on an
AS/400 or some other predecessor to the current system and think they do
not need to bother with stuff like IFS and whatnot.

I would also search hard for Recovery Guide for your particular release.
It will have step by step instructions for how to IPL from tape, clear
your disks, etc. You can even follow those instructions up to the point
of stopping at restoring user data so that you can only restore stuff you
want to keep and lose the clutter.

Rob Berendt