Can someone please assist me? Fresh X31 Windows Install.

[Mr-Pacman]

Hi everyone,

I'm donating my X31 to a single mother as she's taking some university night classes to further her education. A laptop that can run MS Office is required, and she can't afford to buy a new one. I've upgraded the ram to 1gig, battery gives 1.5 hrs and the HD is the stock 20 gig unit. It will be fine for her as she only needs to use basic MS Word, Excel and Powerpoint. I've got an original copy of MS Office 2003 that I'm going to install and give to her as I've upgraded to a newer version.

Last year, I installed Ubuntu on the machine, and deleted the entire hidden partition (silly I know, but it seemed like a good idea at the time).

The computer still has the Windows Certificate of Authenticity for Windows XP Professional 1-2 CPU on the bottom.

If I want to get Windows back on this machine, what are my options?

I'm trying to do this in the least expensive way possible, as I don't want to invest a great deal of money in this machine....however, I would like to try and stay as legal as possible. I don't mind crossing the line a bit (I do, after all, have an original Certificate with a proper Product Key)

I know I can buy the full Lenovo X31 recovery disks, but that seems a bit expensive.

Would I be legally allowed to try and find a burned copy of a standard Windows XP Professional disc (not sure how easy it would be to find a copy.....) and then use my original Product Key? I suspect this option wouldn't give me the drivers needed, but those appear to be on the Lenovo website.

I do have a original copy of Windows 2000 on CD that I could use, but I would prefer to get her XP so she can be fairly current.

Any thoughts, advice or ideas?

I went into the Microsoft Live chatroom and spoke with an MS employee. They indicated that I would have to buy a brand new copy of Windows XP, even though I had a Product Key from the old install. Then, they started to try and upsell me into buying Windows 7 instead of XP. Needless to say, they were not a great help at all.

Thanks,
James

[rkawakami]

I haven't played around with a retail copy of Windows in some time but I believe that if you attempt to install such an OS on your system, you may have to call Microsoft to activate it when using your own product key (assuming that it has already been used once before to activate another install). The key (COA) on your laptop can't be used to activate a retail copy of XP.

[ZaZ]

XP's activation programs lets you change your key. If you can find a way to install it you can change the key to the one on your COA and activate it. I've done this many times, but depending on the machine sometimes the COA key will work and sometimes not. You can probably find a key on the internet that will work then change it over to your key before activating.

[gp-clipper]

I just installed XP Pro on my X41. The software was installed on a desktop that I'm getting rid of. I installed the software using my product code from the old desktop and it went through online activation without a problem. I also had a COA sticker on the bottom of my machine, but since it was for XP Pro Tablet Edition, I decided not to use it.

[schen]

OP. I'm assuming that you have an optical drive/media-slice for this machine. Why don't you check around and see if someone is willing to give a a copy of restore disks for the machine? I don't have a set for the X31, or I'd do it. But you can just put a LF (looking for) on the Marketplace and see what happens.

[virge]

In order to use the COA on the bottom of the machine you will need to have an OEM copy of XP. The retail copy will not accept the key. On a positive note, I do have a copy of the X31 recovery CDs (due to a kind forum member). Check in your PM.

[cadiz]

In order to use the COA on the bottom of the machine you will need to have an OEM copy of XP. The retail copy will not accept the key. On a positive note, I do have a copy of the X31 recovery CDs (due to a kind forum member). Check in your PM.

Hi virge,

As you can see, this is my first post, I have checked the forum for an answer to my particular problem.

I have a thinkpad x31 running windows xp professional with SP3, all has been well for the last 2 years, until yesterday when all of a sudden i was being redirected to different websites to purchase something, immediately, I tried running highjackthis.exe, to no avail, the application would quit in the middle of it, tried to restore to an earlier date, system told me, it could not be restored, run my ESET virus software and found no virus.

At this point, my laptop will not boot into windows, upon bootup it goes thru the main menu screen, enter my name and password and then it hangs there, and ultimately the keys don't respond, so the only option is to shutdown.

