Thinkpads Forum

Well... as the title says, the update, this time completely done by LENOVO almost drowned all my work

1. Read the detailed laundary list of things that can go wrong if you make the update in the readme file... its disguesting that with so many issues they even released this update.

2. First thing after you update the R&R and reboot is that you get the message telling you to update your CSS to ver. #7.

3. Fine, you do that and after reboot, nothing works... it does not recognize your windows passoword anymore!!! Tried the solution depicted on the Lenovo website and it still doe not work.. Computer won't connect to the net and frequent random errors, AC failure etc. etc..

4. Fine.. I thought of un-installing CSS & R&R to revert back to old versions... but alas.. it won't even uninstall!!

5. Re-start and go to IBM-PreDesktop to restore system to a backed up configuration and what do you find???

THE NEW R&R HAS UPDATED THE PRE-DESKTOP AND NOW IT SHOWS LENOVO INSTEAD OF IBM AND THE NEW VERSION WON'T EVEN RECOGNIZE THE OLDER BACKUPS!!!!!!! IT IS AN ISSUE WITH THE CSS IT SEAMS...

6. After a lot of playing around, I restored my system booting up directly from my external HDD which had the backups, which also had the older R&R and CSS etc.....

Now my system is back and running ..

BEWARE before you make this pathetic update.

cerebral_mamba wrote:Well... as the title says, the update, this time completely done by LENOVO almost drowned all my work

1. Read the detailed laundary list of things that can go wrong if you make the update in the readme file... its disguesting that with so many issues they even released this update.

2. First thing after you update the R&R and reboot is that you get the message telling you to update your CSS to ver. #7.

3. Fine, you do that and after reboot, nothing works... it does not recognize your windows passoword anymore!!! Tried the solution depicted on the Lenovo website and it still doe not work.. Computer won't connect to the net and frequent random errors, AC failure etc. etc..

4. Fine.. I thought of un-installing CSS & R&R to revert back to old versions... but alas.. it won't even uninstall!!

5. Re-start and go to IBM-PreDesktop to restore system to a backed up configuration and what do you find???

THE NEW R&R HAS UPDATED THE PRE-DESKTOP AND NOW IT SHOWS LENOVO INSTEAD OF IBM AND THE NEW VERSION WON'T EVEN RECOGNIZE THE OLDER BACKUPS!!!!!!! IT IS AN ISSUE WITH THE CSS IT SEAMS...

6. After a lot of playing around, I restored my system booting up directly from my external HDD which had the backups, which also had the older R&R and CSS etc.....

Now my system is back and running ..

BEWARE before you make this pathetic update.

Unfortunately, I didn't see your post in time and stupidly went through the update. Now I cannot access the restore to factory condition option and my laptop is completely screwed up. I only have the Rescue and Recovery CD (1 CD), but am not sure if I can get it to detect the factory stuff in the hidden partition and put my laptop back in factory condition. Oh what a mess!!! I also can't create the recovery disk set because when I try it says there is an internal error.

I also did the update and I am not having any problems. However, I made sure to remove the old CSS/R&R before letting it install the updates.

The only problem I am having is that the new R&R seems to not recognize my old backups on my USB drive. A pain in the [censored] but not that big of a problem.


EDIT: Forgot to mention that when I removed my old R&R/CSS, I made sure to tell it to save my user settings. After the new versions were installed and I opened them for the first time, I was able to restore all my previous settings.

I have too much valuable data on my computer now and the backups are also vital. So< i am going to keep using my 3.01 version and hopefully once my current project is over and I can afford to risk the update, I will go ahead and do it.

Lenovo should be clearer about the implications of such updates. The people who buy ThinkPads for the most part, do so, 'coz they want the most reliable system out there and value their data immensely. To release such an update that affects the whole system if things go wrong without perfecting it or explicitly warning users just shows the negligence and lack of hard commitment on Lenovo's part.

I would stay away from this update if you can't risk a screwup.

Hanson wrote:

cerebral_mamba wrote:Well... as the title says, the update, this time completely done by LENOVO almost drowned all my work

1. Read the detailed laundary list of things that can go wrong if you make the update in the readme file... its disguesting that with so many issues they even released this update.

2. First thing after you update the R&R and reboot is that you get the message telling you to update your CSS to ver. #7.

3. Fine, you do that and after reboot, nothing works... it does not recognize your windows passoword anymore!!! Tried the solution depicted on the Lenovo website and it still doe not work.. Computer won't connect to the net and frequent random errors, AC failure etc. etc..

4. Fine.. I thought of un-installing CSS & R&R to revert back to old versions... but alas.. it won't even uninstall!!

5. Re-start and go to IBM-PreDesktop to restore system to a backed up configuration and what do you find???

THE NEW R&R HAS UPDATED THE PRE-DESKTOP AND NOW IT SHOWS LENOVO INSTEAD OF IBM AND THE NEW VERSION WON'T EVEN RECOGNIZE THE OLDER BACKUPS!!!!!!! IT IS AN ISSUE WITH THE CSS IT SEAMS...

6. After a lot of playing around, I restored my system booting up directly from my external HDD which had the backups, which also had the older R&R and CSS etc.....

Now my system is back and running ..

BEWARE before you make this pathetic update.

Unfortunately, I didn't see your post in time and stupidly went through the update. Now I cannot access the restore to factory condition option and my laptop is completely screwed up. I only have the Rescue and Recovery CD (1 CD), but am not sure if I can get it to detect the factory stuff in the hidden partition and put my laptop back in factory condition. Oh what a mess!!! I also can't create the recovery disk set because when I try it says there is an internal error.

If nothing else seams to work out, you can always call IBM and ask them to ship you the restore CD's ASAP. Although I recovered my syste booting directly from my external backups, I also tried the recovery discs from IBM and they will work fine.

techflavor wrote:I also did the update and I am not having any problems. However...

The only problem I am having is that the new R&R seems to not recognize my old backups on my USB drive. A pain in the [censored] but not that big of a problem.
...

Thanks for everyone's tips, and it is your practical advice that makes this forum so great!
(I was about to install to try it, but ran out of time last nite...)

Maybe everyone could consider to do with backups:

A) all user data simply copy to external USB hard drive encosures (I suspect many users on this forums have a few spare HDD's sitting around)...

B) use R&R to image your hard drive only after installing your programs & settings (and before user data was added).


[Edit: This way, if R&R won't recognize your backups you still have your data, & just do a (painful) Factory Restore option...]

Again, thank you for saving me hours of grief (and I do feel your pain...)

:::

I do all the update & my system is working properly.
I make a new base backup with R&R & delete the
old backup on my network drive.

I guess people who is having problem after upgrade is because
their Windows system have some hidden problem but
they never know.....!

:::

That's kinda a copout explanation ... several people can't access their computers after updating IBM/Lenovo security software ... and it's due to some amorphous, unknown Windows problem? Bah!

Me, I'm glad I'm using Norton Ghost to completely backup all my partitions. I don't see a need to update the FPR and CSS software, but I've been "stung" by Software Installer before, installing something that I didn't see in the list of items to update.

Speaking from a soapbox, if a software update rendered my system unusable, I'd be on the phone to Support demanding WHATEVER it took to repair it. If Lenovo gets the message that shoddily QA'ed software will cost them major $ to repair, they won't release such buggy updates. Just my two cents. YMMV.