Can't create recovery media - Lenovo L530 laptop wont let me. How to fi

[Technique]

I created recovery DVDs when i got the laptop (L530) - a bootable DVD & the 3 recovery DVDs.

I can't find the DVDs now & am wondering if i've thrown them out by mistake. I was wanting to put the recovery data onto a USB stick anyway.

So i go to make it again today & get this error message:

It just wont let me do it at all.

1) Why

2) How can i get this problem sorted?

[Technique]

Just did a bit of searching & it seems you can only create one set. Bit silly. Anyway more searching threw up The_Solutors comments here: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/X100e-Make-bootable-usb-stick-of-recovery-CD/td-p/217450

So, make a USB drive bootable & then just copy the files from the recovery partition - fool proof.

Maybe so, but when i open the recovery partition, no files are shown, even when i select "show hidden files/folders" yet the partition is about 13GB in size.

So how can i copy something that i can't 'see'?

[MillionVoltss]

try and find your Windows Key might need it.

[Technique]

Well positives & negatives on this one....

1) regards the windows key - i've got that, that's not a problem

2) I've even found the recovery discs

3) i'd still like to put the data onto USB stick. I have the boot DVD & i have the 3 recovery DVDs, but as i said, i'd like this on USB stick rather than DVDs. I can't do this due to the "only once" thing Lenovo has put in place.

I assume it's more complex than inserting a DVD, dragging the files over to the USB stick & then repeating another 2 times...?

So how do i do it?

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

Have you tried contacting Lenovo's technical support? They may be able to send you recovery media or explain a way to reset the Create Recovery Media wizard.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[Karl L.]

Well positives & negatives on this one....

1) regards the windows key - i've got that, that's not a problem

2) I've even found the recovery discs

3) i'd still like to put the data onto USB stick. I have the boot DVD & i have the 3 recovery DVDs, but as i said, i'd like this on USB stick rather than DVDs. I can't do this due to the "only once" thing Lenovo has put in place.

I assume it's more complex than inserting a DVD, dragging the files over to the USB stick & then repeating another 2 times...?

So how do i do it?

I agree with goretsky that the best solution is probably to contact Lenovo's technical support and see if they can assist you. It seems likely that other customers have had this problem before and Lenovo would be willing to accommodate you.

That said, while I don't have any specific knowledge of how Lenovo's recovery disks work, I suspect that if you have a sufficiently large flash drive it is possible. Assuming that the boot disk works like Microsoft's Windows Vista/7/8 installation discs and the data on the other recovery DVDs will still be usable if you consolidate it onto one flash drive, the following procedure should work.

1. Format your flash drive as NTFS.

2. Copy the data from your boot DVD onto the flash drive.

3. Copy the data from each of the other recovery DVDs onto the flash drive sequentially.

4. Copy the bootsect utility from boot\bootsect.exe to some directory on your computer.

5. Open a command prompt run bootsect (from your computer) with the following arguments (assuming your flash drive is mount as F): bootsect /NT60 F: /force /mbr

6. Safely eject your flash drive and try to boot from it!

[Technique]

I haven't contacted Lenovo support as i suspected they wouldn't be very helpful - Lenovo have put in place an "only once" policy, so surely they wont help you work around that? Not only that, i've heard you have to 1) pay for the discs & that 2) they are quite expensive. I don't want to have to pay for anything.

Have asked on another forum - a Windows 7 forum if any of you are registered elsewhere. I've looked into the contents of the recovery discs so i'll paste what i put over there to see if it gives anyone an idea?

Currently i have:

DVD #1 - Boot Media: (312mb)

The boot DVD containing "BOOT" folder, BootMgr file which is quite small & Winre.Wim at about 300mb.

DVD #2 - Data DVD #1: (4.03GB)

factory recovery folder, recovery folder & Autorun file

DVD #3 - Data DVD #2: (3.87GB)

factory recovery folder & recovery folder (NO autorun file)

DVD #4 - Data DVD #3: (3.04GB)

factory recovery folder, recovery folder, LenovoQDrive file, qdrive icon file.

My USB stick is 16GB capacity.

So basically i'd like to make the USB stick the recovery media. I can't do this from the laptop as Lenovo only let you create one ......... so how can i do this? Can i do this would be the first question & if so - how?

[manroweb]

Create a vanilla windows 7 disc on your USB drive.

