Did I just brick my new computer?

So I bought a X61 that I was asking about a couple of days ago from buy.com and it arrived today.


I had been reading here about using the thinkvantage built in restore to reset it to the factory config less some of the preloaded software.

I hate norton products, so thought I'd do that right away.

So I hit the blue button at boot up. went into recovery and did the "restore your system" option. Selected the go back to the factory state option.


After it all finished and booted into vista for the first time I got a warning box that says "windows could not compete the installation. To install Windows on this computer, restart the installation." Then it just restarts.

Damn! any ideas what I did wrong? I didn't touch anything after running the recovery tool. The only things i unchecked from the lenovo base software list was earthlink, AOL, and the two norton/symantec lines.

 

AOL blew it up. almost positive. stay away from all things aol.

even aim.

use trillian or gaim instead. trust me.

the good news is, you basically can't brick your computer that way.

"that way" = anything in the os, software problems, corruption of files, viruses, etc.

only physical problems will brick your computer - ie. impacts, drops, spills, hardware failure (rarely happens, especially early in the life of the machine)

worst comes to worst, you can just format the hard drive and reinstall windows from scratch.

google.com will guide you on your quest. good luck!

 

Well, when I was reinstalling Vista to kill the bloatware, I encountered the very same problem. However, my computer being an Asus G2S-A1, Asus practically held my hand through the entire recovery process, (even when I didn't want it to) so I kind of don't exactly remember how to fix it . Sorry.

 

I was reinstalling the factory setup with AOL removed. I can't reinstall windows from scratch because this computer doesn't have an optical drive. I have to do it from the partition the factory provided. Also, they never gave my a vista CD anyway so even if I had an optical drive I'd be SOL on that front.

Damn I wish I had created a backup file on a usb drive before I screwed around with the "restore factory image" program.

 

oh yikes.

ok- alternative ways to install windows though.

do you have a usb disc drive, like an ipod or an mp3 player with a few gigs of storage?

 

The don't give you a Windows DVD. A network install is another option if you can get a disc.

 

You can install windows off of a portable storage device like a thumbdrive?

 

Any ideas why the built in recovery process failed to install windows correctly?

 

I'll call lenovo in the morning ... will report back with what they say.

 

I think if something like that failed you should get it fixed through lenovo. I doubt you could fix it on your own.