---DO NOT EVER RESET THINKPAD MBR---

[echorobotics]

NO! You know the RnR system? You know how Windows 7 changes the MBR to boot the 2 OS's? Well, ThinkPads have a special MBR... one you can on reset with a floppy disk... that won't allow you to boot the RnR from the Recovery Partition.

Need a fix? I got one. Lookie here and you'll get a CD version of the MBR fix originally for a floppy. This is NOT my work, it belongs to Rahul Pandey:

Finally i was able to go into Rescue and Recovery Thinkvantage technologies

All thnx to Mr.??? ( i forgot 2 write it down) to giving this solution.... i have yet 2 re-install vista on my system....

will try different things before i JUMP to format and re-install vista....

Try the following if your system cannot boot 2 thinkvantage Rescue and Recovery....

The Rescue and Recovery - Recovery repair diskette solves this problem.
But for those without a floppy drive, I've created a CD image (ISO) of the diskettes, using a PC with a floppy drive andMagicISO (here's a nice tutorial on how I did it).

Like the above link says:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lenovo
This package creates a bootable diskette that can be used to repair a corrupt boot sector on your primary hard drive. This package can also be used to reenable the F11 function as long as the service partition has not been removed from your hard drive.

This package supports Rescue and Recovery versions 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2.
Here are the download links (these ISOs were made at the 28th of January of 2007 - check if these really are the latest versions of the repair diskette):

Recovery repair CD for Windows 2000 and XP (rnr31_rrd.exe):
http://rapidshare.com/files/89450678/rn ... _fixed.iso

Recovery repair CD for Windows Vista (rnr40_rrd.exe):
http://rapidshare.com/files/89450908/rn ... _fixed.iso

Now burn the ISO image to a CD (using Nero, MagicISO, etc.) and restart your computer with the CD in the drive.
Note: Install the Rescue and Recovery software, before restoring the partition.

When booting from the CD (I only tested with the Vista diskette. I assume the same dialogues will appear with the XP and 2000 one):

You'll probably get a "Write protect error writing drive A: Abort, Retry Fail?" error. Just enter "F" to choose the Fail option (this error will appear several times. Just keep pressing "F" every time it appears).

You'll eventually get to a screen where you should choose the option "Option 1: Repair the current master boot record." (press ENTER).
After a few more Fails, a message saying "repairing... writing new mbr..." should appear. After pressing Fail again, you'll get a message saying "File creation error".
Finally another screen will appear with two option: "Press ENTER and continue" and "Press ENTER and continue"(yes, both options have the same text). CHOOSE THE SECOND ONE! (I lost a bit of time here, because I kept choosing the first option).
You'll see a few more error messages (continue pressing "F") and finally a screen saying "The operation was completed successfully". Press ENTER.
You'll probably get a few more "Fails"... After reaching the DOS prompt ("A:\>"), you can turn off the computer.
Note: Remember to eject the CD, or you'll boot again from it.

Now, when you press the ThinkVantage button you'll have the F11 option or you'll be redirected to Rescue and Recovery.

THIS ACTUALLY WORKS!!!! if u dont see anything on screen or it seems 2 hang JUST PRESS "F".

Hope this helps for anyone who has this problem....

Admin note: Replaced red font with quoted bbCode

[Harryc]

Any reason why you used red font with all those double spaces? It's kind of annoying to look at. Thanks for the .iso's though, and welcome to the forum.

[echorobotics]

Ha thanks... yeah sorry for the red font, I'm quoting a person from another forum i found some time ago... I didn't realize how annoying that would be to read : )

[Keyone]

Thanks! This really saved me, but the title is a little bit confusing (I didn't know my problem was with the MBR, I just stumbled into this thread). My T60 had WinXP and I put Win7 on it, which ruined the MRB. I tried using the WinXP boot image you provided, but the menus were very slightly different and it didn't work. I redid it with the Vista image and the menus were exactly as you said and it worked perfectly.

[echorobotics]

Yeah, in Win XP it's a little different. You have to keep guessing until you eventually get it (by pressing "F" when nothing responds). I'm glad this helped someone out- I knew all over the Internet were complicated instructions, so I figured this was much easier.

[astroidea]

I deleted my thinkpad MBR as soon as I installed windows 7 and found out how awesome it runs. No point in having the RnR if I'm never going to use XP again.

[echorobotics]

Yeah, that was my thinking too. But if XP is your main OS, and your just beta testing, deleting the MBR is not a great option. But your right, no need for the XP recovery partition if Windows 7 is the main OS. And don't hold this to me: but there may be a way to change what OS the RnR uses.

Plus lenovo is considering certain free upgrades to Windows 7... I wonder what they will do about the outdated RnR's.