N200 Rescue and Recovery 4 does nothing

My girlfriends N200 laptop has stopped booting into Windows XP, it just hangs on the splash screen, and when booting into safe mode, the last file loaded is mup.sys.
I have tried booting into the Recovery console, however, it gets to the 'Rescue and Recovery 4' splash screen and doesn't do anything.. I can move the mouse but that's about it. I've tried numerous keys to try and kickstart it into doing something, which does not help..
I've also tried booting from my Windows XP CD to try and get into recovery console so that I can run chkdsk, however, it displays the message that no HDDs were detected and my only option is F3 to exit, and reboot.
She has alot of work on the laptop which is important so any help would be greatly appreciated.

I would pull the hard drive and place it in an external
usb enclosure.
Copy the important files off of it if possible.
You may not get it to boot again with out re installing windows,
or hard drive may be damaged.

Similar Messages

N200 Rescue and Recovery - where does it store backups?

I've got an issue with the rescue and recovery on my laptop. I want to delete old backups and when I get my automated RnR pop up on a friday afternoon instead of doing a backup I click on the link that says "you can modify this schedule by launching RnR here". From that I get a list of all the old backups made on my laptop and the option to delete any one of them. I click on the delete button next to an old backup that's obviosuly taking up valuable HD space and a little window pops up telling me "Please wait while the backups are deleted" and then the little hour glass spins round and round for hours on end. I clicked this at 5pm this evening and it is now 11pm and it's still there. Don't think it's deleting anything and has just timed out. It's done this every time I try.
Is there a way to configure the RnR so that I can specify that I want the backup to go onto my external hardrive?
Where are these backups stored on my laptop so that I can go in and delete them manually as doing them vis RnR is definitely not working,
Thanks

I would pull the hard drive and place it in an external
usb enclosure.
Copy the important files off of it if possible.
You may not get it to boot again with out re installing windows,
or hard drive may be damaged.

Rescue and Recovery 4 DOES NOT RESCUE/COPY LARGE FILES?!

Hello all,
Thank you in advanced for helping me out/any helpful advice you may have.
System:
Windows XP Professional
T61
4 GB RAM
2.50 Ghz Dual Core Intel Processor
120 GB Hard Drive
140m nVidia Quadro video card (256 MB available memory I believe)
Problem Summary:
I ran into the unlucky computer problem of having a Microsoft.net framework addon for Firefox 3.5.3 result in a fatal interaction leaving me unable to boot up in both safe and normal mode. If you do have this addon, please uninstall it NOW, so that it does not happen to you. There is no current fix or patch for it as far as I know. Luckily, I have the (formerly) fantastic Rescue and Recovery 4 to backup my files and fix things.
So in sequence of what I did:
Tried several different attempts to fix problem to no avail (via google searches on the Rescue and Recovery Browser)
Decided that it would be best to just reformat the drive and start a clean install.
I had not done a real back up recently (several months due to my own carelessness and being busy).
I chose to do a full factory restore using the 'Rescue My Files' option, since I had never done a backup using the included Lenovo Software, I usually just ran my own manual ones in Windows.
To be on the safe side, I just decided to transfer my entire hard drive directory 'C:' to my 500 GB External Western Digital Hard Drive. I know I didn't really NEED all the files (like program files I would just need to reinstall anyway). I just wanted to return my computer to how it was as fast as possible.
Rescue and Recovery registered as copying all my data (rougly 50-60 GB) of data to my external USB Hard Drive.
I then unplugged my External USB Drive From the computer once it said it was complete. Rescue and Recovery proceeds with the factory restore.
Things are going well, factory restore is successful, no problems yet.
Once Windows was functional again and I had remade my usernames and settings just as it was before the crash, I plugged in my External HD again to restore my files.
Every file that I copied was there EXCEPT FOR MY MOST IMPORTANT ONES. It appears the directory, 'C:\Documents and Settings\Justin\My Documents'
AND
'C:\Documents and Settings\Justin\Desktop'
DID NOT COPY. I DID A DOUBLE CHECK, and the program said that all files had transferred successfully and I saw the directories on the USB Hard Drive in the Rescue and Recovery View. (I did not do a double check on another windows computer with my USB Hard Drive, however as I did not have access to one at the time and I was trusting in the Lenovo software, which did actually manage to rescue all the files, except for my most important ones.)
Is there anyway way that:
That because these files were so large (probably account for 50% of all data copied to my external USB Drive or 10-15 GB a piece), that the Rescue and Recovery file simply "passed over them"? The other files appeared to copy perfectly fine.
There was an error with the program, like a file size limit cap that Rescue and Recovery cannot surpass so they were just skipped over?
My own carelessness? Are all the root files not selected when you choose the entire 'C:' Drive as a directory? I did just choose to copy/rescue the entire 'C:' Drive and everything else (besides my two most important files) seemed to copy over so I do not beleive that this is the case.
I did not individually, select each file in the 'C:\Documents and Settings' because I assumed that it would select each of the root files within it. (Is that not the case?)
That the files are 'hiding' somewhere due to their large size?
Most importantly of all:
IS THERE ANYWAY THAT I CAN RECOVER MY DATA? There is about 2 years worth of photos, music, documents, etc. that I would like to have back that I do not have a recent back up of.
If anything, does anyone know WHY this happened? It was my understanding that Lenovo Rescue and Recovery was some of the best software for emergency crashes out there. And now it has failed me miserably. I'd at least like to know why it happened so that I may not repeat my mistake (or put too much faith in Lenovo) for the future.
I've run some data recovery software but I know it will not recovery all the files that I once had in their state before my hard drive was reformatted back to factory settings.
Thank you,
-nofeet3
Justin

