Factory rescue and recovery disc usage

I figured I'd ask here before I get very, very angry.
My ThinkPad SL400 has experienced a massive failure. I was able to rescue my documents, etc., but the boot software was corrupted and I needed to do a complete system restore. I didn't have viable rescue and recovery discs and so paid $45 plus shipping to order a set of them from Lenovo. They came with instructions, which I have followed.
Step 9 of their instructions states:
"When all of the data has been copied from the last disc in the set, a message is displayed prompting you to restart the computer. Remove the disc and then click Yes.
Note: The remainder of the recovery process is fuly automated and no action is required by you. the computer will restart into the Windows desktop several times and you might experience periods when no activity is apparent on the screen for several minutes at a time. This is normal."
Unfortunately, that's not what happened. When I rebooted the machine I got a message stating:
8206 - Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key.
I've restarted the machine several times with no different answer. I tried booting from the first two Rescue and Recovery discs they sent and neither worked to complete the boot process. I tried changing the boot device to the hard drive and it didn't work. I called Lenovo Technical Support and they told me that, even though I had JUST PURCHASED the discs, they would not answer my questions about how to use them.
I am feeling very much like I just poured $50+ down a rathole with a company that won't stand behind its products.
Hopefully you guys can give me some suggestions before I call my credit card company and ask them to remove the charge as a fraudulent purchase.

So i guess you selected the optical drive to be the first one to boot in the boot up list?
Regards,
Jin Li
May this year, be the year of 'DO'!
I am a volunteer, and not a paid staff of Lenovo or Microsoft

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Cant restore from rescue and recovery discs

Hi Guys
I bought a set of Windows 7 64bit Lenovo Rescue and Recovery Discs approx. 18 months ago so I could "restore" my X201 if and when the hard disk died, well the day has come and the discs dont work !!!
I have attempted to "restore" to the new hard disk 3 times and this is now starting to become a joke.
I boot the 1st disk, then I'm asked to insert the 2nd and then 3rd disks, I dont have a 4th disk but the process asks me for one. I believe that this is all working as it takes a number of hours and the drive lights is flickering except when I'm being asked to insert the next disc.
After the final re-boot. following the "Setting up drivers - 100%" on the screen I get a message box that says "Setup cant configure windows for your configuration", this is after I have had the "Starting Windows 7" booting on the screen.
Has anyone had any experience with Win 7 64bit R & R discs for a X201 ???
TIA
NG

I assume your issue is laptop boot mode related.
In order to restore from Lenovo Recovery discs set laptop should be in legacy boot mode. Check out this option in BIOS setup. Unfortunately you'll can't change boot mode later. But this mode just speeds up a boot process only 2-3 secs.
Boot and installation processes don't inform the customer about error boot mode related.
Check out the 1st disc. If it consists a folder like BOOT and files like BOOTMGR and WINRE.WIM (all of them are for boot process) and folder like FACTORYRECOVERY - it's OK and your 1st data disk is bootable too.
If you had partition like Lenovo_Recovery (Q: usually) on your x201 with factory images you could make Factory_Recovery Discs set yourself w/o purchasing it from Lenovo.
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How to create Rescue and Recovery disc for Windows Vista Home Basic with G530 Lenovo Laptop?

Hi All,
I have purchased G530 Lenovo laptop 2 weeks back.
I coudn't find installation/recovery discs in my laptop box.
I went across the forums and came to know that it is not available now-a-days as it was coming previously.
So, anybody can help me, how to create a recovery disc?
This is needed when I format my laptop.
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Umesh.

Click on what used to be the "Start" button and search for "create" or "recovery". It took me a while to find it but it is there.
Use a cd for the first disc and 2 DVD's for the other discs.
T60 2623-D7U, 3 GB Ram. Dual boot XP and Linux Mint.
T400 2765-T7U Windows 7
Registered Linux User #160145
FYI: I am not employed by Lenovo

Vista Rescue and Recovery discs don't work

I have a T61 (7659-D22) that came with Vista Business preinstalled. I made (and verified) a set of R&R discs, then used a set of WinXP discs supplied by Lenovo to install XPPro.
Now I am trying to use the Vista discs I made to install on a brand-new drive in the same machine, but after I select "Restore my machine to its factory state" (or whatever the actual wording is), I just get the hourglass thing "for ever" with no evidence of disc access.
Any suggestions?

