BSOD, crashed mSata, reinstall questions

[stuartf]

This saga has a few twists and turns, all complicated by the fact that I am in China for three months and distant from my usual in-person assistance.

Setup: X230 Type 2325-5SU, Windows 7, Adata mSata 128gb, 500 gb spinner, and an additional 500 gb spinner in dock.

Problem: I left the machine on and went out for a few hours, when I came back there was an ominous blue screen about a crash, I should reboot and have Windows “fix” itself (not). When it failed at the fix the diagnostic (this was the Lenovo accessory) stated that:
“Boot configuration is corrupt, error code 0X490”

I then booted into a linux Mint 15 USB thumb drive and it does not see the mSata drive, where the Windows 7 install (and applications) were located. My two spinners are found.

Question #1- does this mean that the mSata is trashed??(I did open the computer and ascertained that it was well seated in it slot.)

When trying anything in my limited knowledge base, I tried to boot from what I thought was my recovery/restore thumb drive, but apparently I neglected to make it bootable, as it it is not recognized when I interrupt startup and go to a boot list. I DO have a Lenovo recovery partition on one of the 500 gb spinners (the one in the machine), but when I select the option to boot from that disk, or the USB holding the backup OS files, nothing happens Fortunately, (almost) all my documents are on the intact drive, the exception being some documents I saved to the desktop on the mSata drive.

Question #2 Any way to retrieve those Desktop documents?

If the mSata is trashed, then I either need to replace it here or install an OS (Mint or Windows) on the in-machine spinner. I am reluctant to replace it as counterfeit items are rampant here AND Adata will replace it for me once I am back in the US. So this leaves me to install Windows, preferably, on the spinner.

I would need to partition the drive for the OS and I am confused at to what options I will have once get past the ominous warnings about “everything will disappear, go to jail, do not collect $200”.

Question #3 How can I reinstall Windows on the drive that has the recovery partition on it WITHOUT trashing the rest of the drive (which is where all my documents are located?)

I am sure I left out some relevant details, but after searching all over the net the last 24 hours, I am probably not seeing the forest for the trees, bleary eyed I am!

Thanks for any help