Thinkpads Forum

I hate the way Lenovo Recovery works in this generation of laptops. I can't do entire factory reinstall from CD/DVD like I used to. Likewise, there is no Windows COA sticker on the bottom of my laptop with a legitimate key like they're used to.

That said, I do happen to have a legitimate retail Windows 7 32/64 box. Would I have to start from scratch and then just go to the Lenovo site to download/reinstall the drivers? (this will take ALL day).

Lesson learned, I should have used Acronis True Image to clone my drive before installing anything (some skype software is causing a conflict and the software causing the conflict refuses to uninstall).

There is no quicker way right? I did use the Win utility to create a recovery disc as no discs came with my unit (which was brand new by the way), but even this homemade disc will only allow me to restore from a backup (which I don't have).

Please advise.

So let me get this right, you created a Win "restore" cd but never created a system image to restore from?

If so, a clean install is in order. Personally I enjoy starting fresh and find it only takes a hour or two as I'm doing something else. After I got my machine set up the way I want it. I'll create a system (disk) image and store this image separately from said system.

Yep, stupid behavior on my part. Lesson learned. My last laptop was an X200 and I've owned the X61, and X32. However, those came with full restore CDs, so I was always good to go. Plus I used to clone my drives. This was an err on my behalf, because I assumed things would work exactly the same on Win7 on a Lenovo laptop.

I'm using my Retail Win 7 Professional DVD.

Question: Can I use the COA on the bottom of my Laptop as the Product Key instead of the one shipped w/my retail DVD, just in case I decide to install Win 7 on my desktop in the future?

epu wrote:Yep, stupid behavior on my part. Lesson learned. My last laptop was an X200 and I've owned the X61, and X32. However, those came with full restore CDs, so I was always good to go. Plus I used to clone my drives. This was an err on my behalf, because I assumed things would work exactly the same on Win7 on a Lenovo laptop.

I'm using my Retail Win 7 Professional DVD.

Question: Can I use the COA on the bottom of my Laptop as the Product Key instead of the one shipped w/my retail DVD, just in case I decide to install Win 7 on my desktop in the future?

That's too bad. It happens to all of us.


I've got no problem with what your proposing to do you've paid for the key (COA). The actual software can be sourced from anywhere. Done it many times myself. I've copied Win 7 to USB which facilitate much faster installs.

Thanks for your quick reply!

epu wrote: Question: Can I use the COA on the bottom of my Laptop as the Product Key instead of the one shipped w/my retail DVD, just in case I decide to install Win 7 on my desktop in the future?

Absolutely yes!

Using a previous Restore Point on my X220, I have saved hours of time and it solves install problems as you described. May not fix everything but Restore Points are valuable.

epu wrote:I can't do entire factory reinstall from CD/DVD like I used to.

If you bothered to create a factory image disk set, you certain can do entire factory reinstall from CD/DVD

If SYSTEM RESTORE was enabled why not simply restore your system to before the conflict began. No reinstallation necessary.

Brad

If you want to download a Windows disc to do a clean install, you may do so here.