Symptom

Recovery Media creation and usage.

NOTE: Microsoft Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro operating system preloads, from Lenovo, do not have the option to
create Recovery Media through a Thinkvantage Technology utility (DVD recovery media) as was available in Microsoft
Windows 7 preloads from Lenovo. With the release of Microsoft Windows 8, the new preload recovery process is
outlined below. This process only utilizes the use of USB media. This process does not support the use of DVD
recovery media.
Affected configurations
The above symptom is associated with, but not limited to, the following systems:

ThinkCentre
ThinkPad
ThinkStation

Applies to:

Microsoft Windows 8

Solution
Below are the instructions for creating the Lenovo Microsoft Windows 8 preload Recovery Media for Lenovo Think
branded systems. A minimum 16GB USB flash drive is required to make a complete backup.
1.

Open Recovery applet by pressing the Microsoft Windows key and X. Select "Control Panel" from the menu
and
then
select
"Recovery"
from
the
Control
Panel
pane
as
shown
below.

2.

Select "Advanced recovery tools" and then select "Create a recovery drive" as shown below.

3.

Click "Yes" at the User Account Control prompt (if prompted

4.

Make sure that "Copy the recovery partition from the PC to the recovery drive." is checked as shown below.

5.
6.

Select the appropriate USB Flash Drive.

The selected drive will be reformatted during the recovery creation process as shown below.

7.

USB format and file copy will begin. This process may take up to hour and will display as shown below.

8.

Once the Recovery Media creation has completed, there is the option to delete the recovery partition. On
most systems, this partition is about 10G in size. Lenovo strongly recommends that this recovery partition remain
intact
as
shown
below.

9.
10.

Recovery Media Process is complete and Control Panel can be closed.

Recovery creation process is complete, USB media can be removed from system.

Below are instructions on reloading the ThinkPad from the USB Recovery Media.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Insert the USB Recovery media into an available USB port.

Restart or turn on the ThinkPad and select F12 (interactive Boot menu) at the Lenovo Logo.
Select the appropriate USB HDD. The actual name of the device will vary.
Allow the system to boot. This booting process could take up to several minutes depending on USB 2.0
versus 3.0 system memory. The screen will be blank during the boot process.
Select "Language".
Select "Keyboard".
Select the "Troubleshoot" option as shown below.

8.

Select "Reset your PC" as shown below.

9.

Click "Next" to continue as shown below.

NOTE: From this point forward in the recovery process, the choices for actual operating system recovery depend on
the
existing
state
of
the
computer
hard
drive.
Below are the instructions if there is an existing Microsoft Windows 8 install on the hard drive.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Select the target operating system of Microsoft Windows 8 to reload over existing Lenovo preload.
Select "Yes" to repartition the drives or "No" to keep existing partitions. For a clean install, the drives should
be repartitioned.
Select "Fully Clean the drive".
Click Reset to begin the process.
The reset/recovery process takes approximately 90 minutes.
Once the reset/recovery is complete, the system will reboot into Microsoft Windows 8.

Below are the instructions if the hard drive is blank.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Select "Yes" to repartition the HDD or "No" to keep the existing partitions.
Click either choice, but these instructions follow the repartition scenario.
Select "Fully Clean the drive" as this will take several minutes to complete.
Click Reset to begin the process.
The reset/recovery process takes approximately 90 minutes.
Once the reset/recovery is complete, the system will reboot into Microsoft Windows 8.

Reloading process is complete, USB media can be removed from system.

Additional Lenovo Support Information

How to create USB Recovery Media to recover a ThinkPad Tablet 2 32GB HDD models
How to create USB Recovery Media to recover an Idea system