Thinkpads Forum

My new T61 has XP installed. I want XP, but I would also like to take off all the Lenovo padded stuff.

Does this void my warranty? Or hurt anything? I don't have the "phone fixer" warranty, just the next-day depot one (4 years).

Also, the quickstart manual says I don't need recovery disks because it's all on the hard drive alreay. Sure would like XP on a disk. Any ideas?

It doesn't void your hardware warranty, but I have found that software support (if there is any, anymore) usually requires the preload (or else they will tell you to re-image to see if that clears the problem). ... JDH

Thanks.
I actually haven't used my new T61 yet because of all the software I need to install:
photoshop
illustrator
VS 2005/2008
mySQL database
SQL Server 2000 & 2005
Dreamweaver 8
IIS webserver
PHP webserver
Office 2000 pro
Radmin
Hamachi
Terminal server
BitDefender
on and on and on

My guess is that there are ways to get all this working without Lenovo's help. That has always been the case with any other computer I've owned. Does anyone see any of the above that would cause a problem? I have XP at work and it "feels" just like Windows 2000 which I love.

CognitoPadErgoSum wrote:My new T61 has XP installed. I want XP, but I would also like to take off all the Lenovo padded stuff.

Does this void my warranty? Or hurt anything? I don't have the "phone fixer" warranty, just the next-day depot one (4 years).

Also, the quickstart manual says I don't need recovery disks because it's all on the hard drive alreay. Sure would like XP on a disk. Any ideas?

I've restored a few XP machines recently and there's an option that comes up when you recover from the partition. You can de-select all sorts of stuff you don't want re-installed.

I never really thought about future warranty issues or concerns. Both machines are still under warranty that I re-imaged. FWIW, I've had absolutely no issues and was pleased to see the option permitting me to omit the crap I didn't want.

Good luck!

CognitoPadErgoSum wrote:My new T61 has XP installed. I want XP, but I would also like to take off all the Lenovo padded stuff.

Does this void my warranty? Or hurt anything? I don't have the "phone fixer" warranty, just the next-day depot one (4 years).

Also, the quickstart manual says I don't need recovery disks because it's all on the hard drive alreay. Sure would like XP on a disk. Any ideas?

Yes, XP is on the hard drive, and you could re-install the whole machine to original factory spec by pressing the Thinkvantage button. As another poster said, you may have the option to leave out programs you do not want to install.

I suggest taking the two hours or more to create the recovery disk set (including the rescue boot disk!) in case your hard drive fails. Use that disk set only as a last-ditch recovery because it takes a very long time to restore the system.

It's better and much faster to spend $40 or so for a 3rd party imaging program which will give you backup security in minutes rather than a couple of hours.

That way, you can install your programs and revert to a previous image if something goes wrong. (not very likely)

XP needs some tuning and I set my for maximum performance rather than appearance in the advanced/performance menu. I also use Classic mode on the desktop and in Windows Explorer for better performance. It will look and behave much like Win2k that way.

Speaking of recovery and OSes...

I know I was taken aback when Lenovo support told me that the recovery discs for my Vista machine are XP discs, and that the only recovery discs I would have for Vista Ultimate would be the ones I made.

Does anyone know "absolutely for sure" if the recovery files ON THE HARD DRIVE would also be for XP rather than Vista, on a machine that shipped with Vista Ultimate installed & running?

If it turns out my recovery partition has XP on it...that's gonna get wiped real fast, it isn't what I need.

If your machine came with Vista installed and you haven't changed that, then the recovery disks you make yourself would be for that same OS. It would return your system to the same as it was when you received it, unless you decide to do a custom reinstall, in which case you could select apps you don't want installed, but would still restore the same OS your machine shipped with.

Lenovo is currently including XP downgrade disks with Vista systems because so many people have problems adjusting to Vista. On that subject, it just takes a little tweaking to make Vista very nice. I have had to deal with some issues and do a bit of tweaking to get Vista to run the way I want, but I still wouldn't enjoy going back to XP.

Make a set of Vista recovery discs now. Don't wait until it is too late.

"Lenovo is currently including XP downgrade disks with Vista systems"
Yes, but since they are not clearly marked as "XP" the unsuspecting buyer would have no reason to think they weren't Vista recovery discs.
DUMB!

And once I found that out, you can bet I made the Vista recovery discs. Which is nowhere near as easy as it should be--since the program to make them is pretty much buried.
DUMB AGAIN!

That it took me weeks to figure out I had no safety net...My bad! Dumb here too.<G>

pae77 wrote:Lenovo is currently including XP downgrade disks with Vista systems because so many people have problems adjusting to Vista. On that subject, it just takes a little tweaking to make Vista very nice. I have had to deal with some issues and do a bit of tweaking to get Vista to run the way I want, but I still wouldn't enjoy going back to XP.

Well, I can understand that Lenovo includes this optional way of getting ride of Vista since most people don't want to spend time on tweaking an OS to get it to work as they're used to. So here MS really shoot them self in the foot. In my case I've now helped couple of friends to downgrade from Vista to XP since they can't really see any point of the heavy GUI that Vista offers.. and even more interesting is that all of them wants to run XP with the Windows Classic theme.

So let me get this straight..... IBM supply Vista on the computer but the recovery partition and recovery CDs are XP??? Do they provide a COA for both operating systems???

Actually, this would be perfect for me as I am about to get a T61 and want to "downgrade" to Vista but I would like the option of going to Vista at some time in the future. I was just going to get an XP machine (for a $25 upchrage) but it sounds like I should just get a Vista machine, make the backup disks and perhaps order the (XP) recovery CDs as soon as the machine arrives to get them free.

Yes?

No you didn't get this straight. Let's try it again.

Whatever OS the machine comes from the factory loaded with, is the OS that will be in the recovery partition.

Lenovo does not provide recovery disks automatically. You have to burn your own and they will only provide them free if you have a problem burning your own.

Recently they started shipping XP recovery disks with systems loaded with Vista so that people could downgrade if they want. If you run the XP recovery disk, then not only will your OS be XP but the recovery partition will also be converted to XP.

Seems straightforward to me.

As far as the COA working with both OS's, I have no idea. Never use a COA anyway. I always back up my OEM OS key and restore from that if need be.

Anyway, when you run the XP recovery disks, XP should be pre activated with an OEM key. No need to refer to the COA, is my understanding.

pae77 has it right.
If you want Vista restore discs you have to make your own. I would do that just to keep your options open in the future. Your current restore partition is Vista.
If you run the XP restore discs Lenovo included, your restore partition and main partition will be XP.