Thinkpads Forum

So, this ThinkPad W541 I have, I made the 'factory restore' DVDs (3 of them) as most people tend to do and I decided to restore it using those 3 DVDs just to know the process for the future if needed and...

The DVDs won't boot the laptop.

They were created using the Lenovo tool that's part of the factory installation, using the internal optical drive, and the DVD burns were verified and it said everything was fine. Now, of course, I have the 3 DVDs here and they're apparently non-bootable. I did restore the BIOS/UEFI to factory state as well (but it's an upgraded BIOS/UEFI, 2.35) and still nothing. I used UltraISO to look at the discs themselves and apparently they don't even have a boot sector it can find which is somewhat odd so I figured it's some UEFI thing at work, regardless the discs simply will not boot the laptop.

I've already done a Secure ATA Wipe on the factory Samsung SSD so the original recovery partition is history, and these discs should restore not only the factory OS installation but also recreate that partition too and yet, the DVDs will not boot the laptop.

If anyone has any suggestions or tips for me to try and get this issue resolved I'd greatly appreciate hearing 'em.

Thanks, and have fun, always...

But did you do the magic "pay us $10,000 yearly for this arcane knowledge" button press?

You'll have to

1. Hold one of:
   • Win+B
   • Win+R
   • Fn+B
   • Fn+R
   • Fn+Esc
   • Win+Esc
2. Press and hold the power button for 10 seconds
3. Release the power button
4. Release the other combination

Or something of that sort, IIRC.

I have absolutely no idea what you're referring to, but if it's got anything to do with any of the factory-prepped recovery or system partitions on the SSD, those are long long gone now because of the Secure ATA Wipe that I've done (3 of them, actually, over the past 2 weeks or so).

And now I'm even more confuzzled, thanks.

If your W541 came with W7 ex factory, you might still be able to buy a recovery set from Lenovo.
Or ask in our Marketforum if someone has such a set for the W541 or possibly W540/T540p/T440p

br0adband wrote: ↑

Mon May 28, 2018 11:05 am

I have absolutely no idea what you're referring to, but if it's got anything to do with any of the factory-prepped recovery or system partitions on the SSD, those are long long gone now because of the Secure ATA Wipe that I've done (3 of them, actually, over the past 2 weeks or so).

And now I'm even more confuzzled, thanks.

There's a key combo that forces the motherboard to boot from a different media. It's mostly for messing with the BIOS (e.g reflashing, repairing, etc.), but it's also used for recovery media and the like.

This is how it used to work -- and it's better with a USB.

I guess my point is that I made the DVDs using Lenovo's own recovery media creation tool and they aren't even bootable so, one has to wonder what's the point in making them in the first place.

So I had the W541 for like two weeks, I suppose, and while I loved it someone made me an offer on it that I just couldn't refuse so, as luck would have it the support request I made with Lenovo about the recovery media - because the W541 I had was still under warranty - was accepted they sent me the 3-DVD recovery media set after I sold the laptop.

Of course, those discs just arrived by UPS this morning so, if there's anyone out there that requires them, for the W540 or the W541 (they should work fine on most any *4* series machine or others too) for Windows 7, I can make ISOs of them and host them on Mega or someplace (Mega is preferred since it's easy to use and can handle serious bandwidth overall).

https://imgur.com/JsvgA8h

These are *not* the recovery media I burned using the media recovery tool on the W541, those discs obviously failed which is why I complained to Lenovo - these are the factory Lenovo made DVDs and I can make ISOs and upload them to Mega as noted.

I ended up getting a Yoga 710 15" for $200 at a pawn shop, can't stand Windows 10 at all and Windows 7 was thought to not work on Kaby Lake and neither should the touch screen to some respects but I've got 99% of the functionality expected so far on Windows 7 Pro x64, just missing an ACPI driver and one HID driver won't start but the basic touch functionality DOES work so, stick it, Intel and Microsoft, attempting to force me into Windows 10. I don't think so...

I'd be interested in those ISOs.

No problem, working on the uploads now so whenever you get the chance, check on this link:

https://mega.nz/#F!TeZkjbjT!RyjfW031C8PPUNPJQMXzew

It's a folder with the 3 ISOs, MD5 and SHA1 checksums, and a picture of each disc - I kept everything nice and clean, the filenames on the *.iso files are how the volumes are labeled themselves, using UltraISO straight from DVD to ISO file.

As of about 11:30PM Central time on June 5th the first disc is about 55% uploaded so as I'm making this post that folder will appear empty as the files populate, it'll take a few hours.

Also: the first 2 ISOs are single layer DVD5 capable, the 3rd disc will require a DVD9 since it's about 5.5GB in size, if you decide to burn them to optical media. Most people use USB sticks nowadays but I figured I'd point it out anyway.

Have fun, always...
bb

Got'em, thank you very much!

I posted basically the same info over at /r/thinkpad on Reddit for others as well so, the ISOs will stay there for however long I suppose, I don't use Mega all that much but hey, 50GB is 50GB I suppose. Hope the ISOs come in handy for people that might need them.

Have fun, always...

I downloaded the iso:

upon creating a bootable USB with SR30F42785, I booted a Ww530 and the recovery failed after 1 minute of booting.

I attempted to create a USB using SR30L39024 and Rufus 3.1 was unable to create a bootable USB, so i assume it to be the applications usb?

No idea what that SRxxx stuff is.
Either way, these ISOs can only be used for DVDs, not for USB.

I use Macrium Reflect to make my recovery media.

I have several external drives, I keep the backup image on. REDUNDANCY RULES!

I make a bootable, USB drive and make Macrium Recovery media.

My "DD" (W540) has three SSD's.
1 M.2 NGFF 480gb drive.
2x 1tb Samsung EVO 860 SSD's.

I image my C drive, to a folder on the E drive (M.2 drive).

If I end up needing recovery for some reason, I just boot with the Macrium Recovery USB, and pull the image from E, to re-image my C drive.
Very easy, pretty fast, and reliable.

I have a second W540, with a 500gb Samsung EVO 860, and a 480gb M.2 drive, that I use in the same manner.

Two of my T440p's, have two, 2.5" SSD's, and I keep the image on the D drive.

My T400, and another T440p, I have 960gb SanDisk Ultra II+ SSD's , and I use AOMEI one-key recovery. Works very much like a factory reset. No USB drive required.