Z565 - bad HDD - questions about recovery

[joester]

I picked up a Z565 and it had a corrupted W7 OS and the OKR wouldn't complete the recovery process.

DL'd the new version of the OKR program, rebooted, yada yada from my other post. Complete destructive restoration to "factory new" condition. RAN GREAT.

Now the HDD occasionally does the click/zip/click/zip thing, so the drive is definitely on it's way out. I called Lenovo, and they want $59 for a one-time support session to restore the drive (once I've installed it) utilizing the restore DVD they will send.

Here's my question: Can I create similar sized partitions on the new drive and ghost images of the OS and restoration partitions onto the new drive? I would create a recovery DVD from the drive itself, but it "fails" to often to produce a reliable (or even complete) restoration DVD.

I also heard that I could use any W7 installation disc and that the key would utilize the proper version of W7. I was told my key should install W7 home premium 64 bit. True?

This is my first real endeavor with 7, but I've recovered XP many times.

<EDIT>
Just thought of another Q:
Since the recovery program I downloaded onto the thumb drive seems to have over-written the recovery partition (now it works), can I just replace the HDD and boot from the thumb drive again to create the recovery partition, main partition, ect?

[joester]

Wow. 65 views and not one reply.

I guess I'll assume I have the only one out there in Morrowland.

Just in case anyone has been through the process, I think I have the sequence to create the required partitions and OKR functionality. If you've "been there" please confirm for me...

In a nut-shell -

1. Obtain OKR 7.0 Engineering version and an install disc for the preferred OS.
2. Install the new HDD (or wipe all partitions on the current drive. Since mine is doing the <CLICK><SNAP><CLICK><SNAP> thing, it'll be a new drive)
3. Boot from OKR 7.0 CD, choose option 1 to create new partitions, then let it do it's thing.
4. Reboot into W7 install, create a partition of desired size, install, update drivers, yada yada configure as I want it to be every time the OKR is used.
5. Reboot off the OKR disc again, use option 2 to fill the recovery partition using the newly installed OS partition as an image.

Remove the discs, and reboot.