XP downgrade - where are the Vista upgrade disks?

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awolfe63 · #1 Post by **awolfe63** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 11:26 am

I just got a machine (W500) with the Vista Business preloaded with downgrade to XP pro. I can burn recovery disks - but they appear to be XP recovery disks. How do I (some day) upgrade to Vista? Do I need to buy Vista recovery disks from Lenovo?

Agotthelf · #2 Post by **Agotthelf** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 4:28 pm

Hello awolfe63,

please try, if you have your XP cd´s already burnt, to hit blue button at start up.

Then you get into Vista recovery partition and you are able to recover to Vista and burn your Vista recovery cd´s from this installation.
But you clearly can´t create XP recovery from there.

Please tell, if this solution works.

Regards
Andreas

awolfe63 · #3 Post by **awolfe63** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 4:35 pm

I tried that before I posted. It looked like an XP recovery partition. How would I be able to tell that it is a Vista recovery partition?

Agotthelf · #4 Post by **Agotthelf** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 3:07 am

Hello Awolfe63,

to clarify,
1. your recent system is Xp andyou have a Vista Sticker under your book?
2. When you boot up with blue button or F11 to get in your R&R partition, you can´t install vista and XP seems to be starting it´s R&R process.

To get above information I was asked by AndyP from Lenovo Forum.

Regards.
Andreas

#5 Post by **Harryc** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 3:11 am

I'm interested in the real answer to this question myself. Mainly because I've noticed order-able options on the latest machines like;

"Genuine Windows Vista Business downgrade to Windows XP Professional "

and

"Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate with Windows XP Professional Downgrade****"

What are these?

The explanation below that Lenovo gives still doesn't really say how it works functionally on an actual Thinkpad. Do you just get all XP when you order these options? If so, why not just call it XP?

****The downgrade from Genuine Windows Vista Business or Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate is intended for business, educational, and public sector customers requiring Windows XP Professional and expecting to order at least 25 PCs annually.

Agotthelf · #6 Post by **Agotthelf** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 3:47 am

The answer of Tim_Lenovo was on Lenovo Forum was:

http://forum.lenovo.com/lnv/board/messa ... ad.id=1225

Kind Regards
Andreas

#7 Post by **Harryc** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 4:19 am

awolfe63, the only way I know of to see if it is a Vista partition is to try a recovery. Burn the XP recovery discs first

.

Agotthelf · #8 Post by **Agotthelf** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 4:35 am

Yes HarryC your are right, this is the question:

Are there really Vista R&R options or just XP recivery partitions and
need some user now a Vista recovery DVD?

May be it´s a configuration fault, but one more user amd Tim_Lenovo has said this is the right way.

Seems we need more information, yet.

Kind regards
Andreas

#9 Post by **carbon_unit** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 6:05 am

Tim answer in the link above seems to have the information.

Tim_Lenovo wrote:

Hi folks,

I'm sorry there is so much confusion around this. Hopefully I can help clear some things up.

If you recently ordered a Vista Business or Ultimate machine with XP Professional downgrade (as shown above) and did not receive recovery discs, please read the following carefully:

(Note: These systems were NOT intended to come with recovery discs, so please do not think you are missing any parts)

*The system will come preloaded with Windows XP Professional.

*Out of the box, with the Windows XP preload, the "Create recovery media" utility in the ThinkVantage programs group on the Start Menu will create Lenovo Windows XP recovery discs.

*The recovery partition (accessed by pressing F11 during the Lenovo splash screen, before Windows loads) contains the Windows Vista preload. In order to load your Vista operating system, you must access this partition via the F11 key and do a factory restore. MAKE SURE you have created your XP recovery discs before doing this.

*Once you have recovered from the partition to Windows Vista, you can use the same "Create recovery media" utility to create your Windows Vista recovery discs. This uses 3 DVD's, so make sure you have a DVD burner and blank DVD's handy.

There you have it, Create your own XP discs, use onboard recovery to load Vista, create your Vista discs.

awolfe63 · #10 Post by **awolfe63** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 11:20 am

Excellent. That's the answer I was looking for.

I have done a lot of setup on my system so I don't plan to do a restore right now - but I may try to clone my drive and do an experimental one.

andyP · #11 Post by **andyP** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 12:19 pm

awolfe63 wrote:..snip.. - but I may try to clone my drive and do an experimental one.

A good idea and highly recommended. I played with a new T400 today, NM3TDGE 2765-TDG, which has a Vista COA and XP installed. After letting the XP install I shut it down and recovered using the F11 function. It recovered to XP

Don't blow away a running system for an experiment which, as far as I can see, doesn't work.

The only thing left to find out, is to see if there are possible regional variations on this theme. i.e. not so in the EU, but so in the US

#12 Post by **carbon_unit** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 8:34 pm

andyP wrote: The only thing left to find out, is to see if there are possible regional variations on this theme. i.e. not so in the EU, but so in the US

That is a distinct possiblilty. Things are not aways the same in all regions of the world. That is why we like the location field to be accurate in this forum.

awolfe63 · #13 Post by **awolfe63** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 11:57 pm

Guess what. It didn't work.

I cloned my drive (5 hours - long story). Then booted to R&R with the blue button. Did a factory restore. Got a new XP pro install.

Czechnology · #14 Post by **Czechnology** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 7:48 pm

Is it actually possible to xp-downgrade a system that came with preloaded vistas? I've heard some stories that it *should* be possible with the Ultimate version..?

#15 Post by **carbon_unit** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 8:26 pm

In the USA you get downgrade rights with Vista Business or Vista Ultimate. Contact Microsoft and they will give you an XP Product Key. I don't know about your country. Maybe Lenovo will sell you a set of XP recovery discs.

XP downgrade - where are the Vista upgrade disks?

XP downgrade - where are the Vista upgrade disks?

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