I wrote:
I do have a backup of the R&R partition -- created with Macrium Reflect -- but the special MBR needs to be present for F11 to work. The only means of repairing the MBR seems to involve the use of a floppy, but of course this machine does not have a floppy drive.
I restored the Recovery partition (created with Macrium Reflect) and marked it Active. Although F11 still did not work, the machine rebooted into the R&R partition anyway and gave me the option of formatting only Drive C:. The only very minor glitch was that when it rebooted it booted into the R&R partition again rather than into C:, and I had to use Partition Wizard to mark C: as the active partition. It then booted into C: and went on its merry way configuring Windows Vista.
Maybe I can then recreate a usable R&R Startup CD -- but maybe it doesn't matter as long as I can preserve the image of the Recovery partition somewhere -- on a DL DVD-R perhaps.

Rescue and Recovery Issues!

Hello All,
I purchased a T60p about a year and a half ago along with the 3yr. extended warranty. I have been trying to recover a saved backup on my hard disk since I have had some problems with Windows but have run into a serious problem. I have tried to restore from rescue and recovery but keep getting a password entry dialog box. I didn't set one up since I've owned the computer and this is confirmed by the dialog box that states for me to set one up and try again. I even tryed to use the "forgot password" option and it still sends me around in circles for a password entry. I have contacted customer service several times and got a set of rescue and recovery discs to set it up to factory state but the password thing still comes up on bootup even from the CD. The last suggestion from customer service was to purchase a SATA drive-to-USB cable to back up the data to another computer. But other than seeing the contents of the drive directories I cannot back it up (probably a protected partition). I am at a loss here and was wondering if anyone could help.
The files on this hard drive are vital for me to recover as they contain lots of personal pictures of family (some now gone), CAD work, as well as other irreplaceable info.
Can anyone suggest a course of action? Is there a service that can retrieve the data? I have no problem reloading the applications I just need the data files.
Couple of questions:
Why can't I reinstall Windows from the discs sent to me from Lenovo (only the R&R disc is bootable)?
Can I reinstall Windows on the drive without loosing the data on the R & R partition?
Please Help!
Nemo
Message Edited by Nemo on 09-04-2008 05:07 PM
Lenovo Type 8743-CTO Built in 2007 w/ 3 yr. Extended Warranty

Hi Nemo,
My questions may be totally irrelevant, but I'm going to ask them anyway. Just in case.
Some versions of R&R, when launched, would ask if you want to set a password or protect the backups with your windows password. As you don't mention having tried your windows log-in password, if you have / had one, have you tried using it or, if set up, the default admin account password?
Also what about the good old enter key i.e. no password, or trying "admin"?
Andy ______________________________________
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Rescue and recovery not working

I wiped my hard drive and installed Ubuntu. Now I need Vista back to use some testing software for my state bar exam. Rescue and Recovery discs as well as f11 system restore keep giving me a startup error. Is Vista gone for good? Lenovo wants to charge me $45 to send discs that will work. Can get an an .iso for this version (Vista Business 64 SP1, I think) somewhere and use my product activation key on the bottom of the PC? I don't have time to search the forums and i'm not really an expert. Please help.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/04/29/windows-vista-with-sp2-rtm-slipstreamedintegrated-dvd-iso-i...
something here should work for you.
T430u, x301, x200T, x61T, x61, x32, x41T, x40, U160, ThinkPad Tablet 1838-22R, Z500 touch, Yoga Tab 2 Windows 8.1, Yoga Tablet 3 Pro
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How to use the rescue and recovery, and the product recovery discs ?

Hi everyone,
I've just recently became a new owner of a T61, and really enjoying it. I haven't had a chance yet to test-drive the lenovo phone support, as I have not yet screwed anything up that bad that required their help. I did try a clean factory reinstall from the service partition and it worked great. I would like to find out, how does one use the rescue and recovery startup disc, and the product recovery discs that I created myself? From my previous experience with Dell and HP, I only had to insert the first one and restart the computer, and the rest followed. But with ThinkPads, if I ever wanted to bring it to a clean factory state using those discs, do I use rescue and recovery first, followed by the product recovery? I'm curious, what is the difference between the two?
T61 (7658CTO), T9300, 3GB, 250GB, XP Pro
Solved!
Go to Solution.

