A and M Series ThinkCentre Desktops

[#1]

Hi

just bought 3 A58's for office, each one was supplied with rescue and recovery disk and product recovery disk (XPP). I followed the instructions to make recovery disks for the pre installed Vista, then followed the instructions for downgrading to Xp. My xp disk was rejected as being the wrong disk, so I then attempted a recovery of Vista, this almost finished then warned me that the disk was full and the recovery operation would stop. I now am in a loop of rescue and recovery and am unable to boot the computer other than to the rescue and recovery software. Any suggestions?

[#2]

chrbb, welcome to the forum,

please have a look at this thread to see if it helps in your situation.

Please let us know.

[#3]

No I looked at that thread earlier, with my machines I only received the rescue and recovery disk and one product recovery disk (XP).

Whats concerning me now is that I can't even restore back to vista using the disks I made as soon as I started the computer up this morning. I'm stuck in a loop in  rescue and recovery, when I put one of my vista recovery disks in the message appears that it can't find a file on x drive!

[#4]

Are you booting from the rescue and recovery disc or by pressing enter or F11? You must boot from the R&R disc for the OS you want to install.

[#5]

Booting from the  r&r disk.

[#6 · Accepted solution]

After booting from the R&R cd you need to choose advanced, (if this is available), and then choose to recover your system. Make sure that you then choose to restore to factory settings.

(Once it has finished with the boot disk you may be asked to remove it and shut down your system, remove the disc and hold the start button pressed for 5 seconds. re-start the system normally.)

When you are asked for another disc, please read carefully what it asks, (suplementary disc or recovery disc from Lenovo/IBM), it'll probably be necessary to click on "no" and it will then again ask for a disc which should hopefully be the one you have.

[#7]

Thank you! Sorted now - I'd tried to use the Product Recovery Disk instead of a Product Supplementary Recovery Disk, then had exited R&R but was still 'locked' into a R&R loop. Waited until I had some peace and quiet and had another go using your instructions.

[#8]

Glad you got it all sorted

The same rules apply if you ever feel inclined to install Vista