Restoring the service partition: "NTLDR missing" error

[azazell0]

I have recently bought an X200 Tablet. It came with Vista preinstalled. It had three hard disk partitions: on C, it had Vista and its label was something like SW_Preload. S was a partition labeled Service and R was a partition labeled Lenovo. I did not create any recovery disks and no disks came with the computer.

I decided to install Windows XP. I found a guide that said I need to change the BIOS setting SATA to Compatible, which I did. Afterwards, I proceeded with the XP install, which went okay. I put the XP on the largest partition titled SW_Preload which was C: under Vista, but it was D: under the XP setup.

Suppose I want Vista back now. (I want the ability to completely restore the factory conditions in case I decide to sell the laptop.) I tried the ThinkVantage button, but it doesn't work anymore.

I guess the XP setup has overwritten the MBR of the Service partition. I did some research on your board, and found this thread:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=56398
I tried both the Vista and the XP recovery disks (which one do I need, by the way?) I managed to restore the F11 functionality with the XP one. However, when I hit F11 after pressing the blue button, I suddently get the error message "NTLDR not found, press Ctrl+Alt+Del".

And that's it. Right now I have a working XP copy, but I want the ability to restore Vista any time. Also, I want to have the same disk letters under XP that were under Vista. Is it right to simply assign them new letters in Disk Management, so that C, D, E turns into S, C, R, respectively?

I'd also like to know if can delete all the factory partitions (after all, I won't be using them). Will there be a way to automatically restore them on a completely empty hard drive from the recovery disks? (again, in case I want to sell my notebook)

Think you very much in advance.

[loyukfai]

I have just recently used the CD ISO on this (http://tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm) page to fix an issue caused by accidentally deleted ntldr on an XP box.

Cheers.