Lenovo Recovery media or RTM - what's the difference?

[jdhurst]

In the EE promotional video (don't remember the link) the Lenovo Dev is talking about a vast amount of reseach into delayed driver startup and such. Think it's just hype and rethorics?

Who knows (especially without some additional framework here), but Lenovo cannot stray too far from standard Microsoft implementations because everything else (other software) has to work.

... JDH

[eyeland]

I'd love to see a comparrison between a factory install and a clean retailinstall with Lenovodrivers to see if any differences would stand out, eg. in services
Lord knows that I require quite a bit of tweaking on a retailinstall to be happy

[jdhurst]

>>> I'd love to see a comparrison between a factory install and a clean retailinstall with Lenovodrivers to see if any differences would stand out, eg. in services

I addressed that question above. If you work carefully and consistently, there are no practical differences. I use both ("clean install") and pre-load daily. There are no differences of any merit. ... JDH

[Bandana Boyz]

Clear for me. Can anyone clarify if Win7 Ultimate 64 is worth installing over Win7 Pro 64?

I spoke to Lenovo twice today to ensure that EE was on the set of Ultimate 64bit recovery I ordered yesterday. At that point the Lenovo tech rep who said that I could not jump from Win7 pro 32 bit to Win7 Ultimate 64bit with recovery becasue my machine originally came with Pro and that I may experience product key issues due to my product key on the bottom of my machine was only for Win7 Pro 32/64. That did no make sense in my mind so I called back a second time and another Lenovo rep basically said that the recovery Lenovo sold to me will work work with my machine as it was for my model and essentially Lenovo was not supposed to sell me those recovery cd's because they are a jump up in operating systems (essentially losing money).

Should I install the Win7 Ultimate 64bit or return and get the Win7 Pro 64bit. Who to believe? Is Ultimate worth the install?

[emtee3511]

@Bandana Boyz -- My home machines have various W7 versions of Home Premium, Pro, and Ultimate.

The only difference between Pro and Ultimate I can see here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/window ... fault.aspx
is Ultimate has BitLocker and access to 35 languages --

I spent 45 minutes on the phone with Microsoft yesterday being passed from customer service to activation to customer service to activation tech support I upgraded XPPro to W7 Pro on my latest X60s with a retail upgrade version and apparently did something wrong this time because the activation screen blocked activation due to a 'clean install' error (as opposed to 'upgrade')

I get confused each time I upgrade -- each machine has a different story -- several were newer machines when W7 came out, and Lenovo provided disks to upgrade from Vista to W7 -- that was awhile ago, so I don't remember details except that it was pretty straight forword and activated online.

I upgraded some of my other machines this past year using the W7 Home Premium Family Pack, and I think all activated online except one -- which was a quick phone call with automated phone activation.

I upgraded my husband's X61s just last week (tried the Home Premium Family Version, which I forgot would not work because he had Vista Business -- so I purchased download of W7 Ultimate because I already had a disk from my kid's T60) -- that upgrade activated easily online --

So yesterday's latest upgrade from XPPro to W7 Pro was frustrating not because I had to call, but because it took sooooooooooooo long and four transfers before Microsoft approved the install --

Not sure if you 'need' BitLocker/+35 lanugages access -- if not, I would want the Recovery CD's that match my original install -- you never know when Microsoft will tell you a reinstall is not valid --

[Bandana Boyz]

Has anyone else installed recovery media that is different than the original operating system but made available under the Thinkpad model number? Ultimate was available at time of purchase on my system but opted for Pro. Thus, in theory the Ultimate should work becasue the liscence was available on the machine type according to Lenovo.

[jdhurst]

Unless Lenovo makes it available (say during an upcoming transition), they do not supply and you cannot get the next generation recovery media for an older machine. That is precisely why I had to install Windows 7 Pro 64-bit (at great expense) from scratch and first principles on my T61p. ... JDH

[Bandana Boyz]

I received my Win7 Ultimate 64 bit recovery disk from Lenovo. I am going to install this week. I will find out once and for all if I have any problems considering my system was shipped with Win7 Pro 32bit.

[topmahof]

So, from that video, I guess the bottom line is that the bios is handing off everything to EFI, right? And since EFI is quicker, boot times are shorter, right?