Creating Lenovo Laptop Recovery media from DVDs. Laptop wont let me do

[NellyPuff]

Basically i have a Lenovo ThinkPad L530 laptop.

I've created the recovery DVDs, but unbeknown to me at the time - you're only allowed to create one set. What i'd like is to put this onto a USB stick.

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?

 

[maxie]

Hi Nelly I also have an Lenovo its a different model than yous is but I can make as many copies of the recovery discs
as I want . You could make a systems image which would be a lot better than the recovery discs as with them you will always have the bloated software that comes with Lenovo models saying that you would need a lot more space than your 16gb usb drive .

 

[NellyPuff]

Yeah - i know using the Lenovo standard recovery discs would put me back to factory settings (including all the crap that comes with it), but as far as the USB stick goes, i'm happy with that. I'd just like to know how to do it as trying it through the laptop gives me the following:

I don't want to focus too much on the following, but how would i go about making a system image? Is this basically something like - set it up how i want it, then use something like Acronis True Image & burn the file to an external HDD?

 

[maxie]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html

External Drive or dvd

 

[Golden]

how would i go about making a system image? Is this basically something like - set it up how i want it, then use something like Acronis True Image & burn the file to an external HDD?

Correct. I tend to use Macrium Reflect for that. Here is the Macrium WinPE - write it to a USB flash drive using something like YUMI. You can create and restore images from this WinPE, directly from the USB flsh drive.

https://drive.google.com/#folders/0B6gVug1Gs-l1b1VvWWd6b0dLSE0

More info on Macrium Reflect:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html

 

[mjf]

.............

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?

I agree with comments about using system images. I personally use both Windows inbuilt imaging and the free Macrium Reflect.

But concerning your original question. I don't think it is easy to transfer the functionality of the factory restore DVDs to a USB flash drive. What I would do is make ISO files for each of the restore DVDs using
Imgburn. Store the ISOs on an external HDD or wherever you want. Using Imgburn again and the ISO files you can burn new factory restore DVDs whenever you like.

 

[NellyPuff]

.............

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?

I agree with comments about using system images. I personally use both Windows inbuilt imaging and the free Macrium Reflect.

But concerning your original question. I don't think it is easy to transfer the functionality of the factory restore DVDs to a USB flash drive. What I would do is make ISO files for each of the restore DVDs using
Imgburn. Store the ISOs on an external HDD or wherever you want. Using Imgburn again and the ISO files you can burn new factory restore DVDs whenever you like.

I don't want to create more DVDs. The 4 i have is plenty. I wanted it shifted to 1x USB stick for the advantages this would offer over the same stuff being spanned over 4 DVDs.

I'll look at the clean install links provided tomorrow when i'm a bit more awake. Thanks.

 

[Golden]

Hi,

MJF's solution is the best : write the 4 x ISO's to an external USB drive. If you need DVD's, thats when you burn them from these ISO's.

Regards,
Golden

 

[NellyPuff]

Here's a thought-

Stick your CD/DVD into the drive & start up/restart your machine & it boots to it no problem.

Does it do that for USB? It's no good having the boot media on a USB stick if the machine can't see the USB port on startup. You'll have to excuse my lack of know-how.


EDIT: Trying the IMGBurn approach. It's making a *.bin file & not a *.iso file.

 

[maxie]

You can make a boot-able usb

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/32055-bootable-iso-create-installation-files.html

 

[NellyPuff]

I used UltraISO to create .iso's of the DVDs i made from my laptop.

Can i make these bootable, or do i need a proper Windows 7 DVD to do this?

 

[mjf]

I used UltraISO to create .iso's of the DVDs i made from my laptop.

Can i make these bootable, or do i need a proper Windows 7 DVD to do this?

I don't understand why you had the imgburn problem. I'll look into for my own satisfaction.

Re the question above. You can use a number of tools (YUMI being popular) to boot a single ISO made from a bootable CD/DVD. But the factory restore process has multiple ISOs. You need to use them to burn DVDs and boot from the DVDs. In the restore process it asks you to insert the next DVD as part of the process.

 

[NellyPuff]

I found this which seems to show how to make a USB drive bootable: How to make a bootable flash drive - YouTube Which seemed easier to understand. Not sure whether it works or not.

I followed that & copied over the .iso's i made from the DVDs. Time to see if it works.

 

[NellyPuff]

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-install-windows-7vista-from-usb-drive-detailed-100-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"

 

[mjf]

This explains the MBR boot process.
http://www.sevenforums.com/software/139658-reflect-updates-3.html#post1207608
The you tube link in a sense preps the USB for booting and is standard practice.
Clean - wipes partition (not fully) and inserts bootcode in the USB MBR
Create partition primary - adds a partition table entry to the MBR
Active - set the MBR 08 flag which tells the BIOS to consider this a bootable device
Format - sets the format code ID in the MBR and adds a file system to the USB

If this is all you do you then you proceed part way though the boot process. The Partition boot record then goes looking for a boot manager. If it doesn't find one then you get the "BOOTMGR is missing" message.
Now if you copy all the files from a system repair DVD then the USB will boot like a System Repair DVD because it contains the other elements to boot something meaningful. What you have added is a Winre environment (Repair). By adding a Winpe (preinstall) environment you can run a number of Windows executables - *.exe which can be added to the USB. You may want to read up on this.

To be able to boot multiple applications YUMI is often used.
I've gone into some detail here because I think others ask the same question as yourself.

 

[NellyPuff]

I used the YUMI program just now, but clearly i don't know what i'm doing.

It booted, but when i did it, it just said:

Booting-
boot

& then did nothing.

Looks like i'm resigned to sticking with the DVDs as going the USB route clearly isn't going to work for me as i don't understand what i'm doing.

 

[mjf]

Who ever knows what they are doing to start with? The beauty of a flash drive is you can play around with it for as long as you have the time.
A quick google search came up with YouTube - he says his grandma could do it

 

[NellyPuff]

Thanks for the reply.

I did actually follow those steps, but it didn't work. I'll go through step by step what i did...

The files i turned into .iso's were on the USB stick when i started this process - that's the boot DVD & the 3 data DVDs.
Insert USB stick (Drive M)
Select drive M
Step2: scroll towards the bottom to find something resembling Windows 7 .... i chose "Ophcrack Vista/7 (Password Finder)"
Step3: Selected browse & then selected what was the .iso created from the boot DVD as part of the recovery set of disks.

I guess i'm not as clever as his granny as this clearly hasn't worked for me. I must've done something wrong.

 

[Golden]

Step2: scroll towards the bottom to find something resembling Windows 7 .... i chose "Ophcrack Vista/7 (Password Finder)"

Why Ophcrack?

Choose the "Unlisted ISO" at the very bottom - make sure the ISO has NO spaces in the name or it will NOT boot.

 

[NellyPuff]

Step2: scroll towards the bottom to find something resembling Windows 7 .... i chose "Ophcrack Vista/7 (Password Finder)"

Why Ophcrack?

Because i don't know what i'm doing. I saw "Windows 7", figured as i'm using Windows 7 then that's what i need to select. That was my logic behind it.

Choose the "Unlisted ISO" at the very bottom - make sure the ISO has NO spaces in the name or it will NOT boot.

Thanks. Will try this & post back with the results.