You can download these from Microsoft directly.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/software-os/w/microsoft_os/3316.2-1-microsoft-windows-7-official-iso-download-links-digital-river.aspx

Then get all the required drives and apps from Lenovo's support site and add them to your USB.

[+BudMan MVC]

"even when i select "show hidden files/folders" yet the partition is about 13GB in size."

A partition size has nothing to do with size of files on said partition. You could create a 2TB partition and not put any files on it ;)

So your mounting the partition to a drive - and then you look on the drive and you don't see any files. What does disk manager show you for % of partition in use?

Example

Now see the amount of space free, and %free etc.. for the different partitions on my home desktop.. Does your recovery partition show 99 or 100% free or is there something using up space on it? If it has the recovery images on it then good chuck of the partition size should be used up.

If it shows 100,99% free etc.. then I would have to assume there is nothing on your recovery partition. So that would explain why you don't see anything.. I normally just wipe a system when I get it so there is never a recovery partition left on it.. But I do believe I left it on my wifes laptop just was too lazy to do a new install when she got it, just cleaned up the oem junk. So I might of left that partition on there - I will take a look when I get home.

Here is a question for you - are you looking to create a recovery where its clean install, like from factory. Or do you just want to create a image of the system how it is that you could restore from usb? Completely different things there - there are plenty of ways out there to take a current system image and then be able to restore that from a boot usb/cd/dvd. The other option would be just a clean install of the OS, and then tweaking it to have any drivers and or additional installs you would want on the new clean system after a recovery.

[Technique]

My mistake - i thought it was clear what i was looking to do. Sorry for making it confusing....

Basically, i'm looking to MOVE the Lenovo recovery media, so that it is no longer on DVDs - it is on a USB stick. That is - that it recovers the laptop to the state that it was in when it left the factory (which of course would include the junk).

I know this isn't necessarily the 'best' option (as i would guess best would be total clean install), but i suspect it's the easiest ... & i'm all about things being easy.

I would dare bet that there is more to it that get my DVD#1 as mentioned above, drag & drop the contents to the USB stick & then repeat the process for DVD2, DVD3, DVD4. If it really is simple as this then problem solved, but nothing is ever that simple.

[manroweb]

I suspect Lenovo's recovery uses some propriety system to restore so not sure it would be it is as simple as it sounds.

[Technique]

I suspect Lenovo's recovery uses some propriety system to restore so not sure it would be it is as simple as it sounds.

I heavily doubt it too. Nothing is ever as easy as that.

[+BudMan MVC]

"My mistake - i thought it was clear what i was looking to do. Sorry for making it confusing...."

And is your recovery 13GB recovery partition showing empty or does it have files on it?

No I don't think you can just take the files off your DVDs you created and put them on a USB,

But since you show that there is a Winre.Wim I would have to assume their is WIM file on the other DVDs - this is just a standard windows image, and those can be manipulated for sure. I would assume they just split the file across the dvds. You should be able to merge them back, etc. What is in the folders you mention on the other dvds?

[Technique]

"My mistake - i thought it was clear what i was looking to do. Sorry for making it confusing...."

And is your recovery 13GB recovery partition showing empty or does it have files on it?

Yes it does have files on it. Had to hit:

Tools

Options

View

Show Hidden Files

** but i also had to uncheck 'hide protected....'

I was then able to see the files in there. I found that from following this link: http://www.kensfi.com/cannot-create-another-factory-recovery-disk-for-lenovo/#comment-189151 which i attempted to follow, but there's no service_done.ini file in any of the folders on my recovery partition.

Regards your last question - i'll have to get back to you tomorrow. It's quite late & i'm up early & need to hit the sack.

[+BudMan MVC]

Well if you have images on the recovery partition we can forget about the dvds in creating your usb recovery image, everything we need should be on the recovery partition. I believe you already found info on how to do it, with your link you posted.

I am pretty sure all the makers just use the MS image WIM and install method that windows uses to install, why recreate the wheel and use something proprietary?

So if you have the WIM there, you can do whatever you want with those using the WAIK

https://www.microsof...ls.aspx?id=5753

it will have imageX that you can mount images, add to images, etc. etc.. I use just imageX on a bootable stick to take images of machines all the time.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc722145%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

[Technique]

Well after advice i read somewhere i did the following....

Using UltraISO, i created .iso images of all the DVDs mentioned. I shifted them onto the USB stick - it didn't work.

