T510i won´t boot up.

[simonjs]

When i press the power button the harddrive lights come on and i can move the mouse pointer but the screen stays black.
The HD lights just continue to flicker and nothing happens.

It´s self inflicted because i was trying to install a version of office 2010 and messing around with these instructions...

I was trying this because of a "Error25004. The product key you entered cannot be used on this machine. This is most likely due to previous office 2010 trials being installed. (System error:-1073422308)"



I may be able to help with those of you who are unable to delete [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office]. The reason you are unable to delete it is because registry keys are subject to permissions . Permissions are security policy settings that restrict users from certain operations.

NOTE: Backup your registry or create a System Restore Point before proceeding further

Open Registry Editor (regedit.exe ) and navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office key and right-click Office and select Permissions

A Security tab will open with a list of users or groups who have been specified access privileges. Without writing a dissertation on permissions, I will attempt to make this easy.

Our goal here is to delete the Office key, so we need to grant YOU (your user name ) Full Control

This is simple if the checkboxes are not disabled, which they are so here is how you break the inherited permissions:

Click the line containing your user name and click the Advanced button. At the bottom of the new window will be a checkbox Include inheritable permissions from this object's parent . Clear the checkbox. It will ask you if you are sure you want to remove inheritable permissions, choose yes and replace the inherited permissions with explicit permissions because the key will be deleted after we are done.

It may take a few seconds to process the permissions, then click OK to return to the Security tab and checkmark the box Full Control and Allow then click OK to return to the main Registry Editor window. Then you will be able to delete the Office key.

My hypothesis is that this process will allow you to reinstall your copy of OFFICE, if you still desire to do so.

On another note, I virtualize my entire system with VMWare Workstation when I install beta software or other software I know I am going to uninstall later. Oracle also provides VirtualBox free of charge which also allows you to virtualize the software you are installing, so that the installation does not actually change your true registry. The sandbox you create maintains the changes the beta software thinks it has created. When you are done with the software, you merely delete the sandbox and it is as if you never installed it in the first place. I highly recommend sandboxing beta software or anything else you download off the Internet that is not verified with a certificate issued by a trusted certificate authority. A sandbox will isolate viruses and other malware, protecting your true computer system. (I actually prefer this method above those performance-sapping resident antivirus programs.)

Good luck and let me know if this works for you or if you have found another solution to your problem.



i managed to delete the two registry keys and now this has happened

[simonjs]

lenovo startup recovery kicked in but was unable to fix or restore.

I decided to cut my losses and do a factory restore and try and get back my lost data, just a few photos and documents, i´m having a crack at this with Data Doctor recovery FAT, but no luck so far...

Can ayone offer any advice on how i can try to recover the data?