Do I need to make recovery discs

if I have got the rescue & recovery discs from Lenovo/ibm? Is there anything that self-burnt discs have which the original cd set doesn't?

Also: I have Vista downgraded to XP when I ordered the machine. If I burn the recovery discs, will it be Vista or XP?

Thanks!

 

From what I've seen, if your machine comes with Vista on the machine then you will receive XP downgrade discs in the box. You won't get any recovery discs for Vista. If you ever want to run Vista, you need to create those recovery discs.

 

Yes.

 

On the contrary, I received the machine running on XP with labels and stickers for Vista; it didn't come with any discs. So I burnt the discs from Thinkvantage. I have no idea whether the discs I burnt are for Vista or XP. Then I had some problems with the partitions so they sent me the original recovery discs, which are for Vista. So I don't know whether it's necessary to keep the discs that I burnt (if it's also Vista), as I can use the discs for other purposes.

When I called the tech support they didn't think I should get any discs with the machine

 

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If you bought a machine with only XP then you wouldn't get any recovery discs and would need to burn your own, which would be XP. Even the machines that come with XP on them will come with Vista lables, as they are 'made for Vista'.

If you buy a machine with Vista that comes with downgrade rights, they ship you the XP recovery discs with the machine. If you recover to XP, you've now lost your Vista unless you burned the Vista recovery discs before restoring with the XP discs that came with the machine.

That's how I understand it at least. My T61 came with Vista on the machine and XP discs in the box.

 

If you received the machine with XP presintalled and made the recovery media, then you have XP recovery disks.
If the machine was preinstalled with Vista, then you made Vista recovery disks.
The labels have nothing to do which OS the recovery program makes, the recovery media disks are made from the hidden service partition on your machine, and there you have the OS files.

You can't make Vista recovery disks if you're running XP, and vice versa. Simple as that.

 

I've read many different explanations, and even the tech support rep didn't seem to be sure what OS I would have burnt. To make it clearer:

When I ordered the machine form the Outlet, the specs listed say simply "Genuine Windows XP Professional".

When I received the machine, it's running on XP, but the stickers on the palm rest and labels on the bottom ( with Product Key) are Vista Business.

There was no disc whatsoever in the box.

(I ask because I remember reading different sayings in the past also, regarding whether the self-made discs are XP or Vista in such cases.)

 

maybe you bought a refurbished one at the outlet and they restored it with win XP? Just guessing here...

 

It is "redistributed"; supposedly, a previous buyer returned it unopened.

 

Well, you can tell which recovery disks you made:
1. Pressing the blue Thinkvantage button upon booting, and do a full system restore, if XP is restored then your recovery media is for XP, and viceversa for Vista.
The recovery program cannot make recovery disks if the operating system is different than the one currently installed (and also stored on the service/recovery partition)
2. Using the recovery disks.