Thinkpads Forum

Laptop Info:
Thinkpad T420
Product: 4177CTO

Hi, I recently upgraded the OS to Windows 10 (clean install). I no longer see reset to factory defaults options in boot menu. However I have Lenovo Partition in my Q Drive. Is there a way to copy this Partition into a DVD or USB and restore using this partition?

Ultimately I want to upgrade to windows 10 but I unfortunately the clean install doesn't activate windows 10. so I have to revert back to factory defaults and upgrade the OS through upgrade icon instead of doing a clean install.

I do not have any recovery CD's. The option or hope is Lenovo Recovery partition on my laptop. I ran out of ideas, appreciate your help.

Thanks,
Srinivas

Pressing F11 on boot should get you to the recovery menu. It looks like the Windows 10 upgrade messed up your mbr and that isn't working. Setting the Q partition active sometimes works but you will need a bootable CD or USB stick with partitioning software to reset the active partition if it doesn't. You can do a restore if you boot from a Lenovo R&R boot CD. It might be possible to download the R&R boot disk or make one if you install R&R. It gives you the option to restore from either the recovery partition or restore DVDs. The Q partition won't work if it is not on the hard disk.

MisterB wrote:Pressing F11 on boot should get you to the recovery menu. It looks like the Windows 10 upgrade messed up your mbr and that isn't working. Setting the Q partition active sometimes works but you will need a bootable CD or USB stick with partitioning software to reset the active partition if it doesn't. You can do a restore if you boot from a Lenovo R&R boot CD. It might be possible to download the R&R boot disk or make one if you install R&R. It gives you the option to restore from either the recovery partition or restore DVDs. The Q partition won't work if it is not on the hard disk.

Thank you for your response. I do not get recovery menu. where do i download R&R boot disk? I could not install Rescue and Recovery 4.52.

Q Partition is on hard disk, which is about 9 GB out of 15 GB capacity.

The other option i was checking is buying a recovery CD from ebay and reinstall the windows but i am not sure if I would be able to use my windows key.

Here is the recovery CD i saw in ebay - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Download-Recove ... 1a05cf96f3

That doesn't look like a legal download. I don't think Lenovo licenses downloads of recovery media to other companies.

If you use the restore partition or recovery media, you won't need to activate Windows, it is pre-activated and uses a different product key than the one on the label.

I didn't find a quick link to a boot CD but I found this which looks like it will fix your problem:

http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds003330

If you fix your mbr and can do a restore, there will be a program to create your own recovery DVDs from the rescue partition.

MisterB wrote:That doesn't look like a legal download. I don't think Lenovo licenses downloads of recovery media to other companies.

If you use the restore partition or recovery media, you won't need to activate Windows, it is pre-activated and uses a different product key than the one on the label.

I didn't find a quick link to a boot CD but I found this which looks like it will fix your problem:

http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds003330

If you fix your mbr and can do a restore, there will be a program to create your own recovery DVDs from the rescue partition.

Thank You for your time. I saw this link but it says Windows XP. Do you think it may work for Windows 7 too?

gsrinivas wrote:

MisterB wrote:That doesn't look like a legal download. I don't think Lenovo licenses downloads of recovery media to other companies.

If you use the restore partition or recovery media, you won't need to activate Windows, it is pre-activated and uses a different product key than the one on the label.

I didn't find a quick link to a boot CD but I found this which looks like it will fix your problem:

http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds003330

If you fix your mbr and can do a restore, there will be a program to create your own recovery DVDs from the rescue partition.

Thank You for your time. I saw this link but it says Windows XP. Do you think it may work for Windows 7 too?

Probably not. There is another link, http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds013955, which just says install Rescue and Recovery 4.3. Lenovo went to a different system with Windows 7.

From experience, any Windows 7 R&R boot CD will let you use the recovery partition to restore the system but there are no direct download links for it from Lenovo I can find. If you have access to another Lenovo Windows 7 computer with a recovery partition, you could make a set of restore media and just use the boot disk to restore this system.

You could try a partition manager and on a bootable CD like Aomei or Easus or several others and see if the recovery partition is self booting. You just have to set it as the active partition. If it isn't, it can be made to boot by doing a bcd edit but that isn't the easiest thing to do if you're not familiar with Windows booting. I would just try to get an R&R 4.3 boot CD.

If none of the above methods work for getting the system to boot from the recovery partition to create media, I can always either burn and send you a set from my T420 or host .ISO files you can download.

