unable to re-image T61

I foolishly re-partitioned my Vista install with an external utility (gparted in a liveCD) and made my Vista install inoperable. I was able to recover all my data, but I would need to reinstall Vista (and for some reason, the ThinkVantage restore partition was borked too).

I called support, and they sent me re-imaging media. The media got here today, and the first DVD (the one that's bootable, and that begins the re-imaging process) did not work. The screen shows shows the "Windows is loading files" progress bar, and then the optical drive then stops reading and a screen appears with the green "working" indicator and the words "Microsoft Corporation." After a minute or so of that, the screen goes black and the machine hangs.

I called support again, and they're sending another set of imaging media, on the assumption that there is something wrong with the CD. Maybe they're right, but I'm kind of worried that something bigger is wrong.

If anyone knows anything, I'm interested to hear it.

 

What happens when you try to boot the recovery partition? Can you even get the far?

Did you try booting from the GParted live CD, or any other live linux CD, again? If you can boot from that, then your computer itself might be in okay shape. That would possibly indicate that the first set recovery media actually was damaged. Wait for the second set, but if that does not work then you most likely have a problem. At that point I would recommend trying to reformat and install Linux or some other OS in an attempt to pave over the broken remnants of your system and then retry the recovery media. I say that because it could be that the recovery media sees the Windows and Recovery partitions and tries to utilize them somehow not knowing they are broken.

 

Until you can get a good working set of DVDs from Lenovo, you can put the Anytime upgrade disc that came with your computer in and do a fresh install of Windows. When it asks you for your product key, just leave it blank. Of course, then you'll have to wipe the whole thing away when the DVDs come. Or you could just download everything from Lenovo's website. If you go the latter route, you'll need to enter the key on the bottom of the laptop and call Microsoft to beg for activation.

Oh and yes, it was GParted that trashed your partition tables. It doesn't like working with Vista yet.

 

msiner: I can still boot liveCDs and the Ubuntu Dapper that I installed works fine (I'm bandwidth-starved, and that was the only iso I had available). I'll take your advice and destroy the vista and recovery partitions. There's no reason not to, and it might cause something different to happen.

redmaxx: I might try that later, but at this point the laptop is useful with Linux anyway.

 

The first suggestion worked. Now the re-image media seem to be working fine. I'll post again if I have any more problems, but it looks like everything's rosy now.