Recovery option missing from ThinkVantage boot menu [ Edited ]

[jeli2657]

On my x220 I installed an mSATA hard drive in addition to the built-in disk. I re-installed Windows 7 and all of the Lenovo utilities onto the mSATA drive, then deleted the 100mb system and primary Windows partition from the spinning disk. I did not touch the RnR partition.

Now when I press the blue ThinkVantage button during start-up, recovery is not one of my choices. I cannot get into the recovery partition. What steps are necessary to re-enable this feature?

Thank you. Screenshots below show the in-tact recovery partition, and my menu of choices when I press the ThinkVantage button

Link to picture

Link to picture

Moderator note; picture(s) totalling >50K converted to link(s) Forum Rules

[GMAC-R60 Retired Guru]

I believe the recovery partition was connected to the primary Windows partition thats why it not showing now the new win. partition doesn't know its there . the only way I believe you will beable to use recovery partition is with the rescue media disc , its the disc that boots to the recovery environment

[GMAC-R60 Retired Guru]

oh you can download R&R from the support site that will allow you to create the rescue media

[jeli2657]

Thanks for the reply. Windows does in fact know the recovery partition exists.The first picture shows the windows Explorer from the new mSATA drive load. Drive F: is Lenovo_Recovery and even has the unique Lenovo logo on it.

[jeli2657]

Everything works fine once I'm in Windows. The issue is the boot menu, as shown in the second link. This is before Windows loads.

[andyP Community SuperMod]

Did you install the mSATA using recovery discs from Lenovo or make a clean install?

As the F11 is the only option which is missing, and the only option which is not a direct BIOS command and must be in the Master Boot Record, my guess is that your BIOS / MBR don't know that it should show the message or even know that the recovery partition exists.

How you sort that all out is unknown to me, not one of my skills. Maybe install the mSATA from recovery discs which would then also locate the recovery partition also on the mSATA or somehow edit the MBR which I definitely don't know how to do???

edit; grammar

[GMAC-R60 Retired Guru]

the recovery is not on the mSATA drive right?

[jeli2657]

Thanks for the tip on the MBR, I did not know that the ThinkVantage tool actually looked in there. I will do some more research. I did not use the system restore to re-install Windows, I did a fresh install onto the mSATA.

And no, I did not move the recovery partition to the mSATA. I did not make any changes at all to it (I thought that would keep it working ).

[GMAC-R60 Retired Guru]

what you can do is DL the R&R to the mSATA then make a backup of that drive to the SATA drive that will allow you to recover the mSATA to the state it is in now or at time of backup

[jeli2657]

That only creates the backups. If I can't boot into the pre-environment, then I have no easy way of recovering that data if my C: drive fails.