How to restore the OS when your hard drive fails...

So I recently bought a Y50-70 from Newegg.  Being that I hate Windows 8/8.1 with a passion I made sure to find a laptop that runs Windows 7.  Lucky for me (and one of the reasons I bought this laptop) is that I should be able to run Windows 8.1, 7, and Linux without problems.  Woohoo.
I should note that this is my first Lenovo, so I'm not too privy to the intricacies of Lenovo products yet.  I've been told to avoid them like the plague and I'm trying to prove that things aren't as bad as my friends say, but I'm rapidly deciding their wisdom should have been heeded.
Just like every time I buy a laptop, the first thing I do is make a direct sector-for-sector copy of the hard drive.
After that I booted up and made the "recovery disk" in Windows 8.1 just for future security.  So 32GB thumbdrive is now dedicated for reinstalling Windows since the laptop comes with no recovery media.
Ok, so far so good.
Now, I blew away all of the partitions and installed Windows 7.  It's not all peaches and cream and there's some problems.  So I thought I'd go back to Windows 8.1 and see if these problems are software or hardware in nature.
So I pulled out my trusty USB stick, and lo and behold you can't actually reinstall the OS if you've deleted the recovery partition.  I checked that box that says something about including a copy of the recovery partition, but you can't recover the OS even after doing that.  Every time I get a message about the harddrive being locked or no image being present (I forget the exact error because I'm about 24 hours from demanding a full refund and mailing this thing back).
So, assuming I have Windows 8.1 fully installed, what is the proper method to backup the OS in a fashion that is restorable on something like a disk failure where you install a new blank hard disk and then need to do a recovery.  Does this not exist for my laptop?  I've always been told that the Windows 8.1 recovery disk creator was the solution, but it clearly isn't.
Anyone know the proper method for this scenario?

Hi,
Sorry to hear this hasn't worked out like it's supposed to.  I've used recovery flash drives without problems, but have also seen that the "drive locked" problem does occur.  I'm not sure that it's a Lenovo issue.  Seems to be more a generic Windows restore problem that happens with some drive configurations.
That doesn't help you - I chimed in to say that if you haven't already, you might call support and explain your situation.  I can't/don't speak for Lenovo, but when I've had recovery issues in the past with a new laptop they've provided the recovery media gratis.
(Apologies if I missed that you've already called...)
Z.
The large print: please read the Community Participation Rules before posting. Include as much information as possible: model, machine type, operating system, and a descriptive subject line. Do not include personal information: serial number, telephone number, email address, etc.  The fine print: I do not work for, nor do I speak for Lenovo. Unsolicited private messages will be ignored. ... GeezBlog
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