blake_ibm wrote:
Hi! I'm blake
There is no diff between the two... One is on the Hard Drive and the other on CD/DVD.
Having the HDD version (pre-installed) is a good for trouble shooting. It uses a whole diff O/S on a whole diff partition (not C.
So if you are having problems and boot to RnR (via F11), and those problems go away. you know your issue is software related. If you still have the same problems probly Hardware related... IT IS AN EFFECTIVE WAY TO TAKE WINDOWS OUT OF THE PROBLEM.
Other then that. You can re-image another HDD from disks, you can't do that with the F11 version.
dose all that make sense?
Hi blake_ibm,
Thanks. All this makes perfect sense to me, but that's not what I'm asking for. My question is this: if I wanted to bring my notebook to its factory shipped condition using my recovery cd's, how do I do that? Do I insert cd1 first and then restart the notebook, or do I just insert it without restarting it, or perhaps I should use first the rescue and recovery?
You said that there is no difference between the two, but what two are you talking about man? I am not comparing cd recovery to partition recovery. I am talking about rescue and recovery cd, with system recovery cd's. These are the two things that I'm talking about.
I'm really grateful for all replies, but please people, read the question first !!!
I would really appreciate if someone could explain the steps involved in performing a clean factory recovery, using the cd's, and not the recovery partition. I just want to know for the future, in case one day I have to do it. That is all I'm asking.
T61 (7658CTO), T9300, 3GB, 250GB, XP Pro

Rescue and Recovery, unable to do a factory restore, no backup found

Hi I'm trying to do a factory restore on my T510. I've done it before but for some reason it's saying it can't find the backup files.
Any idea on what I should do?

There1 wrote:
Nope. lol Like I said before I restored to factory settings before and I usually just went to rescue and recovery, clicked on don't save anything and factory restore. I didn't have to insert any type of recovery discs set, do you know why now it's asking me for them?
I might add that I recently had my T510 sent in for MULTIPLE repairs that were a complete dud. I have that infamous whine noise smh. They ended up replacing my hard drive and mistakenly downgraded my OS to 32-bit. They didn’t know I bought Pro-64 smh. I told them and showed them that I did purchase 64 when I customized my laptop so they ended up sending me a recovery disc set with the OS and drivers. I used those to do a factory restore, basically did a clean reinstall right?
Yeah you should be good. Now would also be a good time to burn another recovery disc set since you can burn one after each restore, this way you will have a backup.

Rescue and Recovery "restore to factory settings" fails

I have had need to recover my T61 to the state of original receipt. I boot from the recovery startup disc and select that I wish to recover to factory settings, and that I wish to save no files. After a progress bar fills, I am prompted to insert Product Recovery Disc 1. After it has completed, I am prompted for Disc 2, then Disc 3, etc., until the Disc 8. After the last disc progress bar is filled, I am presented with the message "Product Recovery failed to restore your system." The T61 then boots to the Rescue and Recovery menu. I have attempted this once again and have the same result. Please help if you can!

Trying to do a restore to factory settings, ive tried holding down '0' on bootup but i get nothing it just goes starts up.
I want to totally reset to factory settings, but unable to do it?
You said that Win 8 system run on this notebook.
As far as I know this notebook Satellite L750D-14R was preinstalled with Win 7 64bit OS.
This means that HDD recovery procedure will not work because the HDD content and the partitions has been modified!
To recover the notebook back to factory settings you would need the Toshiba Recovery disk/medium. If you did not create such disk then you could order this here:
http://backupmedia.toshiba.eu/
Anyway, I guess that the LAN connection doesn’t work due to LAN driver issue.
I recommend you to uninstall the LAN driver (in device manager) and to download the latest available LAN driver from Toshiba EU driver page.
After LAN driver installation reboot the notebook.

Can't burn recovery disc.. using Rescue and Recovery

Hi, I want to try new Windows 7 on my T61 (7659-A55).
so i tried to make product recovery discs, but it gives me error that process is failed. (Cannot go back to the factory setting right now...)
My CD/DVD RW works fine and i even tried to use differen version of Rescue and Recovery..
How can I get the recovery discs??

amitie92 wrote:
so i tried to make product recovery discs, but it gives me error that process is failed. (Cannot go back to the factory setting right now...)
How can I get the recovery discs??
When I had problems creating recovery media for my T60p I called Lenovo to ask for assistance. After giving the CSR a description of the errors I was encountering and what I tried to do about them, he decided it would be easier for both of us if Lenovo sent me a set of media. YMMV.
Cheers... Dorian Hausman
X1C2, TPT2, T430s, SL500, X61s, T60p, A21p, 770, 760ED... 5160, 5150... S360/30

T43: Recovery Discs are corrupt and Rescue and Recovery won't restore from the Hard Drive?

