Is recovery partition lost on a new Win 7 install on X220?

Hi
Someone on the official Lenovo forum mentioned that if you use the recovery disks to install a fresh copy of windows 7 on a new hard disk (eg SSD) on the X220, the new installation will NOT be the same as a factory install...apparently the recovery partition will be missing on the new install. Could someone clarify this? If this really is the case, then is the only option to clone the original hard disk onto the new SSD?

Re: Cannot Create Recovery Media - Lenovo Community

Cheers

 

You can not use the recovery disk for a fresh installation. The recovery disk is used to restore the HDD or SSD to the factory state, which include the recovery partition.
This recovery can be perform on the same HDD/SSD or a new one.

If you choose to use a retail windows install disk and do a fresh install, then it will not include the recovery partition.

 

Sorry when i said "fresh installation", i meant new installation of Win 7 using the recovery disks to try getting the X220 into a factory state - not using a generic win 7 installation disk. So just to confirm if recovery disk(s) are used on a new SSD, it restores the new disk to the same condition as when you purchased the notebook - ie no recovery partitions missing?

 

Using the restore disk will restore any disk to the factory ship condition, this include the recovery partition. The only differences is that you can not create a new recovery disk.

 

It seems to at least create the Rescue and Recovery partition, but some things will be different. For example you will not be able to create any more restore disc sets. Possibly some other bundled software may not be reinstalled on a restore.

The best way to ensure you can revert your HDD or SSD to the original factory payload is to image it before you ever boot off of it.

 

Thanks! Came across workaround to create multiple copies of recovery disks on the X220. Does this work?

1. Open the Explorer and then click Organize -> Folder and search options
2. In window Folder Options click tab View
3. Now enable Show hidden files, folders, and drives and then click OK
4. Click on the Lenovo_Recovery drive, in my case drive Q:\
5. Here is every thing needed to create the recovery disks!
6. Edit the file FactoryRecovery\service_done.ini
7. Change the string DONE=1 to DONE=0 and exit the editor saving the changes
8. You can now recreate the Factory Recovery Disks

 

I tried this method as I lost my recovery disk (SDHC card). But the program gave "the files required by this program can not be found". I am pretty sure the recovery partition is there on Q:

Update: I finally could burn another copy of image for my x220. I had to change one file name something else to get it work.