Windows 8 Clean Install on x230 WITHOUT Recovery disk

I recently purchased a thinkpad x230 with windows 8 pro installed (fyi i haven't even received the laptop yet). I also ordered a crucial 256 ssd to install, but I did not order the physical recovery disk.

I'm wondering what my options are for doing a clean install of windows 8 pro on the ssd? I currently only have window 8 pro upgrade disk, does anyone know if I could use this with the key from the lenovo laptop? Would I have to get an oem disk? Is there anyway I can use the recovery option that comes on the installed hdd?

Thanks in advance.

 

Yes, you should be able to use the embedded Windows 8 key in the X230, the Windows 8 upgrade disk, and the new SSD to install from scratch. However, before you do all of that, I would test the Lenovo backup/recovery procedures for the drive that came with the machine you ordered.

See Clean Windows 8 install to SSD or mSATA using Leno... - Lenovo Community

 

I would be careful using the upgrade disc, last time I tried it with Windows 7 (using an OEM key) it instantly knew it was an OEM COA and it would refuse to activate.

 

Yes the Windows 8 Pro Upgrade disc seems to not care if you don't have a Windows 7 install already on the system, so you should be able to treat it as a normal install disc. Least this is my own personal experience on a totally clean install which was done on a new VM to test this very question.

Even if it gives you some activation issue on first boot you can try fix it fairly quickly like this:

Activate Windows 8 Pro Upgrade

Windows 8 users who noticed that the operating system can’t be activated after the installation may want to try the following workaround that worked to activate when installing Windows 8 using an upgrade on a clean PC.

Open regedit by pressing Windows-q, entering regedit and selecting the result from the list of hits.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/
Change MediaBootInstall from 1 to 0
Go back to the start screen and enter cmd there.
Right-click Command Prompt and select to run it as administrator.
Type slmgr /rearm on the command line and hit enter.
Reboot Windows now.
Run the activation utility afterwards, enter your product key to activate Windows.

- Optional to running the activation utility after doing the /rearm is entering your key via cli by:

then install your key

slmgr -ipk XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
slmgr -ato

 

That isn't the scenario the original poster asked about so it is off topic.

As I indicated, the Windows 8 upgrade disk should work just fine. If there is an embedded Windows 8 Pro key, and you are using the Windows 8 Pro disk, setup will detect the key and run successfully.

I have not personally tested it on the X230, but it should work if Lenovo engineering did their job properly.

You should not need to monkey with the registry nor use any utilities like slmgr.

 

Could you elaborate on this? What exactly would I test? I'm not sure what the built in backup recovery is? Does it restore to factory settings from a partition on the hdd? Would I be losing any functionality by not having any of the lenovo tools stored on the extra partitions? Thanks.

Also, I will try with the upgrade disk and the lenovo key from the laptop, I guess worst case scenario is it just won't accept the key. I was just wondering if anyone had experience with this scenario so I can try to get whatever disk I might need (windows 8 pro oem).

Also, is it worth getting the official restore / recovery disks from lenovo? Is there anything on the disks that I wouldn't be able to just download from their website such as drivers etc...?

 

Sure, let me clarify. Backup the drive that shipped with the machine using Lenovo's documented backup process. Remove that drive. Install the new drive and restore to it, thus not destroying the original drive. If that works, you know you have a good backup and restore of the factory image.

Regarding getting the restore/recovery disks from Lenovo, that really depends on the price and whether the backup/restore you just did worked.

Lenovo generally puts everything on the support.lenovo.com download area. The sole exception is usually royalty bearing products like DVD playback applications. Those are usually under the SWTOOLS area on the original hard drive. I usually copy that folder to a DVD for that reason.

 

@ripper2020 - Why bother with all this re-install using the Lenovo recovery... If you want the Lenovo Windows 8 image moved to your new SSD just clone the OS on the current HDD to the SSD and that's it. Very quick and simple. Just use cloning software from Acronis like True Image 2012 and a external USB3 2.5' HDD caddy which you can install your SSD into while you clone it, then swap the SSD into your laptop.