I followed this guide

and then copied all .isos to the USB stick - again didn't work.

So i followed this guide http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-working-guide/ all the way to the bottom, including the BOOTSECT.EXE info & again it didn't work.

Here's what i posted elsewhere:

Seems the YouTube method doesn't work after all

Inserted USB stick - get the error message "BOOTMGR is missing. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart".

EDIT: So i followed the DOS command as shown here http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-in...working-guide/ where it mentions BOOTSECT.EXE etc. Followed the instructions as it says & exited.

Inserted USB stick into laptop, turned on ..... get the same error message i just mentioned "BOOTMGR is missing"

[Technique]

Contents of the Q drive:

Still can't get this to work.

[Karl L.]

I have a wild and crazy suggestion. Since you have the recovery discs (which presumably work) and merely want to transfer them to a flash drive, why use Lenovo's solution at all?

You could use the discs to restore your computer to its factory state, then write Clonezilla to your recovery flash drive and use it to backup your system. The result will be a bootable flash drive with both Clonezilla and a factory image of your hard disk that you can restore at any time.

Alternatively, you could use Clonezilla to backup your hard disk as-is (if you don't necessarily want the factory state represented by your current restore discs) and have a bootable flash drive with Clonezilla and an image representing the current state of your computer that can be restored at any time.

Fear not! Even if you have never used it before, Clonezilla is well documented and has the beginner in mind. Read the prompts as they are presented to you and you should have no problems using it.

[soldier1st]

Hello,

Have you tried contacting Lenovo's technical support? They may be able to send you recovery media or explain a way to reset the Create Recovery Media wizard.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

That would work but it would cost money, which he should not have to.

[soldier1st]

This "Create once" policy is stupid and retarded. Why should users be restricted to be allowed to make only one copy of the recovery disks?simple. It's all about money and control. If users want more than one set then they need to fork over more money.

[+BudMan MVC]

ad did you follow the instructions from the thread you posted?

ust use the official usb tool from MS to make the usb pendrive bootable.

http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool

then delete all the files inside and copy the ones from the recovery partition.

There are other methods but this is really dumb proof.

[Technique]

I have a wild and crazy suggestion. Since you have the recovery discs (which presumably work) and merely want to transfer them to a flash drive, why use Lenovo's solution at all?

You could use the discs to restore your computer to its factory state, then write Clonezilla to your recovery flash drive and use it to backup your system. The result will be a bootable flash drive with both Clonezilla and a factory image of your hard disk that you can restore at any time.

Alternatively, you could use Clonezilla to backup your hard disk as-is (if you don't necessarily want the factory state represented by your current restore discs) and have a bootable flash drive with Clonezilla and an image representing the current state of your computer that can be restored at any time.

Fear not! Even if you have never used it before, Clonezilla is well documented and has the beginner in mind. Read the prompts as they are presented to you and you should have no problems using it.

Just a quick question....

Let's say i set up Windows 7 as a fresh install - no Lenovo extra crap, no extra programs that i may want to install .... JUST a basic clean install of Windows 7 64 bit.

And then i cloned this to a pen drive which was made bootable (I have Acronis True Image - would this be any good for the job since i already have it?)

Is this likely to work on a 16GB USB pen drive or would i need a bigger one?

[Karl L.]

I'm not very familiar with Acronis True Image, but it is likely that will be enough space. Clonezilla lets you specify the compression level, which you should probably set to high so that everything fits on your flash drive. I'm assuming that Acronis True Image has a similar option that you could use.

If you're just doing a clean install of Windows 7, why bother making an image of it? Presumably if can install Windows 7 now, you will be able to do it in the future should you ever need to perform system recovery.

[Technique]

If you're just doing a clean install of Windows 7, why bother making an image of it? Presumably if can install Windows 7 now, you will be able to do it in the future should you ever need to perform system recovery.

Good point - which is why i should probably have a few programs installed on there too that i'd install as standard - FireFox & Chrome. MS Office. These are just some i install as standard every time.

[Karl L.]

That sounds like a good plan: create an image with what you would normally want installed. I do recommend that you install ThinkVantage System Update and at least some of the Lenovo utilities though. Unlike the utilities provided by most OEMs, most of the ThinkPad utilities are actually really useful IMHO. Also, the system update utility can be used to automatically install and update drivers for your computer from Lenovo. That one feature is worth it in-and-of-itself, to me anyway.