Hello , and ARGH !
I AM HAVING THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM RIGHT NOW !
If anybody could help this would really be appreciated .
Here is the story
Lenovo SL500
Windows XP SP3 I think
Specs maybe not too important
My computer has some corrupted file and will not boot in normal or safe mode . When I try to do either , it starts booting , but before it finishes the load-up-windows screen , it displays an error message which says
" lsass.exe - System Error
the endpoint format is invalid "
and then goes no further , and the machine simply restarts itself again and would do this indefinitely if I didn't stop it .
SO when it starts booting and shows the Lenovo Logo , I press the Lenovo Help/Tool Button to enter Rescue and Recovery [not sure what version it is , I cannot find information within it] and it gives me the option to Rescue files before recovering the system . I have the same problem as Nofeet3.
It rescues all the small files
BUT WILL NOT RESCUE ANY OF MY IMPORTANT FILES
CERTAINLY IT DOES NOT RESCUE ANYTHING BIG [or bigger than roughly 2mb]
It rescues picture files BUT WILL NOT RESCUE MUSIC FILES !!
It may not even rescue bigger picture files , but I haven't noticed any pictures it has not copied since I can't go through ALL my picture files to see exactly what it has / hasn't copied.
However , not a single music file is copied.
It will NOT show up on the hard drive . What is strange , is when I try to plug the hard drive back in to try and copy the music files again , as I tried it a few times , it asks me if I would like to Write these files over the files already there , as though it has already copied. I check the hard disk , and these fils have definitely NOT copied onto the Disk . They are nowhere to be found .
I don't think the files are hiding , but if they are , maybe somebody could tell me where.
I suspect though that Rescue and Recovery has "recorded" the files as having been copied , some kind of record , EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVEN'T !! Or if they have , they are absolutely invisible . WEIRD !
nofeet3
It is NOT because you selected the whole C drive , and is not due to any carelessness on your part. I have selected all files individually , and have tried time and time and time again , when I plug the ext hard drive into my other laptop to see if the files copy , they don't . I have tried this over and over and over again desperately all today , it is not working , even going so far as to select individual files rather than bigger directories to try and transfer in smaller in smaller batches ,just in case it couldn't handle large transfers all at once . That is not the case either . It just simply will not transfer files roughly bigger than 2mb . NO MUSIC !! THIS IS VERY FRUSTRATING !!
I am not sure at present whether this program can rightly be called "Rescue and Recover". It is one of the main reasons I selected Lenovo , and this is not a good demonstration of it's abilites at all .
PLEASE HELP ME !!
ANY HELP WOULD BE HIGHLY APPRECIATED !!
Thanks so much in advance for any help anybody can give , and best regards ,
Carl .

Rescue and Recovery restore does not work because of incorrect display size

I am unable to restore my system when booting Rescue and Recovery from the Service Partition or DVD. R&R configures my monitor resolution as 640x480x16 but displays as if there we many more pixels available. The result is that only a portion of the screen is visible and crucial commands are cut off and unusable.
I have read elsewhere that this might be corrected by updating the DisplayResolution parameter in the WINBOM.INI files found in the \MININT and \MININT\SYSTEM32 directories. I have tried this, setting DisplayResolution=1024x768x16, resetting to the default 640x480x16 and even removing the parameter altogether, all to no effect. My monitor always comes up at 640x480 and screens are always cut off.
A puzzling feature of this problem is that Opera help screens do not exhibit this problem. They display at an appropriate size, maximize correctly and so on.
Any help would be appreciated,
Herb
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi hgirard,
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?p=341939#p341939
Does this help?
Maliha (I don't work for lenovo)
ThinkPads:- T400[Win 7], T60[Win 7], IBM 240[Win XP]
IdeaPad: U350
Apple:- Macbook Air [Snow Leopard]
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Rescue and Recovery: Backup does not finish.

