Thinkpads Forum

So, I just ordered some factory restore CDs from Lenovo. They were free and was never asked to pay for them.

Ordering since I lost all Internet connections (later discovered to be a driver upgrade in the wrong order) and Bluetooth just completely disappeared and support suggested I do a factory restore.

Well, that didn't exactly work and the machine is not running optimally and wanted to get some legitimate CDs to fix the problems.

How current are the CDs do you think? Since doing the factory restore I have to spend probably an hour each day installing XP upgrades, which is bugging the *%&$ out of me.

I would assume that you'll have to do quite a few updates. I doubt that they do XP updates on the discs at all, since they are supposed to be the original system configuration. I bet they make one set for the life of the specific model.

Just out of curiosity, where did you get the restore discs for free - is it on the web or did you have to call?

I called and told them that I had attempted to a factory restore using the ThinkVantage functions but it did not work properly.

They said they would ship it out in 5 days.

Any suggestions on how to do a quicker upgrade of XP? I left the machine on overnight to install 3 upgrades during shutdown. The next morning it was still installing. That was not what I had in mind.

For XP Service Pack 2, I would consider downloading the file first, then run the file from your hard drive.

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Network Installation Package for IT Professionals and Developers

I believe there are other large updates that can be downloaded first before installing. You might look here.

EDIT: Actually, your X6x recovery discs should have Service Pack 2 already.

Great. I will certainly try to download to the hard drive first.

I just ordered a Windows XP set for my T60. The discs say "January 2007" on them. I used them to restore my T60 to the factory state and then ran Windows Update and had about 50 critical updates to install. In other words, not very current.

They make them or update them once in a while. On my X31 they updated it 3 times. I think everytime they have a product refresh in the same line the update the cd's...

You still need to update with newest drivers and os patches online. I always just do a clean install myself though.