Just got my T61 have one question (recovery disc related)

I ordered mine with vista ultimate, and just unpacked it. To my surprise I had 8 recovery discs. I can write out the parts numbers if need by. I just had two questions
1. They are seem to be the same except three of them, anyway to tell if one of them is xp downgrade discs?
2. Any point in me still creating my own recovery discs before I do a clean install?

 

I assume you ordered backup disks since lenovo dont give out recovery disks...never got one for mine anyways. Xp disk needs to be purchased...assume you purchased it...why not pop each disc in and see what happens.

 

Any T61/T61p with Vista Business and/or Ultimate comes with XP Professional downgrade disks, because there is an option to create recovery media of the installed Vista OS, something I would highly suggest doing before a clean install.

 

Nope I never ordered backup discs, which is why I am really surprised. I ordered a T61 last summer and got nothing, now I have 8 discs. I just asked about XP since the sales guy told me it would be included if I got ultimate.

 

So do you have XP Pro?

I almost ordered ultimate but decided not after I was told I would have to pay for XP Pro recovery disks.

 

Looks like no Xp pro. Also looks like I didnt get a vista disc of any sorts. Any suggestions on doing a clean install without that? Or will I just have to make a bootable one?

 

Something must be on those 8 recovery discs you received...there's no indication? Previous posts have said most VistaBusiness or Ultimate orders received the XP pro recovery discs and Vista recovery discs needed to be created from the service partition.

 

I got 8 recovery disks too with my T61p and Vista Ultimate. I never asked for or ordered them. They just came with the system.

The disks are
Rescue and Recovery CD, Supplemental Product Recovery CD and 6 Product Recovery CDs. Read carefully on those 6 CDs, they should have something like

Disc x of 6
July 2007
P/N 43T8xxx
XP-P SP2
FRU P/N 43T8160

So if you have those, you have the xp recovery disks.

 

Alright then I was mistaken I do have XP recovery discs Now do I have anything to do a clean vista install lol?

 

Clean install of XP or Vista? Your recovery disks are not needed if you want to do a clean Vista install.

 

I am looking for a vista clean install. How would I do it if all I have is the XP discs though?

 

You create the Vista recovery disks from the service partition. That will build a set of disks to return your machine to the Vista state in which you received it.

Alternatively you can do a rebuild from the service partition by selecting the approriate menu option from the utilities.

ETA: Have you looked at the Vista Clean Install threads?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=144783
or
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=144349

 

I have been using stallens guide. I made recovery discs using the method he said. No where did I see how to make vistas discs off of the partition or how to implement that. Sorry I might be really dumb...
So with what I have can someone please give me some suggestions how how I can go about getting a clean install of either XP or Vista? Cause I find it hard to believe 6 discs are needed for a clean XP, and the supplemental disc I assume is all the lenovo programs.

 

AFAIK there is no way to make a clean Vista extraction from your preinstalled version. There has been some posting of links to a Vista download page from Microsoft, but all working links are gone. I didn't get a copy myself and therefore have no chance to get a clean install. The problem is that you have to have a license to distribute these images, and I wouldn’t trust versions from torrents or other third party available for dl (which is also illegal).

If you have an ultimate edition - you might be able to order alternative media from Microsoft.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/1033/ordermedia/default.mspx

Another option is to borrow a copy of someone you know, and then use your license for the installation, but I don’t know if that’s legal. Anyway remember to extract you license and stuff from your current OEM installation (then you don’t have to call Microsoft to activate). You can find a good guide and answers here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=120228

 

So unless I get my hands on an upgrade disc I am pooched huh. Any idea if the xp discs I have will do just xp or will they fill it with crap too?

 

This of cause depends on what kind of XP discs you have. If you refer to the Recovery discs then you are unlucky - cause I see no way of extracting an XP install from these. On the other hand...if you have an original Windows XP install disc then you will have no problems - you just have to remember to set you hard disk in the BIOS or else the install CD will not find your hard drive. What is your situation?

 

They are the recovery discs. So it is sounding like I am pretty much pooched for a clean install huh? At least it seems like I might be able to track down a vista upgrade anytime disc.

 

It's perhaps not as "clean" as you want, but my understanding is that if you restore from the service parttion, you can select options to not install all of the orignal bloatware.

 

Stupid question. I am close to getting my hands on an upgrade disc. Is there anyway to make a backup on DVDR of my clean install, or the upgrade disc? So then if I need to do another clean install I dont end up back at this same place? Thanks for putting up with my questions

 

Once you get the drive the way you want it, you can use software to image the drive in it's current state. I'm not sure what's offered in the way of the IBM Rescue & Recovery tools (as I'm still waiting for my order to ship), but something like Acronis TrueImage should allow you to clone the drive.

 

There are several free tools for making an image of your harddrive, but I cant remember the names...you should google it anyway. Another good idea is to shrink your current partition, and make a second. Here you can save an image of your current setting, the clean install, a clean install with all necessary tools (open office, gimp, thunderbird...you name it) or whatever. This comes in handy when you quickly (within 10 minutes) want a clean new install. Note! Remember to save your documents, pics and stuff on another partition that the vista install - that way it easy to do the above. Cheers