I very recently updated my Rescue and Recovery, now it runs version 4.21.12.0. When I do a backup, it does it just fine, but: After a message that the backup was done successfully, a message comes with a rotating hourglass, saying: "Finalizing backup, please wait..." This message stays forever and only goes away when I kill "Rescue and Recovery" with Windows' Task Manager. This did not happen with the previous version of Rescue and Recovery.
a) Does killing the Rescue and Recovery program at this point affect the actual backup files in a negative way? Or are they just fine, this being just a "cosmetic" problem"?
b) Is this my problem somehow, or a programming bug of Rescue and Recovery that should disappear with the next release?
Thank you for your help,
Wolfgang

hi there,
I have the same question as well. Just like you, I went to the task Manager, it states 'rescue and recovery running', then I did a right click, and go to its proces, I found out that the corresponding file "MsgBox.exe" have 00 value under CPU; and constant 6,496k under physical mem usage for hours, so I assumed that it will bea message box bug and shouldn't affect the backup dat. But again, I am not 100% sure. Guess i might wait for the answer as well.

Rescue and Recovery 4 does not work)))

All of the sudden my ThinkPad R61 does not start Win XP anymore. As there is not much data on the machine I tried to use the Recovery & Rescue CD that came with the ThinkPad as described in document MIGR-70803 (http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-70803).
I can see the screen shown under step three (http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/tvt_startup.gif) and after that the one shown under step four (http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/rnr_startup_screen.gif).
On this screen appears a dialog box saying "Warten bis Initialisierung der Services abgeschlossen ist." (Wait until initializing of services has been completed). After a wile the dialog box disappears and a few seconds later the CD stops turning.
After nothing happened for quite some time the machine reboots and the process starts again.
What type of recovery is that? How can I get my machine back to work?
Thanks a lot for your help.
wegone

Hi,
what you are experiencing for a situation is not directly caused by the REcovery program. This is some failure of the startup process. The process, that you see is correct, and also that the CD stops to turn is correct, as the files are copied on the local HDD. Once it stops turning, it should take about 2 min and then should a new screen popp up.
As this is not happening, then this might be some issue with the load process, or of the driver.
Please go to BIOS and change the SATA mode from AHCI to Compatibility, if this will change the situation.
In case it will not, then please tell me, what is the exact issue, that you see, when you try to start into Windows.
Please also run the HDD advanced test from the BIOS, so that you can be sure, that this might not be caused by a damaged HDD.
Please keep me posted.
Cheers

How to undo Rescue and Recovery

Hi, I have a Lenovo X61 notebook. My harddisk was divided into two partitions: OS and data. Recently, i found that my Windows was no longer able to start. I managed to reinstall Windows 7 in the OS partition. All my files in the second partition was preserved. My laptop was working fine then. I realised subsequently however that the Lenovo drivers were no longer there (for eg: fingerprint recognition, which was not necessary, but good to have). So upon digging the box where my notebook was packed, I found the "Rescure and Recovery" CDs. So I plugged it in and restarted, thinking that it will just install the necessary drivers back. But then not only did it delete the Windows 7 that i just reinstalled, but it destroyed the partitions and deleted all my data in the second partition. Is there any way I can restore the partition configuration and all the data I had? Thanks in advance.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi guys,
my probem is almost the same, with a small difference,
i have a T410S, two partions, one lenovo recovery, 2nd crypted by drivecrypt.
Accidently i was pressing the blue thinkvantage button, lenovo recovery started for about 20seconds, after it i removed the battery. If i reboot, it always restart recovery now.
The final question:
Does anybody know what rescue and recovery is doing for the first 20-30seconds during startup ?
Is it useing the format, quickformat ect.. ? Iam sure he didnt start to copy any files first, because before he do
he have to format or something like this,
thanks for your help guys !
tim

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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Rescue and Recovery 4.5: Boot Environment does not list Backups on USB Drive

Hello,
I have a fresh installed Windows 7 on a X 230 and am now setting up my backup. The notebook came without an OS so I installed Win7, all drivers and the Thinkvantage Software myself. Then I made a backup with Rescue and Recovery 4.5 to an external USB 3.0 HDD. The Backup is listed in the Windows program, but when I boot to Rescue and Recovery, the backup is not listed.
Since there arent any options I could change during the backup or the recovery, I have no idea what went wrong..
Thanks!

