Changing the Windows key used in the recovery partition
Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 6:17 am
I recently bought a second X220 off eBay, in extremely fine condition.
However, the Windows 7 installed, although it had some "Lenovo" wallpaper, was non-standard and the ThinkVantage button did not behave as expected, and did not allow booting into the recovery environment. There was a recovery partition, but I did not trust it.
Thus I did a scorched-earth bare-metal format of the hard-drive and restored it to factory status, using the X220 Recovery DVDs I made from my first X220.
I was aware that the Windows Key for a X220 is encoded in the Recovery DVD, hence the new machine (off-grid) was temporarily operating with the first machine's key.
Using the new X220's key and these commands:
I successfully activated Windows on the new X220 with the proper key.
However the recovery partition on the new X220, would still be encoded with the older X220's key.
I was wondering if there was a straight-forward way to update the windows key that is used in the recovery partition?
Although I doubt that there are any specific X220 issues with this recovery partition question, I have posted it in this sub-forum, apologies to the Moderators if it is out-of-place.
Thank you.
PS: I encountered this useful tip for recovery partition reconditioning, in my researching, for resetting the recovery media creation limitation:
http://www.kensfi.com/cannot-create-ano ... or-lenovo/
However, the Windows 7 installed, although it had some "Lenovo" wallpaper, was non-standard and the ThinkVantage button did not behave as expected, and did not allow booting into the recovery environment. There was a recovery partition, but I did not trust it.
Thus I did a scorched-earth bare-metal format of the hard-drive and restored it to factory status, using the X220 Recovery DVDs I made from my first X220.
I was aware that the Windows Key for a X220 is encoded in the Recovery DVD, hence the new machine (off-grid) was temporarily operating with the first machine's key.
Using the new X220's key and these commands:
Code: Select all
slmgr.vbs -ipk <insert your product key here>
slmgr.vbs -ato
Alternatively: slui.exe 3However the recovery partition on the new X220, would still be encoded with the older X220's key.
I was wondering if there was a straight-forward way to update the windows key that is used in the recovery partition?
Although I doubt that there are any specific X220 issues with this recovery partition question, I have posted it in this sub-forum, apologies to the Moderators if it is out-of-place.
Thank you.
PS: I encountered this useful tip for recovery partition reconditioning, in my researching, for resetting the recovery media creation limitation:
http://www.kensfi.com/cannot-create-ano ... or-lenovo/