Clean Install Guide (works for 32-bit or 64-bit)

Hi... I have bought a Thinkpad T410 with Windows 7 Professional (32 bit edition) pre-installed. I want to repartition my disk and upgrade my OS to Windows 7 Professional (64 bit). Does this procedure apply for my case too? Kindly say what would be the change in procedure, if any...

 

Yes, the general procedure still applies. You will of course need different drivers and such.

 

if i decide to clean install windows 7 does that mean i lose the thinkpad tools that come installed with the laptop?

 

You will need to download them from the Lenovo web site and reinstall them, so yes.

 

ok ty. this might be kind of a stupid question does it void my warranty if i clean install?

 

Nope. The help desk might not be able to help you with diagnostics if you don't have the preload loaded, but the warranty would be intact.

 

I'm upgrading my X100e from 32-bit Win7 Pro to 64-bit Win7 Pro. Obviously, a clean install is the thing for me. It'll be a little tricky, because Lenovo doesn't officially support 64-bit on the X100e yet, but I'm confident I can get through that. However, I would like to preserve the ability to restore the machine from the hidden partition. Ideally, I'd like it to restore to the newly-installed 64 bit install. But if I can't make that work, then at least "restore-back-to-factory-32-bit" would be better than nothing.

So I've got two questions ... *after* completing the clean install:

1. If I install the 64-bit Win 7 version of Lenovo OneKey Recovery (from here--the IdeaPad's 64-bit driver set), will that actually put a copy of 64-bit Win 7 into the hidden partition that I can recover to? (I'm not confident ... that Lenovo page describes Lenovo OneKey Recovery as a "driver" ... which doesn't seem like it would be building an environment to recover from.)
   
2. If I just leave the hidden partition untouched, and install the Lenovo OneKey Recovery driver, will the Factory Restore function at least work? I assume it would take me all the way back to the original factory-installed 32-bit version, but that's OK if that's the best I can do. (The reason I'm not confident about this is the switch from 32-bit to 64-bit. Does that mess up the file system in any way.)

What do you think?

 

Uh oh. Two days and no reply (maybe I should have posted this question somewhere else?) ... anyway I guess I'm gonna have to just take a chance and try it and see what happens. Makes me a little nervous ... but I'm game. (I guess If all goes well, I'll share what happened.

If anyone has any last-minute "OH NO DON'T DO THAT" suggestions, *pleeze* feel free to share.

 

Pretty much once you reinstall you won't be using a "recovery partition". That's only to restore to factory settings. If you go to 64-bit, restoring to factory settings makes no sense, so I'm not sure why you would want to preserve that option.

After you do the install, you can make a complete PC backup image and that will allow you to restore to the point after you did the installation. You might be able to store the Windows install disc and restore image on another bootable partition, but that seems like more work for little reward.

If you reach a point where you need to use the recovery partition, you're going to want to be somewhere that you have your backups already, so trying to do it all on one machine probably isn't the best solution.

 

That's true. That's why it would be my second choice.

I want to build a recovery partition because I'm sending the computer away with a family member, and if the machine gets totally hosed (corrupted, infected, whatever) I want to be able to walk 'em through a simple go-back-to-square-one recovery. Ideally, I'd like it to be 64-bit square one. But in that kind of an emergency, 32-bit square one is OK too.

That would be perfect. But I don't want to rely on the person to keep track of recovery media. I want the Recovery function to all be on-disk.

I'm also not so concerned about backing up or recovering the person's data. The machine isn't really going to be storing much of anything, anyway--it'll mostly be used for communications and streaming content.

Anyone know if the Lenovo OneKey Recovery does that recover-from-disk thing? Or whether if I just leave the partition alone, it'll restore all the way back to true factory settings?

Thanks!

 

You could probably make 2 partitions on the disk and install bootable windows7 install files on one of them, and then also make a complete image to that same partition. You'd have to fiddle with the Win7 boot menu to allow you to select the "recovery" partition to boot from. You'd have to experiment to find the best configuration.

