Could anyone send me the Lenovo/IBM X32 installation disks?

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urban75 · #1 Post by **urban75** » Wed May 07, 2008 6:14 pm

Hi

Further to this thread - http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?p=417079 - where I'm trying to downgrade my Vista X32 to XP - I'm hoping that someone might be able to send me the XP installation disks.

I have a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) XP product key sticker and my copy of Vista is fully licensed, so I assume that this is legally OK.

I'm in the UK. Can anyone help? I'd obviously refund all postage costs.

Thanks!

ajkula66 · #2 Post by **ajkula66** » Wed May 07, 2008 8:49 pm

BTW, you can do the full restore with X31 disks. If you don't find anyone closer to you, I can burn you a set.

Good luck.

urban75 · #3 Post by **urban75** » Thu May 08, 2008 3:34 am

Cheers for the offer - appreciated. I've also written to Lenovo too on the off chance.

Anyone else got the disks in the UK? Pretty please!

#4 Post by **erik** » Thu May 08, 2008 10:44 pm

fwiw, i restored my X32 using X31 recovery media and it worked perfectly. SP2 is included with the X31 media so there's very little difference between the two sets.

urban75 · #5 Post by **urban75** » Fri May 09, 2008 4:35 am

I still haven't managed to source any X31/2 disks yet.
The laptop is still under warranty, but it seems that Lenovo will only issue Vista recovery disks.

Anyone in the UK got XP recovery disks they could send me/post online?

All help appreciated!

ajkula66 · #6 Post by **ajkula66** » Fri May 09, 2008 7:42 am

I don't know how it is in UK, but around here Lenovo is required to issue whatever restore CDs are needed for the system as long as it's in warranty.

You may want to call back and talk to another rep...

Good luck.

dougindenver · #7 Post by **dougindenver** » Sun May 11, 2008 12:33 pm

I threw a T42 HDD in my X31 and it worked perfectly. So I would try T42 recovery disks.

buglawton · #8 Post by **buglawton** » Sun May 11, 2008 4:55 pm

Great tip from dougindenver abt using the T42 recovery disks: I am trying to recover an X32 with no disks but have the T42 set. On seeing this tip I inserted the RnR disk and am already able to rescue a bunch of files from the marooned x32. Will report back if I manage to then do the restore to factory XP install etc.

buglawton · #9 Post by **buglawton** » Tue May 13, 2008 3:36 am

Yay! The idea worked. First need to use the RnR disk to rescue any important files then click the restore to factory settings option and get prompted to feed in the 7 system restore disks in turn. A slow process! The 7 disk feed process failed to start first time around for an unknown reason (so I initially thought that T42 disks were NOT going to work after all on an X32) but after reading the instructions and setting the BIOS to boot first from CD-ROM it seemed to work.

There seems to be no way, using the supplied IBM/Lenovo disk set, to do a simple Windows Repair (where you keep your data & programs but Windows itself can be fixed). Have used Windows Repair successfully on another PC and saved much time, so this is a pity.

#10 Post by **Harryc** » Tue May 13, 2008 3:45 am

Why can't you just use a Windows XP install Disc to do a windows repair. That should work. Also if you have made an R&R backup you could have restored the system with your old files using that method ... ditto for a clone to a backup drive.

buglawton · #11 Post by **buglawton** » Tue May 13, 2008 4:42 am

Yeah I though about those approaches.

My XP recovery disk (which worked so well) belongs to a Fujitsu-Siemens PC so I thought there might be unexpected glitches (which maybe only surface later) re either the driver set or the XP licensing.

Also thought about doing a total backup/restore as you suggest but found that a) R&R backup did not seem to want to back up everything - had to keep selecting various folders at deeper levels manually and b) If I restored the total back up inc registry entries I believe the result would not be bootable (suspect the reason the X32 became unbootable was me changing the keyboard settings from UK to US, that's another story).

buglawton · #12 Post by **buglawton** » Tue May 13, 2008 5:27 am

BTW dougindenver does the Ethernet port work just fine in your X32-with-a-T42-hard-drive ? Rumours around that the Ethernet drivers can be model-specific. For sure, the T42 system restore disk does make the X32 internal wifi card work fine.

ajkula66 · #13 Post by **ajkula66** » Tue May 13, 2008 6:15 am

Ethernet drivers can be model specific, but are the same for T42 and X32. You wouldn't be able to use drivers from T43, though, since the card itself is different.

mpcook · #14 Post by **mpcook** » Tue May 13, 2008 3:11 pm

ajkula66 wrote:Ethernet drivers can be model specific, but are the same for T42 and X32. You wouldn't be able to use drivers from T43, though, since the card itself is different.