As far as the Windows 10 upgrade, you are right - for it to activate properly using the free upgrade program, you need to initialize the install from an activated, licensed copy of Windows 7/8/8.1 which has had a copy of the Windows 10 upgrade "reserved' through the Windows Update KB3035583.

theterminator93 wrote:If none of the above methods work for getting the system to boot from the recovery partition to create media, I can always either burn and send you a set from my T420 or host .ISO files you can download.

As far as the Windows 10 upgrade, you are right - for it to activate properly using the free upgrade program, you need to initialize the install from an activated, licensed copy of Windows 7/8/8.1 which has had a copy of the Windows 10 upgrade "reserved' through the Windows Update KB3035583.

So nice of you. Thank you very much for offering your help. One of my colleague has T410, he is going to give me a bootable CD tomorrow, I will try that and let you know how that goes.

Thanks Again.

MisterB wrote:
Probably not. There is another link, http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds013955, which just says install Rescue and Recovery 4.3. Lenovo went to a different system with Windows 7.

From experience, any Windows 7 R&R boot CD will let you use the recovery partition to restore the system but there are no direct download links for it from Lenovo I can find. If you have access to another Lenovo Windows 7 computer with a recovery partition, you could make a set of restore media and just use the boot disk to restore this system.

You could try a partition manager and on a bootable CD like Aomei or Easus or several others and see if the recovery partition is self booting. You just have to set it as the active partition. If it isn't, it can be made to boot by doing a bcd edit but that isn't the easiest thing to do if you're not familiar with Windows booting. I would just try to get an R&R 4.3 boot CD.

Thank you. I am going to try that tomorrow. I will update here on how it goes.

You may also download and burn the .iso free from Microsoft. You already have a valid key on your machine so you should have no trouble.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softwar ... d/windows7

Thanks All for your help. I got an image from my friend who also owns a thinkpad. I was able to restore my windows.

Thanks,
Srinivas

MikalE wrote:You may also download and burn the .iso free from Microsoft. You already have a valid key on your machine so you should have no trouble.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softwar ... d/windows7

I tried this but it doesn't work as microsoft doesn't recognize the key.

Hi gsrinivas, I am interested that you upgraded to W10. I have a T420 and used the "upgrade" path. I have done it twice now, but each time I have done so, the Audio suffers from what can only be called digital burps!! Especially when playing streaming music. Did you find the same issue? I ask because from what I can see on the Lenovo site they DONT list the T420 as W10 compatable. So I am not going to get any assistance from them. Everything else appears to work fine, but I have tried updating the Contexant drivers, changing the frequency etc. If I migrate back to W7 its all fine. Most annoying as W10 is actually great (except the sound!!). I'd be interested in your or others experience in taking a T420 to W10..

Total66 wrote:Hi gsrinivas, I am interested that you upgraded to W10. I have a T420 and used the "upgrade" path. I have done it twice now, but each time I have done so, the Audio suffers from what can only be called digital burps!! Especially when playing streaming music. Did you find the same issue? I ask because from what I can see on the Lenovo site they DONT list the T420 as W10 compatable. So I am not going to get any assistance from them. Everything else appears to work fine, but I have tried updating the Contexant drivers, changing the frequency etc. If I migrate back to W7 its all fine. Most annoying as W10 is actually great (except the sound!!). I'd be interested in your or others experience in taking a T420 to W10..

I have upgraded to Windows 10 and do not see any audio issues. I have not played much audio on the laptop as I output my laptop audio to the AVR as i use this laptop only in my media room.

you may want to install the old audio driver from here:

http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/product ... nkpad-t420

gsrinivas wrote:

MikalE wrote:You may also download and burn the .iso free from Microsoft. You already have a valid key on your machine so you should have no trouble.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softwar ... d/windows7

I tried this but it doesn't work as microsoft doesn't recognize the key.

That is strange. When my hard drive crashed in my E530 I used an .iso that I burned and it reloaded just fine with my Windows 7 key. As a matter of fact, I have used that .iso on other machines with a valid key with no trouble at all.

Hi gsrinivas

You said-
I have upgraded to Windows 10 and do not see any audio issues. I have not played much audio on the laptop as I output my laptop audio to the AVR as i use this laptop only in my media room.

you may want to install the old audio driver from here:

http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/product ... nkpad-t420

Yes I have tried old - new, W7 and W8 drivers, all have the annoying digital buzz interrupting the playback while in W10. If I reinstall W7 its fine...It must be why the T420 is not on the Lenovo list for upgrading. Pity.