In the standalone boot of RNR, go to the advanced GUI, chose Restore. After a few screens, you will see a restore from location, default is Local Hard drive. This is a drop down list. USB option is available in the drop down list. The USB must be connected during the standalone boot. If the backup is NOT the same UUID as your system, check the box that says show backups from all systems.
Also read my post dated Nov 22,2011 . RNR backup reverts to local. This may not apply to USB backups.

Rescue and Recovery 4.2 Does not Launch from Start Programs Thinkvantage

I have a T61 with XP SP3. I recently installed and uninstalled the version of Ubutuno that can be booted from Windows. I played with it for a few days then uninstalled it. Then I unistalled Rescue and Recovery using Add Remove programs...I am thinking of getting a SSD and I wanted to remove large programs before I image the disk.
I changed my mind and tried to reinstall Rescue and Recovery. I got the error saying that my boot space was too small. I used the Lenevo mbr repair feature that I found on this board.
I was then able to install R&R 4.21, and I was able to create recovey disks using the create recovery disks program
However, when I try to launch Rescue and Recovery, (Start, Programs, Thinkvantage, Rescue and Recovery). the disk spins and I get the hour glass on the cursor...and the hour glass goes away after about 7 seconds...the disk continues too blink off and on, but the program will not launch. The rrservice.exe and rrpservice exe services are running. I tried disabling Kapernsky virus, and that did not help. I have rebooted several times.
Any suggestions! I will buy you a beer for sure!!
Thanks
Jeff

My other post just gave you the basics. I got tired to typing the same info over and over.
Two issues lately.
(1) I am going from vista to win7, and I have a Factory shipped Lenovo. RNR wont install.
(2) I have win7 on a factory ship, and I want to go from Hdd to SDD. USB recovery wont boot.
==
I take my backups to a 2nd HDD. Also, every few months, I backup to a DVD set, HDD's may last 3 years, maybe 4. You dont want your loved backup on the C drive, and HDD fails. On top of that, if you back up to the C drive, the HDD grinds away. Read C, write to C\rrbackups. Backup will run faster to 2nd HDD or USB.
===
You state a pristine Vista. I am guessing it was a Factory shipped Lenovo with Vista.
The TIP in the other post is if you know of this issue BEFORE windows 7 install.
At the time during Win 7 install, and it is deciding where to put itself, there is a Default Recommended and I think a drop down list of other options. This is tricky. Example, (a). park me in the current C partition. (b) park me on the whole HDD.
Did you upgrade the Vista, inplace to win7 or did you clean install win7 to a blank C partition.
Lets see if you have a recovery(vista) partition.
Go to control panel>admin tools>computer management>disk management. Check to see if other partitions show up other than the C drive. Recovery partition should be around 10 GB. Sometimes this partition is labeled IBM_Preload or similar.
Solution/workaround
I dont have 1 that i have tested. Maybe other users can offer suggestions.
(1)You could delete the Q, but this might not clean up the MBR/BCD(boot control) entries.
(2) Backup your loved win7, erase HDD, then restore. MAYBE a win7 backup allows ignoring the Q partition. I am not an expert with using win7 backup, and I dont have a q drive.
*** all this is time consuming**, risky, and may not solve the issue.

Rescue and Recovery 4.21.0016.00 scheduler does not start RnR

The scheduler worked up to a year ago. Then it simply stopped operation. I tried different schedules - no effect. I changed the USB drive - no effect. I checked ...\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lenovo\Scheduler\Tasks\Rescue and Recovery but I do not know ahich parameters to modify, eventually.
What can I do to re-activte the scheduler?

