Thinkpads Forum

HI1 I have (had win 8.1 on the t420 I purchased in Nov.2014 but it crashed last week .I have tried an iso but can,t get it going. It is out of warrant as of sept./14 but has the coa under the battery .The unit is 41786UU so if anyone has any help I would love to go back to win7 thanks in advance.
to be clear I really want win 7 pro disk

You have a PM from me.

You may not be able to use Lenovo Win7 recovery CDs if your computer came with Win8. The activation code burned into the BIOS ROM is now for the OS that came with the computer. Having said that, if you have a product key under the battery, it sounds like the computer originally came with Win7 (Lenovo's Win 8 computers no longer have a product key).

4178-6UU originally came with Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.

Hi,

How about these:
http://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology ... load-links

Are these illegal, cracked or pirated downloads?

Digtal River provides these downloads via Microsoft Azure. Since this is an official download channel, you can be sure to receive setup files that are virus-free, secure, legitimate and untouched. Downloading the files from Digital River is absolutely legal and completely free of charge. Without a legally obtained product key however, any Windows 7 installation will only run for 30 days. Afterwards, it needs to be activated, or the evaluation timer be reset.

bwaldow's way is the best way to go without shelling cash.

Given how well Lenovo's support site is, I don't think you'll be missing anything other then the reserve partition and maybe a few backgrounds or icons from the original OEM ThinkPad preload.

You might just need Microsoft Security Essentials for whatever expiring antivirus they loaded on there.

There can be some downsides to using downloaded retail disk images of Windows:

- None of the Thinkpad-specific drivers will be included. Now that might be a plus for the person that wants a "clean" install (i.e., no factory bloatware) but it does mean that you have to go to the Lenovo Support site and find and download what you need. That in itself can be a major headache.

- Using a download copy of Windows means you have to use a product key that works with a retail version. I'm not so sure that the T420 COA on factory Thinkpads can be used in this manner. It certainly won't cost you anything to try (other than the download time and the blank disk(s) you would need to use).

- I'm assuming that the Win7 .ISO files from Digital River are DVD images. That means one would need a DVD writer. After talking to the OP for the last several days, it turns out he only has a CD writer and not a DVD. Thus, not an option in his case. That's why a disk set has already been mailed to him.

The Yellow headed bird on his perch has clearly defined the obvious solution.

other notes:

- the digitalriver images work perfectly fine with a USB, no need for DVD. I recommend ultimate x64, but pro is nearly the same thing if that's what you want.
- as some may have mentioned, you will need the lenovo certificate xrm-ms file, and the ?volume?oem? key#. (this is questionable behavior, but, I don't think illegal - the SLIC paragraph in the ACPI table of the machine's BIOS, is what proves the OS that was ALREADY paid/licensed to ship with it, independently of any COA sticker)
- I have used the digitalriver ISO (as USB) on: x61t, x200t, x220t. zero driver problems, win7sp1-refresh has everything. either out of the box, or in windows update. yes, even hardware drivers. the only thing I had to use Lenovo System Update for was the battery manager util (yes Windows even has the battery/PM driver itself)
- the lack of bloat is gorgeous!!!

(ugh, sorry, the win8 BIOS activation-stuff is too new and alien to me. machines like that may well be missing the SLIC2.1 bits, and therefore not qualify for the win7 versions from digitalriver)

I,m still with you Yellow Bird!!!!

USPS tracking indicates that it's at the P.O. as of 7:02 this morning.

Will pick it up Monday morning . Thanks again.

tarvoke wrote:. I recommend ultimate x64, but pro is nearly the same thing if that's what you want.

You may want this newer version (called MediaRefresh) instead! See also: http://www.mydigitallife.info/official- ... tal-river/

thanks RBS, you are on top of things as always!

no idea why I'd instead linked the (German?!) Pro N sp1-refresh version, ha! think you linked what I meant to link!

but, agreed, sp1-refresh is indeed the latest ever (several years ago) published version - old enough that plenty of network-updates will happen at/during install-time, and, even then, windows update will have about 17 million more other things post-install. including PM/battery driver, LCD driver, ethernet, wireless, Intel HD, ...

all I can truly remember is that many years ago I took the time/headache to figure out the "right" version of x64 win7sp1-refresh ultimate, put it on a bootable USB along with the cert and key along with instructions to my future very-forgetful-self how to activate the cert hm, I should probably make a backup copy of that USB...

oh, and this is something nice, which finally shipped standard /inclusive starting win8, but I highly recommend for win7:
MS Security Essentials
is basically the old Windows Defender grown up into a true antivirus+antimalware. as good as any of the other free ones, with the bonus of having zero ad vectors (my past preference was Avast, but, good lord, I swear every major update became simply an excuse for them to add more advertisements...)

I have T420 original Lenovo restore disks with W7 Pro, drivers restore partition. PM me if interested.

@deadzoo If your post is to the OP, then he's already received a set ( http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 80#p749280 ). If, however, you're offering this to the membership at large, then it would probably be better if you posted this in a separate FS thread here in the Marketplace.

My bad for not reading slower. I would have expected a post saying he has the disk, thanks for all your help.

Few and far in between are my chances to contribute and give back to this forum that has given me so much. I thought I had an opportunity to help a fellow forum member. In the future I will try not to repeat this kind of mistakes.

Long days and pleasant nights,
Rod Walsh