Recovery Disc and Language

[RasmusP]

Hi Thinkpad members,
I have a machine with preconfigured WinXP Pro English. It is for a friend who would prefer Danish WinXP. The license is good for English or Danish XP.
Previously, I installed Danish XP on my mother's computer, which is pretty much identical. So my question is, would I be able to burn a recovery disc from my mother's computer, which contains Danish WinXP? It is probably worth mentioning that the currently installed OS is Danish WinXP, but OS on the recovery partition is English XP (it was preconfigured with XP as well). Thus, R&R must fetch the data/language files from the current installation rather than the recovery partition.
As I understand, the predesktop would be replaced with the new OS if I reinstall Windows with a recovery disc. In this case, the English predekstop would be replaced with a Danish desktop. Is that correct?
Basically, I just want to save some time and not have to do the same work twice It would be super nice to have a Danish recovery disc!
Also, does recovery media use the "global" Lenovo license or the unique machine license, when reinstalling from recovery media? I.e. can I use a recovery disc created on one machine on another machine.

Thanks in advance,
Rasmus

[ryengineer]

snip.....It is probably worth mentioning that the currently installed OS is Danish WinXP, but OS on the recovery partition is English XP (it was preconfigured with XP as well). Thus, R&R must fetch the data/language files from the current installation rather than the recovery partition.....snip

Correct me if I'm wrong, the Danish version installed on your mom's machine is a retail version of Windows XP and recovery partition is from an English factory preload? If so then no it's not possible.

snip....Also, does recovery media use the "global" Lenovo license or the unique machine license, when reinstalling from recovery media? I.e. can I use a recovery disc created on one machine on another machine......snip

One of the Admins wrote:

The Windows XP image on installed at the factory on your Thinkpad (and also the one on any recovery disks set) has an IBM/Levono Volume Licence Key (VLK) on it.

Yes, you can use the Product Recovery disks on another thinkpad as long as the machine is compatible and complies with the licensing conditions.

[RasmusP]

Correct me if I’m wrong, the Danish version installed on your mom’s machine is a retail version of Windows XP and recovery partition is from an English factory preload? If so then no it’s not possible.

That is correct. Win XP DK was installed from an OEM disc that I had laying around. The original OS is English XP. Ideally, I would like to make a danish recovery disc myself. Would I be able to do so if the predesktop was erased? The idea would be to force R&R to use the local system . . .
I know some stores sell recovery discs but they cost DKK 200,- (~USD 40)

Thanks,
Rasmus

[ryengineer]

That is not possible as far as I know. Your installation of Danish version of Windows XP is independent from the contents of Recovery partition, there is no connection between them. The Danish version wouldn't even give you an option to create Product Recovery disks regardless of your removing or keeping the service partition.

[RasmusP]

So my best bet would be to somehow get a recovery disc from some one else? There is no way I can create this myself, even though I have got Danish XP disc etc.?

[ryengineer]

You can create it from the English Windows XP for English language ofcourse. But to do so you would need to restore the Windows from the service partition which will probably demolish other data on your HDD, so make a backup before doing so.