T61 System Restore and Partition vs CD/DVD Recovery...

[Odyssey3]

Just got my new T61 last week and I am experiencing some problems with System Restore (Vista Ultimate).

A little background. I have not registered my T61 yet online and have not installed the Norton program that came with it (not a fan of Norton and was researching a new AV program...been using McAfee for years but wanted a change...decided on ESET Smart Security but have not installed it (or any AV program yet)...but I digress). I did install some MS updates.

I typed up a document earlier today and, not having my printer hooked up yet I put a USB flash stick in to download the file with the intent of printing off my desktop. My T61 recognized the stick and then brought up a screen that said something about downloading something (why?) and then said there was some sort of problem and did I want to fix it. I said no and thought, better not be a bug...although would be very surprised as have only used the flash stick for a couple of word docs...but of course ya never know. I removed it immediately and thought how dumb to take a chance.

A few things were acting slightly differently...but may have been my paranoia...but regardless..I figured I'd use System Restore and then download my new antivirus software.

Problem: I picked 3 different restore points and all of them go to the screen that says "Please wait while your Windows files and settings are being restored System Restore is intializing" and just seems to hang for 5-10 minutes before I finally have to hit the power button to shut it down (not good I know, but nothing else I tried seems to work).

Things now are not quite right and I figure, before I go through all the work of adding new programs and personal files I should probably just do a clean install.

Question: Is it better to do this clean install/recovery off of the HD partition or from the recovery CD and DVDs I made when I got the computer?

Also...apart from document files I created...will I lose anything that came on the computer or lose the back-up partition? Will my computer really go back to the way it was when I opened the box?

Finally, are there any negatives or detriments to doing this?

Truth is, I went throught this a couple of years ago with my desktop...but it has been a while and I really don't want to screw anything up with my new T61.

Thank you very much!!

[BillMorrow]

i THINK running a recovery with vista ultimate might be different than it was with XP..

if i were you i would stick a spare HDD in the T61 and use the recovery CD's on that..
and preserve the original drive for peace of mind until you know the recovery CD set will work..

restoring an X300 is my only experience with vista as a preinstalled OS..
(all others are clean vista installs)

might this:

My T61 recognized the stick and then brought up a screen that said something about downloading something

have been some sort of memory 'stick' applet..
like sandisk puts on their devices..?

will I lose anything that came on the computer or lose the back-up partition? Will my computer really go back to the way it was when I opened the box?

you should not and it SHOULD restore everything..

ESET is an excellent choice..

[Odyssey3]

Hey Bill,

Thank you very much for your reply!!

I took your advice and reformatted my HD using the disks I had created. Not able to find any specifics I called Tech support to confirm the protocol (it has been a little while since I have had to do this...and never did it with VISTA...and was unable to find anything about reformatting with VISTA on the Lenovo site).

It was basically like the XP process with a couple of different screens, but nothing one would not figure out if they were familiar with XP process.

After re-assigning the boot order and inserting the Recovery CD, a screen popped up saying it did not recognize my CD. It then asked, do you want to try again, (after hitting "YES" many time to no avail...) I hit "NO" and then it read my CD and the process continued on smoothly (it stumped the tech I was talking to... and the next two DVDs I inserted were read flawlessly...I guess my new computer has a sense of humor... ).

Regarding ESET... thank you...yes, I really like it so far!! Thanks again!

[PSchueller]

Looks like this may be after that fact, but when I did a factory restore on Vista buisiness 32, the only thing I noticed that didn't get restored is the 90-day trial of Office '07