What is your expereince with Thinkvantage Rescue and Recovery?

I am getting real frustrated with the Thinkvantage Rescue and Recovery program. I am wondering whether this application actually even works. I have a X200 with an Ultrabase and I can't even create the Rescue and Recovery discs since it doesn't even see the optical drive in the Ultrabase. So it looks like I will have to ask/order the recovery discs from Lenovo.

Next problem is that I have a T61p that I am trying to restore to factor specs using the Recovery discs I created and they don't even work
The machine has an aftermarket drive in it that is currently completely empty(no partitions or data). I have 3 DVD discs that I made my recovery discs from. I put the first start disc in and the system boots fine off of the disc and brings up the Thinkvantage program. After some time it asks for disc 1 which I put in and hit "Yes". Then it says that the disc is not the correct one. I tried every disc I have(disc 2, the original disc to start the program) and nothing.

This is pretty annoying. I will say that I have recovered my X200 fine from the partition on the harddrive but when it comes to the discs I have had no luck. How are your experiences with the Rescue and recovery discs? I guess a lot of people probably don't even know until they use them, which is probably no too often.

 

I created the discs for all my thinkpads, though it never began smoothly. Sometimes got error messages, sometimes it says "extracting files" forever (more than half hour before I quit), often it also says the first disc is not available for DVD RAM, but after repeated tries, I got the discs created (all on DVD's). But that just means I have the discs: whether they actually work when I need rescue and recovery, I can't say. Who knows if the discs have corrupted files or not.

 

When I made my discs for the T61p, it never gave me any errors and completed without incident. So that part of it worked for me, atleast for my T61p. But using the discs are another matter. Like you say, maybe it put corrupted files on the discs. Horrible.

 

Would Lenovo charge me for recovery discs? if so how much?

 

Yes - around $50 for the set, I believe.

 

They charge $45.

 

They will charge you depends on how you explain it. If you tell them that the rescue and recovery created a faulty discs, then most likely they will send it for free if you are within warranty.

P.S. You must stress the fact that it is the Software fault for not creating the discs properly, and Lenovo systems do not provide a disc varification system nor could you test them until you really need them. So that they should send you out the discs for free.

 

Thanks guys. It was exactly as you said. They were willing to send out the discs for free if the machine is in warranty otherwise they charge $50 for the discs. I paid the money, since my T61p is out of warranty. They worked fine but too expensive for what they are.

My advice to others is to create your recovery discs immediately after receiving the machine and then try to do a recovery from the discs immediately and see it they work. If they work, you are fine. If they don't then call Lenovo immediately and get a set of discs for free while you are still in warranty. Even better might be to use drive imaging software to take an image of the disk when you first get the machine.

 

Making the recovery disks immediately you get the computer is exactly what Lenovo support suggests. The idea to image everything to an external HDD is also good - but do it again after the OS is updated and set up, and all programs installed - so that if you use the image to recover you don't just return the primordial state sans all changes and personalization, which is also where the Lenovo recovery disks takes you to.

 

I thought Recovery Media can only be done once?
That's what I've been told and my laptop does not allow me to burn recovery media again. Unless RnR is different.