Thinkpads Forum

Please excuse my uninformed question, but I have been using Macs almost exclusively for the past 15 years or so. I bought an X120e which Iam returning, instead getting an X220 with IPS screen and i5 processor.

I thought that the X120e had a reserved partition that would allow me to restore the hard drive to the factory configuration, However, the partition just seems to have the factory restore software, which I have copied onto a USB hard drive. However, I don't seem to be able to boot from that drive. The Lenovo website documentation doesn't seem to address the issue simply, and so I am wondering if someone here can assist as to how I best return the whole disk to its initial condition. (I want to make sure that any password material, etc., would be gone. I also created a partition for Ubunut of about 50GB.)

Thanks in advance for any help.

Welcome to the forum.

Unless Ubuntu destroyed it, you should be able to start a factory recovery by pressing either the Enter key or F11 at bootup, when you see the Lenovo splashscreen. If you no longer see the option for recovery or it doesn't start, then Ubuntu may have damaged the recovery partition.

Alternately, you can create recovery media, buy either selecting that option from the Lenovo programs folder OR by clicking on the recovery drive, usually named Q. You will need an external CD or DVD burner (an external hard disk may work, but I've personally never tried that method). The first disk has to be a CD, the next disks can be CDs or DVDs. If you are unable to create recovery media, due to partition damage or deletion, you can 1) buy recovery media from Lenovo, 2) request free recovery media from Lenovo, 3) sell the machine with a blank hard drive, 4) download the OS and use the COA serial number to activate it, 5) sell the machine with Ubuntu, 6) post a looking for ad in this forum for the media, 7) search eBay for the media, etc., etc.

Good luck.

P.S. When you get the X220, create recovery media immediately!

Thanks for the note. It turns out that Ubuntu was interfering, because I had it loaded in a partition in the Windows system. What I did was empty that partition and then load Ubuntu within Windows (not a separate partition), and then when it rebooted, it give me the choice to get into the factory restore. I now have it fully restored so that I can pack up the computer and return it.

Now I can wait for the x200 to arrive!