Thinkpads Forum

I am planing on ordering a t400s in the next few days. I have a question regarding the rescue partition and media. I'm going to be using Linux on the laptop so pretty much as soon as I get it I'll most likely be wiping the entire drive to install Linux on it.
I would however be able to keep rescue media with Win7 in case i ever want to reinstall it. My question is, I understand there's a way to create rescue media once the laptop arrives.
Once i create that media, can i use it to install everything as I got it without the rescue partition? or do i need to keep the rescue partition regardless?
Also is there a way of requesting just the OS from lenovo? I'm not too crazy about most rescue media when it installs all the crapware along with the OS.
I have a z60t which i also wiped once i got it new a few years ago...at one point i called lenovo to ask if I could get the OS cd for re installation since i did not have the rescue partition anymore. They told me I'd have to pay for them since it has been more than 30 days (or so) since the order, that if I had requested the cd's before that they would have shipped them free. Any truth to this? This was a couple of years ago, don't know if it still applies...
Thanks!

Once you have created the recovery CDs (which will include every bit of bloat- and crapware as well, the way it arrived ex-factory), you can wipe the whole HD.
Later on, if/when you use those CDs again, it will re-install the recovery partition.
You could ask Lenovo to supply you with a blank hard disk AND the Win7 Recovery disks, worst thing that can happen is them saying NO, or charge you for the CDs.