Thinkpads Forum

I saw several posts about requesting recovery disks from Lenovo for free within 21(us)/30(canada) days of purchase.

I just called today, they told me that they don't send out anything for free. The only way I can get the recovery disks from them is either my hard drive is damaged or I am upgrading to a new hard drive through Lenovo.

Could anyone verify?
I called Lenovo Canada twice. Got the same result.

This is true.

Which part?

Make up a fun story about how the recovery program on your thinkpad failed, and you cant make your own discs (my actual circumstance). That will probably get them to send you the discs. They sent me a set for that reason. Of course, my laptop is also under a 4 year corporate warranty through my school (which buys ~4000 laptops a year), so they have to be nice to us.

I received my T60 a couple of weeks ago and requested a set of recovery CD's from tech support. They told me "no prob" and no charge as well.

axiom wrote: I called Lenovo Canada twice. Got the same result.

I have never got in touch with Lenovo Canada but newly created Lenovo US back in 2005 sent me a copy for Z60m upon request for free.

If they can't send you then you can always create your own.

I just called today, they told me that they don't send out anything for free. The only way I can get the recovery disks from them is either my hard drive is damaged or I am upgrading to a new hard drive through Lenovo.

this part, but I have read of some people just calling and asking for them, I guess it depends on who you talk to and if they are having a good day.

I know this may have been covered before, but I just did a quick search and couldn't find it:

Bear with me, here is my situation: my T60p came with XP Pro. Then I received the Vista upgrade from Lenovo and upgraded to Vista. Everything is working fine. However, what I would like to have is my service partition to contain Vista, not XP Pro, so that when if I restore factory settings, It will be Vista, and not XP Pro. Given that I have the Vista DVD and product key from Lenovo, but don't have the recovery media, I don't believe that I'm going against any EULA if I get a set of Vista recovery media, correct?

On that note, would anyone with Vista PRE-INSTALLED be so kind as to copy a set of Vista Business recovery media for me? I'll gladly pay for all costs (shipping, DVD, time, etc.)

Or actually, all I need is an image of the service partition, if that would be easier.

efrant wrote:I know this may have been covered before, but I just did a quick search and couldn't find it:

Bear with me, here is my situation: my T60p came with XP Pro. Then I received the Vista upgrade from Lenovo and upgraded to Vista. Everything is working fine. However, what I would like to have is my service partition to contain Vista, not XP Pro, so that when if I restore factory settings, It will be Vista, and not XP Pro. Given that I have the Vista DVD and product key from Lenovo, but don't have the recovery media, I don't believe that I'm going against any EULA if I get a set of Vista recovery media, correct?

On that note, would anyone with Vista PRE-INSTALLED be so kind as to copy a set of Vista Business recovery media for me? I'll gladly pay for all costs (shipping, DVD, time, etc.)

Or actually, all I need is an image of the service partition, if that would be easier.

Actually... Yes you are only allowed the XP Recovery linked with the XP COA on the system. Lenovo can get in deep doo doo for sending you Recovery sets with other than what you ordered per the model# of the system. In this case, the XP COA is your base operating license for the upgrade to Vista. Your Vista Upgrade does not constitute a full license in theory.

Right, it constitutes an upgrade license.

Thanks for the replies. But let me ask it a different way:

This is what I have:
1) I have a T60p with XP Pro on the service partition;
2) A Lenovo Vista upgrade DVD (and COA/key/etc).
3) A bought (retail) Vista Ultimate DVD (and key).

This is what I want to have:
1) I want to have Vista on my service partition so that when so that when I use the Think Vantage button it will reinstall Vista on my T60p, and not XP Pro

Is this in any way at all possible with what I have? If I start with a blank, new HD and install Vista, then install Rescue & Recovery, will I be able to create Recovery Discs with Vista on them, then use them to create a service partition with Vista on it?

Thanks in advance.

efrant wrote:
This is what I want to have:
1) I want to have Vista on my service partition so that when so that when I use the Think Vantage button it will reinstall Vista on my T60p, and not XP Pro

Is this in any way at all possible with what I have? If I start with a blank, new HD and install Vista, then install Rescue & Recovery, will I be able to create Recovery Discs with Vista on them, then use them to create a service partition with Vista on it?

Yes, you're right. But don't count on the Vista R&R disks to work correctly at the time being. You will have troubles with the restore process. For details, please read my post http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=41775

I think that if you install plain Vista and then install the latest version of Rescue and Recovery via System Update 3, you should be able to create your own recovery partition containing Vista and whatever modifications you have made up to that point.......I think.
Personally I have never used Rescue and Recovery except for using the restore CD's, but this is what I think based on what I have read here.

carbon_unit wrote:I think that if you install plain Vista and then install the latest version of Rescue and Recovery via System Update 3, you should be able to create your own recovery partition containing Vista and whatever modifications you have made up to that point.......I think.
Personally I have never used Rescue and Recovery except for using the restore CD's, but this is what I think based on what I have read here.

