Reinstall Windows 7 on ThinkPad x200s

Hello All:

Windows 7 (Home Premium edition) on my year-and-a-half old ThinkPad x200s has been experiencing some OS-related problems. After tinkering here and there (e.g. fixing the dot.net framework, etc.), I have come to the (unhappy) conclusion that I should simply do a clean install. I have found the following threads on this site but am worried that they are out of date or not completely applicable to my situation:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/len...thinkpad-clean-install-guide.html#post2195480
http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/144783-clean-install-guide-works-32-bit-64-bit.html

Ideally, I would like to restore my ThinkPad back to its original condition--ThinkVantage software and all. It will indeed be a hassle reinstalling my software, updating all those patches, and transferring my files, but short of buying a new laptop (really nice, but I think the laptop itself is still good), I think this is the way to go. I have already made a copy of the recovery discs and have not deleted the original recovery partition. Can someone let me know if I could still do clean install using Lenovo's recovery software? If there is a more updated version of the above-mentioned guides, I would appreciate it if anyone could point me in the right direction. Of course, any advice or suggestions in general is also appreciated. Many thanks.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/596436-x220-clean-install-2.html (scroll down on Hearst's post about the brief overview of the procedure)

And for an comprehensive view of how to do it look into her clean install guide: http://forum.notebookreview.com/7463333-post65.html
(its designed for t20 but its basically the same as the x220 procedure except for the drivers)
The important part of the guide is making sure you slipstream the windows 7 .iso file with an SP1 file. (don't make the same mistake i did)

And i used all the drivers Heart listed in the quick overview guide but adding to this:
ThinkPad 1x1 11b/g/n Wireless LAN PCI Express Half Mini Card Adapter
and an older version of the Power Manager driver (because the new one didn't show the gauge after a clean install)

 

btw this is what i did...there are probably other ways to do it. But this seemed the most fool proof (seeing as I've never done it before). And if you can find a windows 7 .iso already with SP1 then that would be better because putting it together took a long while.

 

@wackedwithbamboo: Thank you so much. If you don't mind, could you explain and clarify what you mean by "slipstream the windows 7 .iso file with an SP1 file"?

 

slipstreaming basically means you integrate the OS with the service pack and other software into a new image.

Slipstream Windows 7 SP1 into a Installation DVD or ISO File - Windows 7 Forums

 

trust me i didn't know wth slipstreaming was matter fact the first time i did a clean install i opted out of it and figured windows will update itself to SP1 once i installed it. But after the windows update my system was severely slow. And I, unfortunately, had to do another clean install using an .iso packed in with SP1 so i wouldn't be riddled with so so many Windows updates. It may seem complicated when you look at the guide, even intimidating, but as you read through it its seems simple as they guide you step by step with it.

 

Thank you all very much. I am going through the guides and downloading all the recommended software now and (mentally) prepping myself for what will probably be a long day of installing and re-installing next Saturday. I will try slipstreaming SP1 as recommended (might as well).

 

Just out of curiosity: I understand that a clean install gives the user more flexibility and options, but is there anything inherently bad about just restoring the computer to its factory defaults using the Lenovo recovery discs? If I just wanted to bring my computer back to its original state out of the box, is the latter option easier? Thanks.

 

Hum...I tried to create Rescue and Recovery Media on my ThinkPad, but there seems to be a problem. It created a bootable CD without any problems but only ONE DVD about 1.8 GB. I thought Windows 7 required THREE DVDs? Can someone confirm? I also tried creating Rescue and Recovery Media again but got an error message that I could only have one copy of Windows. Argh...