Thinkpads Forum

Hi! Im back once more with my trusty thinkpad!

I noticed after I visited R&R in Vista that the factory restore option has all but vanished. Before, i think, there were four options to do a restore. Now, there are only 3 (Restore System to a backup, Rejuvenate, restore individual files).

What happened to the factory restore option? Why did it vanish? DOes it mean I cannot do a factory restore anymore??

I have he same problem..

1) Have you performed a clean install of your OS with Microsoft media (not recovery discs) at some point in your machine's life? Doing so and choosing to erase the service partition will eliminate the option to do a factory restore.

2) If not, have you tried pressing the blue ThinkVantage button during the bootup screen, and accessing R&R from there (not from within Vista)?

Although the Windows' RnR program looks the same, it does not give you the option to perform a factory install. You must press the ThinkVantage button at boot and use RnR in the utility partition.

Well, I didn't perform a clean install of Vista, since I don't have a retail copy of Vista. Though it's very cheap for students here in the university, I don't find it reasonable for me to buy one, knowing that there's a hidden partition in my hard drive that has the factory restore option, until yesterday.

And after tinkering with the Windows version of R&R, i rebooted and entered the Thinkvantage environment. And to my surprise, the Factory restore option is also gone. But what also surprised me is the hidden partition is still there, with only 142 out of 160 GB of hard drive space available for normal use.

What happened to the factory restore option? Why did it disappear?

I have done a factory restoration just days ago, and I also have burned a full backup copy of my harddrive, which I also full restored just yesterday (according to the Thinkvantage environment after pressing the blue button in startup, the name of the backup is "Base").

hmmm.. i think many have viewed this thread but only a few have posted their replies..

we're hoping that someone could help us resolve our problem..

thanks!

bautista.ekonomista wrote:hmmm.. i think many have viewed this thread but only a few have posted their replies..

we're hoping that someone could help us resolve our problem..

thanks!

If your computer is still under warranty have you contacted Lenovo for a set of recovery DVDs? Sometimes Lenovo will send these out for free, other times they will charge you. The 'factory' recovery DVDs have the ability to reinstall the service partition an unlimited number of times. If you 'burn' a set of recovery DVDs you lose the ability to do a factory recovery without the set of DVDs you created, is my understanding. You can often find Vista recovery DVDs on ebay for about $60.00 USA dollars.

bautista.ekonomista wrote: ...snip...
What happened to the factory restore option? Why did it vanish? DOes it mean I cannot do a factory restore anymore??

I can't tell you why, but there is a possible solution posted by bloo on the lenovo forum here

Here's a post on how you can reenable the service partition:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=56398

But I've reenabled the partition once and I was able to make a factory restore. But I'm not able anymore. Don't know what is happening.

Here's how you do a factory restore on a Z60t. Maybe it will work for other models. This is from All Programs/Thinkvantage/Access Help/Recover.

"Using the Restore factory contents method --

Make backup copies of your data files, if possible. Any files on drive C that are not backed up will be lost.

Turn off your computer for at least 5 seconds.

Turn on the computer. When the following message is displayed, press the ThinkVantage button: "To interrupt normal startup, press the ThinkVantage button." The ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery workspace opens.

Click Restore your system and follow the instructions on the screen. Additional help is available from the ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery workspace.

Note: Your computer might restart during the recovery process, possibly more than once. When the recovery process is finished, your computer displays a message to let you know that the recovery is complete."

I'm back!

After a few weeks of hiatus (actually, of brain-damaging activities related to passing my finals), I'm trigger happy with my thinkpad once more!

I went to the IBM service center yesterday service my thinkpad. After I told them the problem, the person who assisted me during the whole time said that the service partition was corrupted that's why I can't do the factory restore. She then said that I have two options: pay for the recovery disc set or make my own set of recovery discs. With the latter option, they let me use their own set of recovery discs and after i reformatted my system, i'll just create my own set of recovery media (good thing I brought my own set of DVDs ). Being the stingy person I am (and having left my money in the dorm), I chose the second option. Despite having to stay inside the service center for about 5 hours (good thing there's a coffee dispenser! Also a refrigerator full of cold drinks! And the Thinkpad memorabilias!), I am more than happy that I have fixed my thinkpad.

