Proving you own windows with hard disk failure

[hawkvc]

The IBM Thinkpad X41 does not ship with Windows disks. If the drive crashes and you install a new drive, will the "access" IBM button restore your system? I Believe I cannot upgrade to a newer version of Windows without purchasing a full version unless the OS is already on the drive.

Any info here would be appreciated.

Hawk.

[Neil]

Hey Hawk,

The Access IBM restore data is stored on the hard drive, so, if the drive physically fails you won't have the recovery partition available. If the OS becomes corrupt, you could still use recovery.

With a fresh, new drive, you will need other recovery media. Either IBM recovery disks, or an OEM Windows CD. With OEM Windows you can install using the License that came with the Thinkpad, there is no need to purchase another license.

And, you are correct that if you want to upgrade to a different version of Windows, you will need to purchase a license for that version.

[jdhurst]

Even if your hard drive had not failed, you have to buy a new license for a newer version of Windows. So it is bit like apples and oranges here.

If you think you could get an upgrade version a lot cheaper, then get recovery CD's to do a basic recovery and then upgrade.

I have have issues with upgrades and will not ever do them, so you may be better off purchasing what you want and doing a proper clean install. Then get ALL drivers (chipset and all) from Lenovo for your new OS. ... JDH

[paul*robertson]

I have the chance to buy an X24 with linux installed ,but it has a win2K serial on the base (no recovery disks). Is it possible to install a legit version of win 2k ?

[jdhurst]

With Lenovo machines, the cheapest way forward (usually) is to purchase Recovery CD's from Lenovo (or try here in the marketplace). ... JDH

[mikeh]

I have the chance to buy an X24 with linux installed ,but it has a win2K serial on the base (no recovery disks). Is it possible to install a legit version of win 2k ?

Whats a "legit version"? You have a license, so you could download a torrent and it would be legit.
Can you borrow the retail media for win2K? Or copy an image from another persons X24?

Its a bit more complicated with XP because of activation and WGA. I had one box running a cracked version of XP as it was easier.
Eventually WGA started to complain, but I just had to download a small utility from MS, and change the serial number to the valid one on the sticker.
WGA then accepted it, though I think it replaced a couple of the files that had been hacked.

Even better, just use Linux. Win-2k is a bit dated, and insecure.