Recovery Media to Load Fresh SSD - Fails - X250 / Win7Pro

Question

Very odd situation.  I received a new x250 with the 500Gb HDD. Nice machine. Removed the 500Gb HDD and plan to run off of an m.2 256Gb SSD.  The Tanscend m.2 SSD installed just fine and the BIOS recognizees it without an issue. I ordered Win7 Pro recovery media from Lenovo (which I paid extra for at the time I bought the machine - downgrade to Win7 +$50)   The intent here is to leave the 500Gb HDD untouched and will use later if I ever resell the machine, etc. When I try to boot from the Lenovo recovery DVD, I get the "Windows is loading filles..." progress bar at the bottom of the screen as it is reading from the external dvd drive.  So far so good.  It then abruptly stops during the initial windows environment load - about 30 seconds into it:     Windows Boot Manager    Windows Failed to Start    Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt    Status: 0xc00000001    File: \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe I tinkered, double checked everything, including dvd disc sequence, scratches on disc.  No change.  I just so happen to have a Microsoft Windows 7 install dvd (a retail version a couple years old).  It boots and installs with no issues.  It boots into the config environment, I can select time, date, country, hdd target, partiioning, etc.  It appears to have no issues whatsoever.  Must be a bad set of disks from Lenovo?  Read on. Ordered a second set of DVD's which they gladly shipped.  I still have the exact same issue. I was honest and transparent with Lenovo support and told them about replacing the factory hdd with an SSD.  They had me run through system diags and self tests [press <F10> on reboot] and all passsed in flying colors.  They had me check several BIOS settings related UEFI, legacy, and a few other boot settings.  I did not have to make any changes as they were already set to thier recommendations. Lenovo support's final recommnedation: Send the machine back for them to work on or call sales and tell them I have a defective machine. I am a little miffed at this point.  Don't get me wrong, there may be a legitimate reason why the Lenovo media will not boot with my m.2 flash drive installed - but the support people (I have spoke with three different ones now) don't seem to have an issue the SSD I installed, especially since the machine passes all internal self tests.  They tried thier best to explain how this must be a mainboard issue. I could just buy a Win7 license (they are still around if you look) and be done with it.  But that is why I paid extra for the downgrade at the time of purchase.   Has anyone else seen this or have a better explanation than the Lenovo Thinkpad support folks do? Sorry for the long post - but wanted to put all the info in up front. Thank  you  

Answer 1

The final conversation I had with Lenovo support stated that it is bad system and I need to pack it up and send it back.  I went ahead and used a personal Windows 7 Pro license and the system is running beautifully as we speak.  I had to download a boat load of drivers from Lenovo (not unexpected from any vendor when doing a generic OS load) and am doing the OS patching now.  But seems to be very stable and pretty quick. I am not sure if anyone from Lenovo monitors these boards, but I am very disappointed with the level of support I received.  I politey asked if we could escalate and I was told there was no one else that could help (in a nutshell).  I was also told that the recovery disks they ship are outsourced directly from Microsoft thus Lenovo has no direct control over them.  The tech (Marion, as a recall) tried to call Microsoft to investigate further but he says the number he was given has been disconnected.  Sorry. My disappointment is not that the machine won't load the way I exepct it to, it is that no one has an answer one way or another.  Sending the machine back for a new mainboard (as Lenovo technician Jennifer? suggested) just seems like they are throwing a dart at the wall and hoping they get lucky.  If any of the techs I spoke with could at least explain to me the relationship between not being able to boot from Lenovo recovery DVD's and a bad system - especially when OEM Microsoft DVD's boot and load just fine, I would love to hear it.  Maybe there is a legitimate reason, but please do share before you tear into my machine. I would be very happy to return one of the sets of DVD's they have shipped if they want to test on thier own machine.  Maybe that is asking too much? Needless to say, Lenovo tech support totally missed the mark.  If anyone knows of a way I can escalate (ask for duty manager?) to get beyond the techs that pick up the phone, would love to hear it. This is certianly not the closure I anticipated.  I expect more from Lenovo.