WARNING: Partition Magic 8.5 and Lenovo's PreDesktop

i ran partition magic to rearrange the partitions my month old T60 and it rendered windows unbootable (no i wasnt messing with the predesktop or the left edge of the partition C). the wonderful software support people at lenovo told me to restore the HD back to factory defaults (thats all they are good for anyways). the predesktop wouldnt load they said they'd send me a restore disk, but since i didnt want to wait for the disk in the mail i downloaded an OEM version of vista ultimate (happened to be a Dell disk), did a clean install and activated it using my lenovo OEM PID (had to call in MS though).

lenovo does not sell or makes available the pure windows disk. if you want to get a hold of your lenovo oem windows disk you will need to reinstall all the other stuff. MS licensing/activation people told me it is perfectly within the terms of your license so borrow someone else's windows OEM cd (be it dell, acer, toshiba) and install on your lenovo machine, as long as you are using your own PID (of course)

i am much happier now that i dont have the predesktop area. I don't have to fear using any software that changes the MBR anymore, thus the options are wider for using other recovery options out there in case something goes wrong (bartPE, ERD, paragon, acronis). i also think that vista's backup software (the version in business and ultimate) is much better than R&R IMO. and i dont have a ton of preloaded software that shipped with the system. i reinstalled some of lenovo's software that was useful but i feel better knowing that i don't have AOL and other crap sitting somewhere in my drive, waiting to be installed.

(BTW lenovo said that my system is recorded as shipped with vista basic but i paid for and have been running vista ultimate since day one - anybody else ran into the same problem?)