Sorry I can't help about the Onekey thing.

 

Thanks for the suggestions ... I really appreciate it!

 

If this for selling your notebook at some point in the future, I'd recommend making the recovery discs, which you can use to restore the machine in the future. Then I'd install Win 7 64 bit and use imaging software like True Image to make an image of the freshly installed partition, which you can put back with relative ease. You'll have a nice clean install of Win 7 with only the software you want and True Image tends to be less farty/bloated than rescue and recovery in my experience. You can sometimes find True Image for less than $10 if you don't mind rebates, or if you've got a Seagate or WD drive, they offer free versions of the software on their respective web sites.

 

That wasn't my reason, but now that you mention it ... I guess it's better for resale if it's in original factory condition.

Anyway, I have *definitely* made the recovery discs. That was on day one (plus a System Repair Disk as well).

And you're right ... Acronis TrueImage offers the same type of on-disk recovery as OKR (I've actually used it before on other machines). I guess OKR is really designed to work with Lenovo's own proprietary factory image files, and that trying to torture it into backing up a different image is a bit of a pain. (BTW for anyone who is interested, I did find some instructions for replacing the factory image with one of your own ... located here.)

Your suggestion makes sense: If I really want an on-disk recovery for the 64-bit install, then Acronis is the way to go. But if I'm willing to accept on-disk recovery for just the 32-bit install then I could just leave that OKR hidden partition untouched.

 

My computer didn't come with a option to do a clean Windows 7 install. Is it supposed to?

If not, then am I supposed to buy another copy of Windows so I don't won't have the extra stuff on my computer?

 

It does not come with this option. You also don't need to buy another copy of Windows, you just need to get the DVD. There are legal ways to download the DVD for free, since you already have an OEM license with your computer. See this thread for downloads: http://forum.notebookreview.com/mic...-7-download-links-just-like-vista-before.html

Please make sure to follow the guides to make sure you have everything you need before and after. It's not a hard thing to do, as long as you are prepared.

 

Thanks for the link!

 

Well that didn't work.

Good thing I made the Recovery Disks, because after I did the clean install--even though I left the hidden partition completely intact--the ability to invoke a Factory Restore recovery from that partition simply went away.

(I reboot, interrupt, press the F11 diagnostics/restore button, and it just boots normally.) Pretty annoying.

I installed the OKR software, but that doesn't seem to have anything to do with recovering to the factory-original-state from the hidden partition ... OKR seems to be only for recovering from the "Lenovo Recovery" partition.

It seems really odd. The Factory Restore option was working perfectly before, and the clean install should have only affected software in the main large partition ... it shouldn't be changing anything in the other two partitions, and nothing in the BIOS. So how come the F11 keys works differently now? Curious.

 

Apparently, installing Win7 into the second partition ( C: ) overwrote the Master Boot Record and that's what disabled the F11 key.

• There's a diskette from Lenovo that's supposed to repair the MBR (http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-54483.html), but that's only if you have a diskette drive (Bzzzt .
• Arlab over at thinkpads.com built a CD image that's based on this Repair Recovery diskette ... (How to reenable the F11 function) ... unfortunately, it doesn't actually repair the MBR on Win7. HOWEVER, his note contained some really helpful hints. Specifically ...
• So I recovered all the way back to factory original by using the Recovery Disks, and that fixed the MBR and brought F11 back to life. And that almost fixed it ... F11 now worked, but the Factory Restore option had disappeared.
• To bring the Factory Restore option back to life, his instructions said to simply uninstall Rescue and Recovery! (Re-enable the Factory Restore option in RnR pre-boot Environ) ... and sure enough it worked!

The F11 key is back, Factory Restore is back, and it worked.
(Kudos to The_Solutor over at the Lenovo forum for helping with this.)

 

@allisonhome

Thanks for the useful information! I could see the importance of being able to going to be to a factory state. But I am curious why you decided factory restore your computer after a clean install.

Also, what is the difference between using recovery discs and F11? Thanks!