Just as an FYI, I have used X31 disks to install XP on several T23's, an X30, and an X32. All worked fine (including ethernet port) except for wireless, for which I had to download drivers from Lenovo. On the SXGA T23, I had to download video drivers as well to get everything to work 100%.

Mike

buglawton · #15 Post by **buglawton** » Wed May 14, 2008 2:47 am

Well I completed my X32 reinstall using the T42 Lenovo disk set with an SP3 install. The whole lot took a ridiculous amount of time and I'm not done reinstalling apps yet. My X32 has a USB CD-ROM reader only, no burner. It occurred to me to make a much faster to restore backup at around this point, using Acronis or similar. But how would I go about this? Have an External USB hard drive. Could I put an image on that and then burn the restore CD from that? If anyone can point me to a how-to recipe link I'd appreciate it.

hadoken · #16 Post by **hadoken** » Mon May 19, 2008 1:33 am

Gents-

Thanks so much! I have an X31 that I wanted to recover to factory specs and happened to have T42 recovery discs. It works but I noticed the following:

1) I had burned discs and my IBM DVD drive in the Ultrabay was very finicky and would not read Disc 7. I solved this with an external USB DVD drive.

2) I did get some error after the last recovery disc installed but it doesn't look like it affected the install.

3) The Ethernet/WLAN drivers are all wrong. I d/l the right ones from lenovo for my X31. No problems. I then used System Update to get all the right drivers into place. Nice!

Thanks again. I am getting a wiped X40 soon. Anyone know if I can duplicate this trick again? I'll let everyone know after I try it for kicks.

buglawton · #17 Post by **buglawton** » Mon May 19, 2008 3:07 am

Good tip abt the Ethernet Drivers. OP above has said that T42 and X32 (my case) drivers are the same so I hope this is the case...

urban75 · #18 Post by **urban75** » Mon May 19, 2008 10:26 am

I received the restore disks today (thanks Lenovo!) but have encountered a problem that the X32 won't boot from my Lacie CD/DVD USB player, despite being set to boot from USB CD in the BIOS (USB is enabled too).

Any ideas?

buglawton · #19 Post by **buglawton** » Mon May 19, 2008 10:31 am

WIth me, the RnR disk did boot up OK from a usb CD-ROM Drive (not DVD). You did insert the RnR disk first?

urban75 · #20 Post by **urban75** » Mon May 19, 2008 1:05 pm

buglawton wrote:WIth me, the RnR disk did boot up OK from a usb CD-ROM Drive (not DVD). You did insert the RnR disk first?

Yep, the disk was in but the X32 wasn't getting friendly with it.

I guess I'm going to see if I can borrow another CD drive (I've an old Freecom CD portable CD/DVD drive but even Vista doesn't recognise that).

I've got a Maxtor 120GB hard drive - could I use that? And if so, how?!

Or can I install the restore disks via my network?

buglawton · #21 Post by **buglawton** » Mon May 19, 2008 1:44 pm

Maybe you can put a minimal boot system onto a usb stick the kick off the installation disk #1 (RnR disk is mainly about rescuing existing files).

urban75 · #22 Post by **urban75** » Mon May 19, 2008 2:42 pm

buglawton wrote:Maybe you can put a minimal boot system onto a usb stick the kick off the installation disk #1 (RnR disk is mainly about rescuing existing files).

I'm afraid my knowledge of boot systems is even more minimal than that!

Sine · #23 Post by **Sine** » Tue May 20, 2008 7:42 am

Could anyone send me a copy of their X31 restore discs? I needed to do a fresh install but I'm having a devil of a time getting my own XP discs to work. My X31 has a full XP Pro COA, and of course I will PayPal you the cost of shipping.

buglawton · #24 Post by **buglawton** » Tue May 20, 2008 5:22 pm

For those not in the know, these CDs can be burned using for example http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/ a free program, this makes a proper image.

Could anyone send me the Lenovo/IBM X32 installation disks?

Could anyone send me the Lenovo/IBM X32 installation disks?

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