Thinkpads Forum

I just bought a T61, 8 months old but in perfect condition, and want to do a clean install of Vista... but am having unexpected troubles. The 4 recovery CDs Lenovo included are useless, of course. I have called Lenovo support twice and both times they told me that they cannot send me a genuine Vista CD, that everything they have comes with their Thinkvantage utilities. I don't know what to tell them, they just repeatedly tell me to use Add/Remove.

I've done my research. First, I tried to use this http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=240320, but they're not working anymore, which sucks because I have a legit key.

I then tried with this http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=195197, but I don't have disks and my system came preloaded with Vista.

Have also searched the forum here, stuff like this http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=, but it doesn't really answer the question of what I should do.

This is my first time to use Vista at all, but I've done several clean installs of XP in the past with no problems. I really don't know what to do. I never had problems like this with Dell. I just want to *completely* get rid of all the bloatware on my new notebook :/

eqmassa wrote:I just bought a T61, 8 months old but in perfect condition, and want to do a clean install of Vista... but am having unexpected troubles. The 4 recovery CDs Lenovo included are useless, of course./

In what way are the recovery CDs useless. Were they created by you from the recovery partition on your hard drive, or were they included with the machine? What are they called?

mgo wrote:

eqmassa wrote:I just bought a T61, 8 months old but in perfect condition, and want to do a clean install of Vista... but am having unexpected troubles. The 4 recovery CDs Lenovo included are useless, of course./

In what way are the recovery CDs useless. Were they created by you from the recovery partition on your hard drive, or were they included with the machine? What are they called?

Sorry for being unclear. I'm referring to the 4 CDs included with the T61. I call them useless because using them restores not only Vista, but also all the Thinkvantage stuff I don't want.

well... ibm/lenovo has never provided a basic install disk for 2k/xp/vista/etc. it's always a product recovery set, afaik, and thinkpads are the only pcs i've ever used.

what i've always done is to install and then use 'add/remove' to det rid of the pieces i don't want.

Do you think that using the recovery and deselecting thinkvantage, etc. cuts it? I'm paranoid. I also looked at this: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=41404

To do this, will I have to buy this: http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Anytime-U ... dpp_ttl_in ?

eqmassa wrote:Do you think that using the recovery and deselecting thinkvantage, etc. cuts it? I'm paranoid. I also looked at this: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=41404

To do this, will I have to buy this: http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Anytime-U ... dpp_ttl_in ?

As others have stated here, it's rather easy to just go to Add/Remove and uninstall the programs you do not want.

Before doing that, why not ask around and see what those programs do, and whether or not you really might want to keep some of them because they are helpful.

I can see ditching Norton (if it's there) and some other trialware, but other ThinkPad related items might be helpful to you later.

mgo wrote: As others have stated here, it's rather easy to just go to Add/Remove and uninstall the programs you do not want.

Before doing that, why not ask around and see what those programs do, and whether or not you really might want to keep some of them because they are helpful.

I can see ditching Norton (if it's there) and some other trialware, but other ThinkPad related items might be helpful to you later.

If Add/Remove is as good as a clean install, then why do so many people do clean installs? I've played around with the ThinkVantage stuff... some is okay, but if I want any of it, I can always download it from Lenovo later.

you can do a custom recovery to only recover the stuff you want. I forget what it's called but something like Thinkpad baseline administrator or something.

There is that option to do that so it wont even install any of the stuff other than what you selected.

HA found it

The ThinkVantage Base Software Administrator (BSA) program is a versatile software utility that you can use to customize the recovery process for the Lenovo Preload. With BSA, you can customize the recovery process for computers and you can create personalization files used to automate the setup for Windows based on the Lenovo Preload. Customizing the recovery process is controlled with manifest files.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... .html#TBSA

SHoTTa35 wrote: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... .html#TBSA

now that's good! i've got a sacrificial disk with an intact xp recovery partition on it. it's time to experiment!

I really just want to clean install. I don't understand why they won't send me a Vista disc. I don't want anything on my computer but Vista, I can download drivers and such myself.

maybe their agreement with ms disallows it. i dunno, but it is what it is.

Not sure how far you got with your fresh install....

I just used this link - http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=144783

I purchased a new copy of vista ultimate local for $50 bucks and installed a new KR200 HD, sooo sweet.

This link is amazing and really makes the T61 run fast, and free. Get your self a new copy of Vista and do the install, do not cut corners with certain recovery disks etc.. I have seen way too much BS happen. A nice new copy of vista and you know you can't go wrong!

My 2 cents!

Wait, so if you have a Vista install disk the vista key will work? In the past I have been able to get microsoft to cancel an oem key and give me a new one. Has anyone here done this? If so how long is the average bootup time?

It states in step 3 which I did not use that if you have an existing copy of windows vista installed, you can back up the key, then when you do the clean install you will run the utility and it will take care of the key for you in regards to new activation etc...

From what I read it works so as long as you have a legit copy of vista installed already and the original disk you can do a fresh install that's how I read it...

I purchased my laptop from my school. It came with Vista Ultimate installed. I guess I can buy the vista disk for 20 bucks. Would the key work if I switched from 32bit to 64 bit?

Bwadd wrote:Not sure how far you got with your fresh install....

I just used this link - http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=144783

I purchased a new copy of vista ultimate local for $50 bucks and installed a new KR200 HD, sooo sweet.

This link is amazing and really makes the T61 run fast, and free. Get your self a new copy of Vista and do the install, do not cut corners with certain recovery disks etc.. I have seen way too much BS happen. A nice new copy of vista and you know you can't go wrong!

My 2 cents!

This, definitely. I've done several reinstalls since I got my T61p, and this has never failed me.
Also, I think the discs only cost about $5.

Hmmm...Lenovo claimed that the recovery discs supplied with a Vista installation on the T61 are always (ALWAYS) XP downgrade discs, not Vista discs.

And I believe them, because MS's legal department requires it to be distributed that way, without recovery media. You have ot make the Vista recovery media from within Vista, per MS's terms. Lenovo has no say over this unless MS very recently changed their terms.

As to using Add/Remove...their are some Lenovo applications, like the Roxio Sonic media burner, that simply do not appear in Add/Remove so there's no way to control them from there.

What you can do, is to call MS and get the number for their "Fullfillment Center" for replacement media. If you ask nicely, they can be convinced to send you replacement media for your OS. This is media only, with no CD key codes, and you may be charged $10-15 for the shipping. The activation code from your Lenovo installation should work with this media--even though it is going ot be plain retail media, not the Lenovo bundle.

That means, of course, that you can't install the Lenovo perqs like Roxio and PC-Doctor, unless you can find a way to get them out of the Lenovo recovery media. (AFAIK not possible.)

And of course, you'll need to go to the Lenovo download page to download the many drivers that are needed. Best to do that from another machine just in case yours is not stable without them.

Yes the updates take a while, I just installed Vista first and once that was done I plugged an ethernet cable in and started downloading the updates, rebooting after each and double checking.

FYI as for PC Doctor you can get that off the Lenovo site with the updates...