 

I'm just testing it.

I'm prepping this machine for a family member who will be on travel for 4 months. If the machine gets hosed (operator error, severe infection, "helpful" friend , I want to be able to give instructions over the phone that says "Here's how to get back to square one." So I needed to test those instructions ahead of time.

The recovery disks are three DVDs that you create by using the Factory Recovery Disc utility. Since everything is on DVD, it doesn't matter what you've got on your hard disk--hidden partitions or whatever.

The F11 function, however, is intended to let you repair a bad system, or even restore all the way back to Factory Settings by using image files stored on the custom Lenovo partitions ... no DVDs required. The way you use it is ... reboot, press the Enter key to interrupt, then press F11 to repair/restore.

The differences are important for the X100e because the X100e doesn't have a DVD drive. Also, it's different from most other ThinkPads because the other ThinkPads have a special blue button that the X100e doesn't have. Apparently, on those machines you're supposed to press the blue button during the reboot to get this OneKey Recovery (OKR).

 

@allisonhome

I appreciate the thorough feedback! I am waiting for my new ThinkPad to ship in and am just working out the details of setting it up.

I see you made the 3 Recovery Discs as well as a System Repair Disc. Did you notice any differences between the Windows 7 Clean Install and the Factory Restore? Which do you prefer? +1 Rep for you!

Anybody have tips for dual booting with Linux? I read that ThinkPads have some difficulty in this area as their Master Boot Records (MBR) do not like being touched.

 

WOW this is really nice guide, Stallen! Thank you so much, my T400 compared much faster than the factory pre-installed, the boot time is one-third from the original one! Well done!

 

I can't find the driver named "system interface" on the lenovo web page? Even a google search (lenovo+t400+"system interface") yields no results. Could somebody please tell me what is the full exact name of the driver?

Thanks!

 

It might of been better to put your question in a new thread as this thread was started in 2007 and was originally for Vista. But I'll respond anyways as I was wondering the same thing when I did a clean win7 install on a Thinkpad x61s. Where's the system interface driver? Well I never found it and the install went just fine.

Here's the order I installed the drivers after doing a clean win7 install.

Windows 7 installation (this included some reboots)
ThinkPad Power Management Driver
Hotkey driver
--Reboot--
wait until the installation of hardware devices is complete
--Reboot--
Power Manager
--Reboot--
Trackpoint Driver, also refered to as Ultranav Driver

I also installed Access Connections because I like some of its features.

I skipped ThinkVantage Active Protection System, for harddrive protection, because I was using an SSD.

 

Hello,

I had a quick question regarding the deletion of the hidden partition using diskpart on my Y470. When I list the partition, I see the following:

Partition 1 Primary 200MB
Partition 2 Primary 421GB
Partition 0 Extended 28GB
Partition 4 Logical 28GB
Partition 3 OEM 14GB

I'm assuming the OEM 14GB is the hidden partition I am to delete, and leave all others untouched until the install process, correct?

Thanks!

 

What is the "system interface" equivalent for W700? Can't find anything like that on Lenovo's driver page for W700. I'd definitely like my Fn and volume keys to still work after the clean install.

 

Your Fn keys should work after a fresh install of Windows 7 without any Lenovo drivers. If you haven't installed any Lenovo drivers, download the Lenovo System Update ( here) and install the updates you want to install in one go, just restart and everything you downloaded will be working (assuming that you didn't corrupt the downloaded files).

 

I'd love to do a clean install on my T500, but I can't find the Vista Upgrade Anytime disc or any links that work for downloading and making my own disc. All I have are the three recovery discs labeled "start recovery disc", "Operating System Recovery Disc Windows Vista Business SP 1", and "Applications and drivers recovery disc." Help?

 

Does the ABR activation tool still work with W7 Pro x64?
Thanks!

 

Yes. ______

 

Awesome post guys. Very helpful.

 

I can't believe it has been half a decade since I first used this guide back in 2008. It was the first to teach me how to clean install Windows on a notebook.