ThinkVantage Rescue & Recovery seems to be in a loop

[shore5skifans]

I have a Lenovo 3000 N100 running Windows XP with Microsoft Office 2007 installed (and that's about it).  My young son must have pressed the toolbox button because now when I turn the computer on, it goes directly into the ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery 4 screen.  I've tried clicking on the 'restart your system' option from the screen and that doesn't work.  I've also tried the full restore with a backup disc I made about a two months ago, but that doesn't seem to work either.  I've also turned the computer off and then back on holding ESC, F12, F10, F8 (all at separate times) to try to get back into the Windows XP operating system mode, but it continues to go into the R&R screen - like it's in an infinite loop!  I can get into the setup utility mode, but still goes back to R&R.  Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[Herik]

Hi,

if the system is always just starting into RnR Partition, then what happened, might be a corruption of the boot record of your system. So in this case, there would be one workaournd to restore the system from this screen from a backup. Or the second option would be to reparin the boot record using your OS CD.

However, in the second option, you will temporaty loos the boot option, as the boot record, that was modified by RnR will be replaced with the OS Boot record.

Let me know, if this changes your situation.

Cheers

[shore5skifans]

I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you're referring to in your email.  I do not have the original disc, as one did not come with the notebook.  When I got my system up and running, I used the R&R to make a back up disc of my operating system (which is what I've been trying to use) - not too successfully.  Whenever I turn the computer on, it goes directly into R&R mode and when I try to hit ESC or PF8, I do get some messages, but then it goes back to R&R. I will never buy a Windows computer again!!

[anderson]

I'm currently going thru the same problem.  Installed larger 500 G HD with the old HD data imaged with Acronis TrueImage.  After transferring the data to the new HD and rebooting the system the ThinkVantage opening screen popped up and now won't let me go to the Windows Vista opening screen operating system.  Like the other person it's an endless loop!  Tried using the TrueImage CD to restart the system but the R&R screen keeps reappearing.  I've been on other forums and I keep noticing ThinkVantage problems all over the place.  Until this go around ThinkVantage has not been a problem.  I feel my biggest problem was upgrading the ThinkVantage a month ago and noticed other problems.  If I ever get over this reboot roadblock the first thing I will do is delete ThinkVantage from my system and bury it forever.  If anyone out there can give me some clues on exiting this loop and get me back to Vista OS opening page, I'd be most grateful.

Thanks,

Ben

[Herik]

Hi,
sorry, I somehow missed this thread.
@shore5skifans
So in case you don't have the original Recovery CDs, then you can call the support and request the CDs, becaseu the backup is not really helping in this situatino, as the captured backup does not seems to help that much.
However, in meantime, here is what you can try to do:
- let the system start into the RnR partition
- once you see the RnR screen, where on the left side you see stuff like "Restore" ... , press on your keyboard the CTRL+ALT+Shift key and click on the "Restart" button, that is on the right side on the top
- this will show you a command line
- type following:
fixboot
fixmbr

These two commands shold rewrite the boot record and now the system should be able to start into the OS.
Let if you have the chance, test this and let me know.
I'm ashamed, but I also don't really like Windows. I like Ubuntu, or Slackware more


@anderson
Your situation is a bit different, becayse you have been using Acronis. This is a known situation, where the boot record was not fully captured using this tool. An example is, when you us Ghost, then you have to use the "-ib" switch, which will capture the fully qualified boot record, and once you apply the image back, the system will correctly boot into the OS and not into the RnR partition.
So the difference is that you have used Acronis and the first post is talking about RnR, which somehow mixed us the boot record, because "something" was done not correctly.
You are right in one situation and this is by the fact, that this might happen directly after you installed "some" ThinkVantage. I assume, this "some" tool was Rescue and Recovery, which is modifying the boot record and therefore, in case you are capturing an image usin any kind of imaging tool, you need to capture the whole boot record and not let the imaging tool to use the basic boot record, what is the default setting by most imaging tools, like Ghost, and also Acronis.

Please feel free to ask any additional question. If I know, I'll help you out.

The basic by both situations is the resrt the boot record.

Cheers

[andyP]

@ anderson, welcome to the forum,

you might want to take a look at this post from zoltanthegypsy. I hope it helps with your situation.

[Herik]

Hi andyP,

a quite good description from "zoltanthegypsy". A bit complicated, but also should do the trick.

Please anderson, let us know, what will work for you.

Cheers

[tommyboy544]

I'm in the same boat with Windows 7. Any help out there? 

[sclexman]

Could you go into Task manager, performance and check for High disk activity on the C drive?  RNR might be going through its merge process which can run for many hours.  Did you request a RNR backup on the windows platform when this "looping" showed up?

Where do you take your backup to.. C drive, 2nd HDD or external USB-HDD? 

[tommyboy544]

Can't do any of that, so I just bought a new one.