Hi,
please tell me, what exactly do you see, when you try to select the USB HDD as the backpu location?
Is this the first backup, that you want to place on the local HDD and also on the USB HDD?
Please note, that in case you already placed some backups on the Local HDD and now you want to add an USB HDD, as the storage place for the incremental backups, then you might have these issue, because the USB HDD was not selected from the start as the secondary backup storage location.
Back to your situation: please tell me, what is located on the USB HDD? Are there some files, and was there any kind of RnR backup made?
Sorry for that many questions, but I just want to make sure, that I understand this situation correctly so that I can optionaly try to reproduce this situation.
Here are some advices, that might help out:
- one of the recommendations when using RnR with USB HDD as a backup storage is to clear the USB HDD, format is, create a partition and clean this HDD. Once the First RnR backup is placed on this USB HDD, you can put back all your files on this USB HDD and can continue to use it as a backup and also as a File sotrage.
- please also go into the registry :
HKLM\Software\Lenovo\Rescue and Recovery\Settings\Backups
and make sure, that on the right side is the value of the "USBPartition Number"-key set to "1".
I have seen it sometimes to happen, that RnR could not detect the USB HDD, becasue this partition option want set to 0 or no value, which indicated to RnR that there is no option to use a USB HDD as a backup storage.
Pelase let me knwo, any update, so that I can try to help you out with this.
Cheers

Issues with a T61 harddisk, UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME, cannot also get in the Rescue and Recovery

Dear Lenovo Support Community,
I have a T61 with XP pro on it. This is the history of my harddisk problems with it:
(the harddisk is HDD0 Fujitsu MHW21160BJ G1 and everything in laptop (HW and SW) are same as the factory sold one)
1. Unfortunately I had not made any recovery cd/dvd when the computer was healthy
2. Some time ago, after a crash, and during the chkdsk in the following boot up, harddisk showed 12kb bad sector
3. Due to more crashes and not being able to login once, went to rescue & recovery and only recovered OS to an old and healthy state. Kept my data, lost all the new programs installed but got the OS fine and running. --> I guess the bad thing that may have happened is that recovered OS may have used those bad sectors as well, but this is just a guess.
4. Problems, slow downs, the 12kb bad sector, issues kept coming back every couple or few weeks. Repeated the rescue and recovery OS installations another two times.
5. Few days ago, all was good, but needed to restart, but this time a blue screen came up with UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME. This screen comes up even if I try to go into safe mode, with networking, or even with only DOS prompt.
6. Tried to go to rescue and recovery (version 4), it took a really long time and was telling me that something wrong with the file \minit\setupapi.log and after a long long time that it got in the page for rescue and recovery, it was not doing anything by clicking on any of the buttons.
7. Took the hard out, connected it through an external enclosure to another computer, the main drive could not be read at all, I/O error, not distinguishable.
8. But the SERVICE drive was understood and I could even run chkdsk /F F:\ on it and it repaired the file mentioned above (\minit\setupapi.log).
9. Put the hard back into T61, went to rescue & recovery, this time the error on the file was not showing up, but since the step #8, I have not been able to get pass the initial screen of rescue & recovery. It doesn't go in at all.
10. Found it through Google search, the famous post on this forum about fixing the Master Boot Record. Got the little program, burned on a CD, went through all of its steps, finished as described in the famous thread, but I am not sure if it has been any help to me so far.
11. In few other occasions, connected the hard through the external enclosure to another computer and found online and used programs like Disk Doctors Windows Recovery Data and EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard and was able to just read inside both NTFS main disk and FAT32 service disk (windows can also read the service disk but cannot read the main disk). Using the free version of EASEUS, I could even read and save my personal data since my last backup, so I am good to even format the T61 hard but still I don't want to give up on that.
12. While the lenovo harddisk is in it, in a restart went to BIOS (F1) and ran the harddisk diagnosis, It said: "Pass: Controller Diag, Error code 0000: Read verification failed". And after the "Test complete", it gave a red message in the middle of screen that "<<< An error was found. Call for service >>>"
13. As mentioned in #1, I don't have Lenovo's recovery Windows XP CD(s) for T61, but I have some other windows xp installation CD's, I thought I can put them in CD drive, boot up from CD, and try to recover or repair the windows, It seems that they tell me there is no harddisk in your computer!! When I press "R" to go to recovery console, it tells me: "Setup did not find any hard drives installed in your computer."
My questions for dear members of this forum are:
1. Can I recover my T61 harddisk with the above description? It is being read nicely with the recovery programs, so it should have not been damaged seriously. Please guide me to other things that I can try?
2. I can see and read the Service part of the drive from Windows (no recovery program needed) while connecting the drive through external enclosure to another computer. Can I run a program from the Service part of disk and make those T61 Recovery CD and DVD?
3. If I purchase the Recovery CD(s) from Lenovo, would they be doing any magic or help in my case described above?
4. Can I make recovery CD(s) from another T61 laptop and use them for mine?
Thanks all for reading my long post and helping me. God Bless.
Best Regards,
AL_K

