R&R restore problem

Booting into R&R, it will not let me restore to original factory state. It only shows me the option to restore from a backup.

Any ideas, folks?

 

Time to call up Lenovo.

 

Factory reset is only possible in the pre-boot environment.
You have to press the ThinkVantage button at start-up and then press F11.

If after pressing the ThinkVantage button, that option doesn't appear to you, you might need this.

 

klutchrider was right. Had to call Lenovo. Fortunately, I got an All-American kid in Atlanta (who spoke English) who is going to send CD's to re-image my hard drive.

Hope no one is offended by my jab at out-sourced tech support from India or wherever. Been there, done that and all it does is frustrate both parties.

Love my T61 (well, up to now)

 

Just one thing, how do you access Rescue & Recovery? After logging in in Windows?

 

You access it via the blue button upon startup at the ThinkPad splash screen. You can also access it once you loaded your Windows OS also to create recovery disks.

 

The thing is, RnR doesn't have the "Factory Reset" option through its Windows interface (at least that option never appeared to me), so that's what he could be doing wrong.

I only get the "Restory Factory Settings" option in the Pre-Boot environment.

 

Try this while you are waiting for help from lenovo.

 

To access Rescue and Recovery, press the blue ThinkVantage button when the ThinkVantage splash screen appears upon rebooting your computer.

When restoring your computer, you should be presented with 2 or 3 options. The 3rd option (restore to factory state) is not available if you have already created your Rescue and Recovery CD's. If you only have 2 options available, you would need to select Option 1 and then it will get you to insert the appropriate CD's.

If you always want to have 3 options available to you regardless of whether you have created your R&R CD's or not, I would create the CD's then Restore your system again.

 

hi edcorbitt. i just had the same problem. i was just wondering, how much are the CDs going to cost? did it matter if the notebook was still under warranty?

 

You'll have a better chance if it's under warranty but it's always worth a try. If you want the recovery discs, call up Lenovo Tech Support (not customer service) and tell them you're unable to burn the recovery discs for some reason. They should service you a free set of recovery discs.

 

Called Lenovo Monday morning and seven recovery CD's arrived early Wednesday morning via DHS from IBM in Morrisville, NC (no charge, heyitzjake).

I'm not sure these are what I want. The tech I spoke with said they would send me CD's to re-image the hard drive, including the hidden partition. However, the ones they sent look to simply reinstall the XP operating system--not the same thing. They are labeled as Product Recovery CD's. I hope they fix the hidden partition as well.

I want to try what ed_h suggested first, just to see what happens. Others have ideas about what I might be doing wrong, but let me just say this. Shortly after I purchased my T61 last July, I reinstalled the operating system via the ThinkVantage button at bootup. At that time I had the third option available for a factory reset. This weekend when I attempted another reset to factory state, that option was not available. It was then that I burned my set of recovery discs which turned out to not work either.

So, I did it once but something broke. It's not my fault Lenovo. I'm innocent.

 

The CD's should restore the hidden partition as well, yes.

 

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