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I have been scouring Google and the Lenovo forums and looked through various PDF documents and documentation on ThinkVantage tools and I am unable to get a clear idea on how to restore my Lenovo laptop back to its factory settings. Basically , I want to wipe the C: contents and restore the computer back to what it was when I got it.

Is there a way to get a hold of a Recovery CD-ROM image or something?

NOTE: I never used the Thinkvantage Backup service.. and I never created a backup. I never created a backup because I simply could not believe that my system could be backed up to a 8GB partition, when I have 50GB of files on my C drive.

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First, make sure you have any critical data on an external drive, or otherwise backed up. This process will overwrite your drive as it is now.

If you have not blown away the recovery partition during an earlier install, press F11 early during the boot process, before Windows loads, and it will load the recovery application. Then you can just follow the instructions. It will use the data from the recovery partition to restore to factory install condition.

If you do not have the F11 partition, you can call them and order new disks for about $20.

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I may have nuked the small partition. Hopefully I didn't. Thanks. – djangofan Jul 20 '11 at 20:52
Disks are more like $40 (in the US at least) unless they've recently dropped prices, but it's still cheaper than buying Windows again. – Shinrai Jul 20 '11 at 20:54
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It worked beautifully. The restore function restored to factory condition easily. I LOVE Lenovo! – djangofan Jul 27 '11 at 1:18
@djangofan Great. Thank you for marking the answer. I greatly appreciate it. – KCotreau Jul 27 '11 at 1:20
Yeah, thankfully I never messed with the recovery partition. I didnt realize it contained the recovery image/media. Lenovo's manual doesnt actually say that anywhere. Caused a lot of confusion. – djangofan Nov 15 '11 at 19:54
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