Step One: Install windows
Step Two: run system update
Step Three: Your done (optionally have a beer and relax)
Sorry, step three was a bit of humor I added.
Actually these recovery CDs were produced before the first T61 was made, probably in 2006. The T61 line was replaced in 2008.
You can activate with the code on your COA, I've done it many times, just make sure you do a full (new) installation, not an upgrade, from an oem disc.
If you do end up using the original product recovery disc set, your steps are more like this...
1. Install disc one... wait 30-60mins
2. Install disc two... wait 30-60mins
3. Install disc three... wait 30-60mins
4. Install disc four... wait 30-60mins
5. Install disc five... wait 30-60mins
6. Install disc six... wait 30-60mins
7. Install disc seven... wait 30-60mins
8. Install disc eight... wait 30-60mins
9. download latest service pack for windows and install (over an hour)
10. Install (replace old version) system update and run.
11. go to windows update and update several years worth of patches and hotfixes. (1-4 hours)
12. kick back and have a warm beer and cold pizza, if there is any left after I finished hours ago and celibrated already.
Also, after going through all that, you've not only installed windows, then replaced nearly the entire operating system, but you've also used valuable harddisc space to make several redundant copies of the outdated files, drivers and apps.
Please understand, I'm not saying the recovery discs are a bad design, they work great, and back in 2006-7-8-9 I'd happily go through all that work, but today all the stuff on them is to old so it's futile to go through all that. It would be really nice if Lenovo updated the install discs, and we could download the latest version to use, but they basically just leave them untouched after the model line is released, so nothing on that disc is newer then about 2006.
I'll also add that both George and I have done this well over 100 times each, so we wouldn't be suggesting this if it wasn't the best option, but in the end you'll have a working system no matter which route you take to get there, so the only question to ask yourself is...
Do you like your beer cold and your pizza hot
Good luck, and enjoy your endeavours
ThinkPad W-510 i7-820QM(1.73-3.06GHz) Quad Core... ThinkPad T500, T9900, 8gb SSD...FrankNpad T-60p/61p (X9000 2.8ghz) 8gb SSD ips FlexView...ThinkPad T-61p (T9300 2.5ghz) 8gb ram...Thinkpad X-61 Tablet 4gb ram...ThinkPad A-31 (1.9ghz P4 1.5gb ram)

How to restore Thinkpad T43 or R52 using rescue and recovery CD's

The genuine IBM Recovery CD Set will re-install your ThinkPad T43 or R52 (listed types only) with the original pre-load factory software, including Windows XP Professional with a legal, valid license, and all the original IBM Drivers and applications.
1. Set your Laptop to Boot From the CDROM Drive.
IT MAY ALREADY BE set to boot from CD if a bootable disc is in the drive so try and see if it does first with the disc labed 'rescue and recovery'. If it does then just skip to step 2. If it does not then you will have to enter the computers BIOS setup to tell it to.
NOTE: When in the BIOS SETUP DONT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE if you are not absolutely sure what you are changing.
ACCESSING THE BIOS:
During startup at the first screen (says "IBM Thinkpad") press F12 then F1 to enter the bios setup program.
Use keys to navigate to 'startup' then to 'boot'. Press enter and following instructions in the right hand panel move the items to make your CD or DVD drive (Atapi CD0) AHEAD of your main hard drive (IDE HDD0). It doesn't matter if 'legacy floppy or USB are ahead of either of them if they are not connected. PRESS F-10 TO SAVE AND EXIT the bios setup program.
2.Restart the computer with the first disc i.e. Rescue and Recovery CD already in the drive. The recovery program will come up. A smaller window will come up.
3.Follow the on screen prompts.
Choose to restore to Factory Specifications to Install OS, Applications and Drivers
At some point it may ask if there is a supplemental disk. This is the one that says 'Lenovo'.
4.Follow on screen prompts (i.e. insert disk 1)
5.The prompts will continue to ask for the discs in numbered order.
6. Follow the instructions on the screen to restore laptop to factory settings
7. Do not boot directly to the hard drive until the entire recovery process is complete i.e until you have used all the recovery cds for the set.
8. During the recovery process the computer will reboot multiple times. Do not do anything to interrupt the process unless you are asked to insert any specific disk.
AT THE END:
Promps may ask for the supplemental disc again, follow the on screen prompts.
Computer will restart, you may see the original recovery screen. BE PATIENT, The files still have to expand. You may not see any prompts for a couple of minutes.
SOMETIMES: (I dont know why)
After loading all the discs and after it takes you to the recovery program if nothing happens AFTER A GOOD PERIOD OF TIME, BE PATIENT, remove all discs and click on restore factory contents AGAIN. It will expand all the files (takes a while) and restore your system.
Afterwards computer will restart multiple times as it continues to load windows, programs and drivers. Follow all the on screen prompts until it is done.
Once everything is done go to microsoft (All Programs > Windows update) and load all new service packs and updates.
Partially taken from the internet and written for a customer. Tried and tested. PLEASE ADD TO KNOWLEDGEBASE.
NOTE: instructions may also be valid for other Model Thinkpads.

