Reinstalled XP without a Recovery CD

I reinstalled XP onto my IBM Thinkpad R51 and didn't realize I would need a recovery disk and now nothing works (the internet doesn't at least). Is there anything that I can do?

Can I download everything on this IBM page, put it on an external harddrive, and then transfer it onto the Thinkpad? http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-55029.html

Also, I downloaded a torrent of the recovery CD that is 4GB. There are 7 rar files and 1 iso file, which I've had trouble with in the past but if it's my only option I'll try to figure it out. (I also only have blank DVDS--could I burn the 7 files onto 1-2 DVDs or would it not run that way?)

Thanks.

 

you dont need a recovery cd to get your drivers running. Download them from lenovo.com by going to support, typing in your machine type and then selecting the right driver for your wifi/ethernet. transfer the driver via usb key, burn cd, etc...

after that you can use system update to take care of the rest

 

I tried to download the drivers for my wifi/ethernet but it didn't work. I'm not sure which ones I have, but I downloaded all of them and still got a message that I have nothing installed.

I also tried to use the recovery cd that I found through torrents, but when I loaded the bootable CD, it said "Missing Operating System" and I couldn't go further.

I noticed that when I tried to install XP again, a hidden partition came up that said -: Partition2 (EISA Utilities) 4504 GB
Is it possible that the drivers are still on the computer in this hidden partition? If so, how would I access it?

I'm kind of at a loss for what I can do now.

 

you want

1) wifi drivers
2) hotkey driver
3) make sure wifi switch is on as well as bios if you played around with it

after you have those, when in os, hit fn+f5 and turn wifi on

if you really want to go back to stock, hit the blue thinkvantage button at start up. should bring up a menu to restore hd to stock