recovery disk sequence, perhaps a stupid question

[syrahnose]

After 3 years I finally need to use the six recovery disks I made a long time ago. Do I start with rescue recovery startup disk or the second disk which is labeled disk one. I tried the startup disk and it seems to establish the 'think pad r and r partitian, but then just ends without instructions to put the second disk in.

I'm wondering if I need to use disk 1 the second disk on a virgin hard drive? And perhaps the startup is for emergency recovery only?

[crazyfrog]

It is correct to start with rescue recovery startup disk. Then when ThinkVantage R&R interface is ready, you should select the system restore option (top-left) to continue the process.

[Harryc]

... at which point you will be prompted to insert disc 1,2,3 etc.

[mgo]

After 3 years I finally need to use the six recovery disks I made a long time ago. Do I start with rescue recovery startup disk or the second disk which is labeled disk one. I tried the startup disk and it seems to establish the 'think pad r and r partitian, but then just ends without instructions to put the second disk in.

I'm wondering if I need to use disk 1 the second disk on a virgin hard drive? And perhaps the startup is for emergency recovery only?

It was very smart to create that first boot disk when you created the set! Some people don't see that instruction. (as I remember it's a little vague)

Without that disk, your restore would have failed.

Get ready for about a 90 minute long procedure. Why it takes so long is a mystery to me; perhaps badly written code or something.

Any partitions on your drive will be deleted, and you will get the factory original setup. Make sure your personal data is saved elsewhere.

[syrahnose]

thanks for all this advice, it has been helpful and without it I wouldn't have guessed what to do.

What a mickey mouse solution these R & R disks. I've now tried two differrent sets of disks I've made. The first didn't work in the recovery phase start-up disk, the second group somehow failed during the 'conversion' phase. I got to disk 4 on that one and then it quit. Now it won't allow me to try a different set of R & R disks from thinkpad recovery desktop, so I must wipe the whole thing and try again.

This is not what I expect from a thinkpad.

[crazyfrog]

This is not what I expect from a thinkpad.

Computers are made to be accurate with simple on and off instructions. So they never make a mistake; while people do, because people can forget and mess up things.

[syrahnose]

10 hours later, I did get it up and running again. Fortunately I had left old system on a previous smaller hd and was able to make a new set of disks. All things considered, it still took a long time and a huge amount of patience in the end to restore.

Thanks for the original help/advice on this. If I hadn't known how to navigate through the startup disk, I never would have known how to go through the final 6.