If you don't want to use the Lenovo image then simply copy the SWTOOLS folder to an external HDD or USB stick, install your SSD and insert the windows 8 pro upgrade disc, run the standard installation and use the registration key that should of come with the Windows 8 Pro disc. Like I mentioned earlier I have tried to perform a clean install of Win8 using nothing but the Win8 disc and it's registration key, the install was on a new PC with nothing on the HDD and the Win8 Pro Upgrade disc installed perfect, it didn't care that there was no previous version of windows on the system.

Worst case you just run a 2min reg fix as noted on my original post, however so far I haven't had any need to do this.

 

Well,
Thats the thing. Ideally, I don't want to use the lenovo recovery disk. I would love to just do a clean install of windows 8 and only download the few lenovo tools I want such as the battery stretch. I just wasn't sure if this is possible or if there are any drivers or system tools I would be missing that would noticeably affect performance or battery life. Ideally I would also like to be able to run diagnostics and make sure I can get into the bios (I know on my x200 I have to press the thinkvantage button just to get into bios).

So, I would prefer to just use a windows 8 install disk ( i currently have the pro upgrade disk ) with the lenovo oem key that comes with the laptop.

 

I would be receiving my ssd tomorrow. And i have received the laptop.

Thing is where do i get the windows 8 upgrade disc? In the hearst guide to windows 7
i can create the 3 disc via recovery and r. But there is no such program on windows 8

EDIT: Read through the thread on the lenovo forums. Seems like he had an easy
time but where do i get a windows 8 .iso if i am not a subscriber. And my msdn for
my polytechnic is not working

 

I haven't tried this (yet), but it looks like the following process might work.

Microsoft Answers forum MVP response to another customer - Windows 8 ISO - Microsoft Community

Windows 8 product group page on how to upgrade with just a product key - Upgrade to Windows 8 with only a product key - Microsoft Windows

Microsoft MVP detailed instructions on how to get the .ISO and save it for burning later - Part 2 How to upgrade using the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant | Teching It Easy: with Windows

 

Not sure if it would work for everybody . But there is a much easier way to have a clean windows 8 install.. Google reset windows 8 ... I am trying it out now. 22%

Sent from my One V using Tapatalk 2

 

Good idea. I haven't tried that yet to see if it removes all the bloat from OEMs.

 

Okay it is up and running. Sadly it doesn't remove all the bloatware.

What happens is it wipes everything clean. But leave everything installed
from facatory. Norton and what not are all still on the com.

It is just restored to factory settings in a nutshell.

 

Boring...

 

would help for those who had installed something that create random bsod or no boot issue. Just reset it. Haha

Sent from my One V using Tapatalk 2

 

So I just received my laptop and there is NO COA / license sticker on the laptop. I did some googling and I guess this is a new windows 8 thing as the license is in the bios. So, I do not think the windows 8 upgrade disc will work

From what I understand, if you have an oem disc it will automatically use the license from your bios, but otherwise it won't work. For example if you extract the oem key and try it with an upgrade install disc, it won't work. I'm going to try it tonight and report back but I think I might need to purchase rescue and recovery disc from lenovo. I'm a little frustrated now.

 

Have you removed the battery and looked there? Should have some license sticker.

 

Yes. I'm pretty sure there will be COA on any windows 8 laptop sold. It's the new oem activation method - Microsoft tightens grip on OEM Windows 8 licensing • The Register

I think there are programs that can still extract the windows 8 license, however I have nothing to do the install with.

 

There is definitely no sticker. You got to email them and they will ask for your order number.
Also i suspect you will not be able to boot into the windows 8 installation media. Because that is
what happened to me.

 

I just recieved my X230 two days before, what I did was to backup the Windows 7 activation using Advanced Tokens Managerl, backup the SWTOOLS folder, then clean installed Windows 8 64. It runs smoothly, the trackpad frequently frustrates even though I installed the latest Synaptics drivers. Also, at Power Manager, I couldn't seem to find the option where to set the battery threshold levels. Any ideas?

 

The Windows 8 Retail upgrade disk should work with the embedded key.

I would backup the disk (clone) fully before you flatten the machine and hose things.