NNNNN wrote:
SOMETIMES: (I dont know why)
After loading all the discs and after it takes you to the recovery program if nothing happens AFTER A GOOD PERIOD OF TIME, BE PATIENT, remove all discs and click on restore factory contents AGAIN. It will expand all the files (takes a while) and restore your system.
IIRC this was the normal recovery/restore procedure for older ThinkPads. First the recovery image is installed, then the machine reboots to Rescue and Recovery to use that image to restore the rest of the hard drive. User input is required at that point to select restore.
Newer machines combine both operations.
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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T61 upgraded to Windows 7, now can't install Rescue and Recovery or Bios update.

I have a T61 6459 CTO that had XP SP3 on it. I upgraded to WIndows 7. I tried to install TVTVRNR450_025en, but I get an error msg "Rescue and Recovery does not support installing from the Operating System which upgrade from a legacy pre-load system." I tried deleting all old RNR and CSS programs in the old files after the install, but nothing seems to work. There is nothing listed in my add/remove programs. My Thinkvantage button doesn't work. How do I remove the old RNR? Should I have done that prior to installing Windows 7? Do I need to re-install my XP backup and start over? My Bios update extracts, but doesn't install. Help!

Hi, FSURN82
I did some research and was able to find this thread from Lenovo Forums. There are a few other people having similar issues. For some, installing an older version of Rescue and Recovery (sometimes even the one for their OS before the upgrade) would work fine. For some, however, they could not get it to work, so they would create backups manually using Windows.
As for the BIOS issue, what version are you currently running and to what version are you trying to upgrade?
Thanks,
Adam
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Ideas to improve the Rescue and Recovery System

Hi,
some weeks ago I ned to restore my system, while this process there was some difficulties with the Rescue and Recovery. But First my configuration:
I'm using a T61p with Windows Vista Ultimate installed.
On the System there are 5 Partitions
1. Rescue and Recovery
2. Windows Bootstrap
3. BitLocker Encrypted Windows Partition
4. Linux /boot
5. Encrypted Linux LVM
So, one morning I tried to start my ThinkPad and nothing worked anymore. After a Short time I found out that the boot sector of the windows bootstrap partition was corrupted. The Linux Partition worked fine and was startable with a GRUB CD-Rom.
Ich checked out the Rescue and Recovery system and was sad that I isn't possible to recover the boot sector of the bootstrap partition. The only way to rescue my system was to reinstall windows at all!
Thats a bad solution, because you can recover the boot sector with every OEM-DVD of Windows Vista, but this DVD is not available for a ThinkPad user.
So I backuped my files and reinstalled the system. While the reinstallation process rescue and recovery gives the option to install windows on C:. But on such a multiboot configuration it is not very clear what drive C: is. After some experiment I think he is taking the first parition after Rescue and Recovery or the first free space after it. At this place it would be much better if I can choose a parition for the installation.
So, if a Lenovo engineer is reading this, please think about to:
- Include some tools like boot sector recovering in the Rescue and Recovery system
- Adding a mode where you can choose the parition to install Windows.
Over and above that I'm really happy with my ThinkPad.
Thanks for reading.