Tried to boot into safe mode, same thing, enter name, password and it just gives me the black screen with the 4 safe mode logos on the corners. I then run task manager and i am able to run regedit, msconfg, and other commands with no problems.

My laptop has a partition that includes product recovery, I also have the 5 product recovery discs from ibm, upon hitting f12, i can also boot from any device.

Questions:

1. How can I get into the console mode in order to repair the system, sam, default and other files in the registry directory?
2. If I use the recovery discs to re-install windows, will it erase all my data?, the welcome screen says, it will format the partition where the OS is installed, does this mean it will not erase my data?, I only have one partition.
3. It seems that I can at least get to dos prompt, is there a program CD that will allow me to boot from there and backup my data, I can see all my data from the dos prompt
4. If I can do this backup, how will my notebook recognize my external USB harddrive, if windows does not complete?
5. Is there a specific RECOVERY CD from IBM that will allow me to go into console mode?

thanks so much, any help is appreciated

[sjthinkpader]

Remove the HDD and clean it on another machine. Try using Malwarebytes tool.

[virge]

My laptop has a partition that includes product recovery,

I only have one partition.

You will have to clarify whether you have the recovery partition on your machine. I don't believe the recovery CDs for the X31 have a recovery option (someone correct me if I'm wrong). However, I do recall one of the options in Rescue and Recovery (if you have the recovery partition) was to save your files. Try pushing the blue Access IBM button during Post to see if it will take you to Rescue and Recovery.

[cadiz]

[/quote]You will have to clarify whether you have the recovery partition on your machine. I don't believe the recovery CDs for the X31 have a recovery option (someone correct me if I'm wrong). However, I do recall one of the options in Rescue and Recovery (if you have the recovery partition) was to save your files. Try pushing the blue Access IBM button during Post to see if it will take you to Rescue and Recovery.[/quote]

Hi there, thanks for the quick feedback.

When I turn on the laptop and press the blue access IBM button, it takes me to the Access IBM predesktop area, which has the following options:

Create diagnostic disks
Run diags
restore your backups
recover to factory contents
start setup utility

When I choose the recovery to factory contents, it takes me to the IBM product recovery program version 5.8, which from there, I can go ahead and do a fresh windows install.

When I press restore your backups, it tells me "IBM Rapid restore PC is not installed", so, I don't have the rescue and recover feature.

in any way, i installed a used old drive I had around and used the recovery product CD's (you are right, there is no recovery option ) and was able to fully install windows xp professional. Now I have an exact duplicate of the OS on this old drive. Is there a way that I can create a bootable windows xp from this working drive and go to the recovery console and see if i can repair windows on the other drive?

I guess the last option if this does not work is to create a bootable linux disk (Knoppix) and mount the internal drive and the external usb drive and do a backup, what are your thoughts on that?

The fact that I can see all my data from the prompt (safe mode with command prompt) is a good sign, I just need to transfer them to my external usb drive, how do i do that?

thanks a lot.

Cadiz

[nullnullfzu]

Two years ago I bought a X31 second hand with the Windows code clearly marked in the receipt as part of the deal. So I consider in mine even if no install media was delivered with.

I never use the backup partition - it's always the first thing that goes on all my machines because if I do a make over I want it as clean as possible.

I ran Linux for a while but wanted also have windows on the machine. A couple of months ago I bought a Windows XP pro copy from a retailer. The same language version and also a "pro". SP3 is included on the new cd which didn't exist at the time the X31 was first licensed under XP.

While installing I thought "why not try the code from the back side of the machine" as it was part of the deal. And it worked perfectly. The new install cd is registered officially with the original code. I have access to all MS updates and no complaints from their side.

It worked. I guess it's legal, too. Right?!

By the way: I did the same thing on my T60 (which I bought new and didn't like all the stuff that comes with the original Leovo install CDs)

greetings

[NorrisCell]

Restore discs are helpful, as people have mentioned. I prefer a clean install of XP, which means I have to manually load the drivers. If you choose to go with a clean install, you need to make sure the versions match. Your OEM key must be used with an OEM version. If you need a copy, I have XP Pro SP2 OEM on CD. I will gladly upload the image for you if you would like.