Thanks for all the assistance!


p.s. the person who helped me yesterday asked one of the IBM in-house engineers about the problem of losing the service partition after creating a set of recovery media. The in-house engineer said that such shouldn't be the case; even after creating the recovery media, the service partition should not dissolve into thin air.

bautista.ekonomista wrote:I'm back!

After a few weeks of hiatus (actually, of brain-damaging activities related to passing my finals), I'm trigger happy with my thinkpad once more!

I went to the IBM service center yesterday service my thinkpad. After I told them the problem, the person who assisted me during the whole time said that the service partition was corrupted that's why I can't do the factory restore. She then said that I have two options: pay for the recovery disc set or make my own set of recovery discs. With the latter option, they let me use their own set of recovery discs and after i reformatted my system, i'll just create my own set of recovery media (good thing I brought my own set of DVDs ). Being the stingy person I am (and having left my money in the dorm), I chose the second option. Despite having to stay inside the service center for about 5 hours (good thing there's a coffee dispenser! Also a refrigerator full of cold drinks! And the Thinkpad memorabilias!), I am more than happy that I have fixed my thinkpad.

Thanks for all the assistance!


p.s. the person who helped me yesterday asked one of the IBM in-house engineers about the problem of losing the service partition after creating a set of recovery media. The in-house engineer said that such shouldn't be the case; even after creating the recovery media, the service partition should not dissolve into thin air.

They didn't solve anything. I'd like to see them repairing the service partition...

"The in-house engineer said that such shouldn't be the case; even after creating the recovery media, the service partition should not dissolve into thin air. "

And that's very true. If the recovery partition was corrupted, you either have a hardware failure (which they should be able to confirm with diagnostics & a look at your system logs) OR your computer may have been attacked by malware. Or, you may have inadvertently wiped something on it--but that takes some poking around that you'd probably remember.

Drive failures never really heal themselves, even though NTFS can somewhat heal bad spots on the drive by locking them out form future use. I'd suggest running some thorough diagnostics and making sure your data is backed up.

Getting Recovery CD's is no help for people with the X6x Thinkpads and who do not possess an optical drive.

I've had the same problem with both a T60 and an X61. I was forced to restore each back to factory condition due to numerous Lenovo software meltdowns and crashes. Among my many conversations with the support personnel, I was told that "once you restore from the hidden partition using the R&R once, you cannot do it again without Recovery CD's." Something in the program cannot access the partition, even though it still exists. It is not a sign of a corrupted partition; the Lenovo people were clear about that. While this meant I could have some free Recovery CD's for my T60, I asked what about the X61--I didn't have the dock or an external CD drive. Their response was, basically, sorry: pay for Lenovo software people to repair it, or buy the CD drive or dock and use the Recovery CD's.

Not fun. So my work-around was to uninstall and reinstall R&R (latest version--4.2x). Once re-installed, I booted into pre-Windows R&R GUI and saw that the restore to factory condition option again.

Sigh... I purchased a fleet of Thinkpads for my firm because of their reputed reliability. But these problems just keep stacking up!

starholmre wrote:So my work-around was to uninstall and reinstall R&R (latest version--4.2x). Once re-installed, I booted into pre-Windows R&R GUI and saw that the restore to factory condition option again.

Thanks. I'll try that. If that really is the only way to get the Factory restore option again, that's really bad news...

Wow is it not possible to boot off a USB connected CD/DVD Drive?

crashnburn wrote:Wow is it not possible to boot off a USB connected CD/DVD Drive?

Of course it is.

arlab wrote:

starholmre wrote:So my work-around was to uninstall and reinstall R&R (latest version--4.2x). Once re-installed, I booted into pre-Windows R&R GUI and saw that the restore to factory condition option again.

Thanks. I'll try that. If that really is the only way to get the Factory restore option again, that's really bad news...

Well, not truly bad news. Beats uninstalling and reinstalling everything else at once (via Recovery CD wipe) for instance!

arlab wrote:

starholmre wrote:So my work-around was to uninstall and reinstall R&R (latest version--4.2x). Once re-installed, I booted into pre-Windows R&R GUI and saw that the restore to factory condition option again.

Thanks. I'll try that. If that really is the only way to get the Factory restore option again, that's really bad news...

I tried it and uninstalling the Rescue and Recovery does solves the problem. Thanks starholmre.
I've made a thread on this subject, here.