I recently created Recovery Discs in Windows XP, but when I insert Disc 2, it always says that it is the incorrect disc so I cannot continue the factory restore.
Now I'm trying to restore by booting into the Rescue and Recovery on my hard drive, but it cannot find the hidden factory partition on the hd. It also now says that the restore had a "convertion" error when it wouldn't recognize disc 2 and will not let me try to look at my hard drive to restore anymore. If I use the RR boot disc, it will let me try to restore, but it finds nothing restorable on the HD.
I did look at the hard drive and see 2 partitions with one being a IBM_SERVICE partition with 3.9GB total size and 2.9GB free space.
Please help, thanks.

Hi,
maybe somebody here could help me. i've totly lost the original partition of IBM on my T41 thinkpad. If somebody could advise me how do i get it back, i would appreciate it very much.
Thanks,
Shai

X220 factory restore issue with Rescue and Recovery

I have X220 which I enjoyed very much for the last one year. Warranty is just expired and unfortunately the system starts act crazy. I decided to reformat and go back to factory setting stage by using Rescue and Recovery. I could get to the Full Restore and could click full factory restore. The system ask me to restart but instead reformat the HD, the previous OS kicks in and reboot as previous setting. Please help!!!

Are you sure Q: partition is absolutely empty? Normally .WIM files on partition Q: are stored in hidden directory FactoryRecovery.
Check out Lenovo Factory Recovery Discs within Control Panel for creating factory image media.
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x220 | i5-2520m | hdd 320 | Intel msata ssd 310 series | 3G GPS | WiFi
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Rescue and recovery starter discs

HELP - i want to restore my Lenovo 3000 N200 0769 BWG laptop to factory settings but do not have the rescue and recovery starter discs. Could anyone please help out with a set of the required discs?

Have you made the product recovery discs before?Go to the thinkvantage menu and select the option "Create rescue and recovery media"
Cheers and regards,
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I am a volunteer here. I don't work for Lenovo

Rescue and Recovery with T40 booting the system (XP) without restoring factory configuration

(plus bas en français)
Hi,
I've a T40 which I want to restore the factory configuration.
I've installed the up-to-date version of Rescue and Recovery but :
- when launching Rescue & Recovery from XP, it does not offer to restore the factory configuration
- at least, this is feasible when I press the "Access IBM" blue button when starting the computer...
- ... even if factory configuration restore is available there, it does not work. Indeed, it asks me to confirm and then starts the computer again without restoring anything.
Can someone help me please ?
Bonjour,
J'ai un T40 pour lequel je souhaite restaurer la configuration usine.
J'ai installé la toute dernière version de Rescue and Recovery mais :
- quand je lance Rescue & Recovery depuis XP, je n'ai pas la possibilité de restaurer la configuration usine.
- à la rigueur, c'est pas grave car quand j'appuie sur le bouton bleu "Access IBM" lors du démarrage du pc, Rescue & Recovery me propose de restaurer la configuration d'usine... mais ne fonctionne pas. En effet, après avoir confirmé l'opération, le système redémarre et lance XP sans avoir restaurer quoi que ce soit.
Quelqu'un peut m'aider svp ?

hey sylvain,
for the Rescue and Recovery to work, did you make a backup of the system via recovery media ?
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Can not restore factory operating system by Rescue and Recovery lenovo 3000 N200 - please HELP!!!

Hello,
I am in very big problem hope you can help my with it!
i have lenovo 3000 N200 Notebook , my operating system since yesterday i have been formated the partition C after Rescue and Recovery didn't help and install a diffrent OS, i didn't delete the lenovo Partition!!
now i can't access the Rescue and Recovery
my qustion is - can i some how restore the factory OS by Rescue and Recovery??
TNX
Tal,

The only other option, before calling service and ordering recovery disks, is to try the Rescue and Recovery - Recovery repair diskette. And yes, a floppy drive will be required.
Andy ______________________________________
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Factory rescue and recovery disc usage

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