Thinkpads Forum

For curiosity's sake I decided to install Ubuntu on my new Thinkpad X220; I generally prefer Ubuntu over Windows. However, I soon learned that Linux support for the Intel HD Graphics 3000 chip is woefully bad, and decided that until Intel makes better drivers, Windows 7 I'tll be.

I wasn't privy to Lenovo's whole create-backup-DVDs-system prior to formatting; instead I imaged the drive using Macrium Refect. 3 partitions: SYSTEM_DRV, Windows7_OS, and the Lenovo restore partition. When it came to restoring said drives, I wrote the partitions in that order. SYSTEM_DRV was tagged as Active, the other two as Primary; SYSTEM_DRV was left letterless, Windows7_OS got D: (C: not available as it was already taken by my recovery machine) and the Lenovo restore partition got Q:, which is what it originally had.

Install the drive, power on, and after the BIOS screens all I get is a blinking cursor. There's a moment's worth of HDD activity and then nothing at all.

I'm assuming all I have to do here is somehow "bless" the correct partition so it will boot, but I'm new to Lenovo and never dealt with this setup, where a secondary partition seems to chain-boot Windows 7.

Any help sincerely appreciated.

You need to repair the MBR (Master Boot Record) -- a task handled by numerous free utilities. HOWEVER, if you want the Lenovo Rescue & Recovery partition still available at boot time, then you must use Lenovo's MBR. I know of no utility which repairs Lenovo's MBR for Windows 7. You may find the following discussion useful:
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkVantag ... d-p/256141

Fixed it:

Solution: Macrium has a little utility that will let you to an all-at-once restore of the HDD image, as opposed to one partition at a time Link here. This restored everything including the Lenovo MBR. Works fine now. Haven't tested the ThinkVantage/Restore features yet, but it does boot.