Greetings,
This isn't so much a reply to Cobelius, or a solution, but a commiseration of sorts. Or at least an "I hear ya, buddy, I wish they'd improve some things about Rescue and Recovery, too."
I notice that no one else has replied to this thread. I hope at least that someone will read these posts, and pass 'em on to the appropriate developers.
Here's my story:
I am, overall, extremely happy with my brand, spanking new T500. So far, I'm only running a single OS, Vista Business 64.
However, I did make the following 'tweaks' to my setup, which brings out the flaws in the Rescue and Recovery software:
1) I used Truecrypt 6.1a to encrypt my system partition (leaving the original rescue partition intact)
(Side Note: Where my original drive C came with tons of empty space, I used DISKPART to shrink it a bit an created another primary partition as drive D. Hey, why the heck not? Originally, I wanted TrueCrypt to encrypt the entire drive, but this failed. Truecrypt said this was due to a hardware failure, but 20 hours of my life wasted scanning the drive with HDD Regenerator 1.51 revealed no bad sectors. So now Drive D is encrypted as an ordinary TrueCrypt container and mounted upon login. I'm okay with this solution, but if anyone wants to research why TrueCrypt couldn't do the whole disk, you have my thanks in advance.)
2) I bought a Maxtor BlackArmor(tm) hardware-encrypted USB external drive to use for my backups. I successfully used the Lenovo Rescue and Recovery tool to both create specific file backups as well as to image my entire drive C onto the BlackArmor device, once I mounted it (by running a built-in executable and supplying it with my secret password)
3) I set a Lenovo BIOS password for unlocking the boot hard drive.
So far, so good. I type the BIOS drive password, then theTrueCrypt password, and Vista takes over 12 minutes to become usable and, well, that's a Microsoft issue, isn't it?
But, here's the deal: WHAT IF I CAN'T BOOT FROM THE HARD DRIVE ANYMORE? Well, TrueCrypt made me create a bootable rescue CD which can restore my encrypted boot sector or permanently decrypt my hard drive. What it can also do is let me press the ESC key to boot without providing a password, which does a supposedly wonderful thing -- since it fails to boot my drive C, it takes me straight into the Lenovo Rescue And Recovery session.
The problem is, the Lenovo boot (version 4) takes me AUTOMATICALLY into a self-repair utility which wastes another 10 minutes of my time to finally tell me --d'uh-- that my boot sector is 'corrupted' (it isn't; it's merely ENCRYPTED by TrueCrypt. As it should be).
FLAW NUMBER 1: Rescue and Recovery should provide a default menu where automatic diagnosis is a CHOICE the user can elect not to make, or abort if it has begun.
FLAW NUMBER 2: You guys should enhance what appears to be a Vista PE environment (or BartPE, or whatever) with a few utilities, including an Explorer-like browser to examine the disk (which would snow nothing in my case, as my drives are encrypted), and a command prompt, and the ability to launch executables. The environment should also recognize USB drives.
As it happens, I used a third-party Vista PE rescue CD, Active@ Partition Recovery, to boot an environment having the utilities I needed. Using this tool, I was able to recognize a USB key that had TrueCrypt installed in 'traveller' mode (no windows registry keys needed). Running this app and providing my truecrypt password enabled me to unlock my Drive C, albeit by mounting it as another drive letter. This made it possible to read and write to my disk.
The encrypted Maxtor drive is visible, too, from this boot environment, but it appears as a CD-ROM drive, and yields no secrets until you run an executable file on it and enter the drive's password. And that worked, too. So I could find files to copy over to my hard drive, if I needed to.
However, in order to RESTORE files to my drive, I'd still need to be able to run Rescue and Recovery, or at least the Recovery portion. Which brings me to:
FUNDAMENTAL FLAW NUMBER 3: You need to create a Recovery tool that can run from within an external USB drive, without requiring shared .DLLs in various subfolders or windows registry entries. Lord knows, I certainly tried to copy RestoreNow.exe from C:\Program Files (x86)\Lenovo\Rescue and Recovery onto my Maxtor drive, along with whatever DLLs it called for, but it was hopeless. The damned thing just wouldn't run from the USB drive on the PE environment.
The way I see it, then, is that there really is no way to restore my hard drive should I suffer a catastrophic failure. Major bummer.
FUNDAMENTAL FLAW NUMBER 4: When I got my laptop, I created a series of recovery disks using the Lenovo supplied software. Booting with the first CD, however, only proved depressing, as I had to agree that the ONLY purpose for this CD was to recover my PC to factory-shipped condition. Which meant erasing my drive and restoring it with the contents of the other DVDs. But I want to restore what I backed up with Rescue and Recovery! My life SINCE the laptop shipped from the factory! Geez, Louise, why not let me choose to do THAT, too?
(Of course, the boot CD would need to allow me to execute the Maxtor program that unlocks my encrypted USB drive, and also let me execute TrueCrypt to unlock my hard drive.)
I sure hope someone forwards this to a developer who'll take it seriously, after s/he stops chuckling. You guys should just ship a usable Vista PE rescue CD with every laptop, I think. And a recovery-only tool that doesn't need DLLs or Registry Entries to run. It would help in so many ways.
In the meantime, I guess I'd better do all I can to ensure my laptop's hard drive doesn't die on me.
Again, other than for this teeny problem that "don't amount to a hill o' beans in this crazy world," I'm really happy with my T500.
Thanks for reading this, too. And happy holidays.

N200 Rescue and Recovery 4 does nothing

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