 

Couldn't agree more with this. I purchased Acronis True Image 2013 and simply use the USB version of it. It means I don't need to worry about installing it on any of my PC's and can quickly run it on any machine directly off my USB stick as it creates a bootable USB image. It then lets me backup any of my files/drives or even take a complete clone of any drive.

I have used it many times. It's simple to restore a drive clone and very quick vs doing a new install using traditional media.

I recommend everyone make a clone of their laptop when it's brand new, before you start messing around with it. This way if anything goes wrong you can be back to a new working OS install in less than 15min. I also recommend that once you have your system the way you like it - the software you use often installed, everything working the way you want, make another clone of the drive.

Keep both the clean install clone and the "to your liking" clone in a safe place. Now you can do whatever you want to the system with the peace of mind that if something goes wrong, you can restore your system to a health state in sub 15min.

 

This is equivalent to factory restore. If you ever need to send the notebook in, or decide to sell it, that should be the image.

This is equivalent to the IT guy imaging all PCs in a department (or for all members of a new project within a department). At work, people are usually assigned notebooks of identical configuration.

Another advantage of saving an image (with Acronis or the like) is that you don't need physical media, either 1 boot CD + 3 DVDs or a bootable USB flash drive. The image is saved as a file with a descriptive name of your choice.

I expect the Lenovo factory recovery scheme and discs to disappear soon. Floppy disks, anyone?

 

So YES, the retail upgrade disk does work with the embedded oem key! I just booted from a usb retail windows 8 pro upgrade drive and I didn't even have to enter a license number. Very smooth. FYI this was on the new, formatted ssd. Thanks for everyone's input. Hope this thread helps anyone in a similar boat.

As an aside, Windows 8 installed almost every driver out of the box. I did not install any lenovo software and only had to get the drivers for -
Ricoh Media card reader driver
Lenovo HID HW Radio Driver (not even sure what this is)
Power Management Driver

 

The confirms what I read in other articles on the grid. Sure makes it easy to flatten a machine and clean install if you have the official media.

 

I got a Thinkpad X230 with Windows 8 pre-installed. However, I want to do a clean install of Win8, to remove the bloatware. (Not sure if I'll like Win 8, so plan to do a multiboot with Win7, perhaps even XP as well.

Using a program called Belarc Advisor, I was able to get the product key for my Win8. (I would think that Nirsoft Produkey would work as well.)

However, I tried the procedure to install using a product key, and it did not accept it, I guess because it is an OEM product key.

So, is the only way to do a clean install to buy the retail Win8 upgrade disc? That doesn't seem right, as a license for Win8 was included in my laptop, part of what I paid for, and I even paid $50 more (in configuring the laptop) to get the Pro version of Win8. I shouldn't have to buy Win8 twice., and not even sure that I'll like the OS.

Ripper--you ask about buying the restore/recovery disks from Lenovo. Why? You can make those from the laptop, and there is also the recovery partition. But those are just for restoring it to the factory state, no? Not usable for a clean install.

 

Did you try Methodology to create Recovery Media and reload a Lenovo system with Microsoft Windows 8 preload ???

 

Something occurs to me.

Someone mentioned the option to "Reset Windows", which one can choose from the built-in recovery options in Windows. (from the Windows (not Lenovo) recovery partition, i.e. the "system reserved" partition. On trying it, however, they found out that it did not do a clean install, but restored to factory setting, bloatware and all.

When one creates recovery media (disc or flash drive) and boots from it, one sees the exact same options.

In creating the recovery media, if it sees a manufacturer recovery partition, it asks you if you want to include that in the recovery media.. What if one answered No, then booted from that drive, then chose the "Reset Windows" option? With no Lenovo recovery info there, one would think that in that case it would do a clean Windows install?

Similarly, if one deleted the Lenovo Recovery Partition from the HDD, then booted into the Windows recovery options (the Windows recovery partition, i.e. the "System Reserved" partition), then with no Lenovo recovery partition for it to use, wouldn't a Reset in that case do a Clean Install?

Anyone tried it?

 

I have not tired it but i heard that people have great luck with it, good luck hopefully it works out for you.