Well, I'll give it a shot over the weekend. I would have preferred to have the Lenovo-specific install (via the DVD's from Lenovo) though...

You can use RnR to create a base backup after you have Vista running and tweaked. You can create that base to local, as well Network location, optical, or USB drive.

In this case, it would be just as good, if not better as recovery dvd's.

However, you will not find a way to have the vista base backup replace the recovery contents in the service partition. It is not the way RnR works out of the box without customization.....And that is a very IT centric process.

wackydan wrote:You can use RnR to create a base backup after you have Vista running and tweaked. You can create that base to local, as well Network location, optical, or USB drive.

In this case, it would be just as good, if not better as recovery dvd's.

However, you will not find a way to have the vista base backup replace the recovery contents in the service partition. It is not the way RnR works out of the box without customization.....And that is a very IT centric process.

So I guess the only way to get Vista in the service partition is with the recovery discs from Lenovo?

So I guess the only way to get Vista in the service partition is with the recovery discs from Lenovo?[/quote]

Yes.... But you are not allowed a set of Vista Recovery DVD's as your T60 shipped with XP. Those are MS rules.

wackydan wrote:Yes.... But you are not allowed a set of Vista Recovery DVD's as your T60 shipped with XP. Those are MS rules.

Not to beat the point to death, but:

I would tend to agree with you, however, as I have both a Lenovo Vista upgrade DVD (legal) as well as a full retail version of Vista (legal as well), neither of them installed on a PC, one would tend to think that I should be able to use one of those licenses and activate Vista on my T60 regardless of whether it comes from a DVD, or my service partition, no?

Edited for grammar... oops.

I know the point you are making....

Lets call it fuzzy licensing.

Either way, you won't get in trouble.... But Lenovo can get in trouble by MS if they audit them - hence why they won't send you Vista Recovery DVD's knowing your model shipped with only XP. The upgrade program was time limited among other issues as well and did not include recovery media as an option.

Licensing is a strange bird to get your hands/head around regardless of the software vendor.

wackydan wrote:Licensing is a strange bird to get your hands/head around regardless of the software vendor.

Agree!!

efrant wrote: [...] Bear with me, here is my situation: my T60p came with XP Pro. Then I received the Vista upgrade from Lenovo and upgraded to Vista. Everything is working fine. However, what I would like to have is my service partition to contain Vista, not XP Pro, so that when if I restore factory settings, It will be Vista, and not XP Pro. [...]

Or actually, all I need is an image of the service partition, if that would be easier.

I also wondered if it is possible to update the service partition from XP to Vista.

Also, I have a Danish XP and the Thinkpad came pre-loaded with English XP. Can I replace some files -- maybe on the service partition -- to make XP Danish or will I have to re-install Windows from scratch?

Actually, I just got off the phone with Lenovo, and they sent me (I don't have them yet, but they are supposed to arrive in 2 or 3 days) Vista Business recovery cds, no charge, even though my original tp came with xp business.

rmendoza wrote:Actually, I just got off the phone with Lenovo, and they sent me (I don't have them yet, but they are supposed to arrive in 2 or 3 days) Vista Business recovery cds, no charge, even though my original tp came with xp business.

Yeah... I have a customer they have since done that for....

The vista preload is now claiming it is an illegal copy......

So.... Hope your results are different.

Just curious. Do the recovery disks that Lenovo send bear Lenovo, ThinkPad or just MS branding?

Tholek wrote:Just curious. Do the recovery disks that Lenovo send bear Lenovo, ThinkPad or just MS branding?

Thinkpad.

Sexy.

wackydan wrote:

rmendoza wrote:Actually, I just got off the phone with Lenovo, and they sent me (I don't have them yet, but they are supposed to arrive in 2 or 3 days) Vista Business recovery cds, no charge, even though my original tp came with xp business.

Yeah... I have a customer they have since done that for....

The vista preload is now claiming it is an illegal copy......

So.... Hope your results are different.

What do you mean? Will I get some sort of illegal software message, combined with reduced functionality? Why would Lenovo mail these recovery cds if that's the result?

[censored]! It's a hurdle for everything!

Now you got me thinking. I should call Lenovo before they ship those discs. I will keep you posted. Thanks for the info.

rmendoza wrote:What do you mean? Will I get some sort of illegal software message, combined with reduced functionality? Why would Lenovo mail these recovery cds if that's the result?

I suspect the following is the problem.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=38500

I received the disks today. However, because of the post that GomJabbar pointed to, now I am not sure whether to go ahead with the recovery.

Do you think calling Lenovo beforehand would help? Are they likely to have a workaround? Thanks.