Solved Lenovo B320: How to restore windows 7?

Has anyone figured out how to restore to windows7 I failed foolishly to make restore disks and the restore system does not work. There is a 25.07 gig partition labeled OEM in disk management so I think the image is there but in disk management there are no options as to assign drive letter etc.

I have read that Lenovo wants 60 bucks for the restore disks.

Did you make the OEM manufacturer's Recovery Disks?

You can Order Lenovo Recovery Disks from here:

Lenovo Support - Home (US)


Lenovo Recovery
Lenovo Support - Home (US)

Sorry typed some response within the quote, didn't know how that worked.

theog said:

   Information

We always assume you have made your Recovery Disks using the OEM manufacturer's Recovery Media Creator app the first day you had your new PC.
& made the Startup Repair CD.
startup repair disc-create
​

Did you make the OEM manufacturer's Recovery Disks?

No, as I said in the OP.

You can Order Lenovo Recovery Disks from here:

Not if they are 60 as mentioned in the OP.

Lenovo Support - Home (US)


Lenovo Recovery
Lenovo Support - Home (US)

Click to expand...

I ASSUMED I could create the restore disks from the partition at any time but windows 8 install decided differently.

I did do a repair disk while 7 was installed but it only finds the windows 8 install, does not see the windows.old nor the OEM partition mentioned in the OP.

You can take look her:
Clean Install : Factory COA Activation Key - Windows 7 Forums

Thanks, if all else fails that will work just fine. Would like not to do a clean install but might have to. I have a tremendous amount of data to restore and don't want to if I don't have to.

thanks!

Why don't you move your data to a seperate data partition (if you can shrink your C enough with the bootable CD of Partition Wizard). Then you can reinstall /7 in the /8 C partition and INCLUDE your data folders into the /7 libraries.

Might work well. Would have room if I delete the windows.old directory. Thanks!

Just learned something. There is a restore drivers from restore partition option, opened it and it lists a string of original programs that came on the unit and you can restore. I tried a couple and it works, so found the restore OS program "OKR", ran it, still does not work. The image is still there, just hope LENOVO will someday make up a win 8 driver to burn the disks.

Or if not I will try one of the plans above.

Hold on.

Do you have windows.old folder ?

You can restore from there.

I have done it.

It takes a few steps and you need a boot disc which lets you see what you are doing.

If you don't have windows.old any more - we should be able to use what is on the lenovo recovery partition.

I need to see the contents of that partition to be able to advise.

If anybody else has lenovo - can you post up screenies please?

eccentric - if you can boot into windows you can unhide the recovery partition - you need to change the partition type to 0x07

Free Partition Magic alternative, partition manager freeware, partition magic server, partition magic Windows 7 and free Partition Manager software for Windows 7/8/VISTA/XP/2000 and Windows Server 2003/2008/2000.

Click the Apply button after changing type .

Yes, windows.old is still there. I assumed that it was there so you could go back to 7 but have not found any way thus far.

I am not sure I want to go back but definitely want to make restore disks. I suspect Lenovo will update their stuff one of these days, they have a lot of customers having problems - they advertized the upgrade so they should get things fixed

I will copy your instructions for future reference if Lenovo lets us down.

thanks

That changed the id but the driver software can't find the partition which is understandable, but it won't let me change it back to the original 0X12 COMPAQ. I can choose the old one but when it applies it comes out something else. Interesting stuff

Any ideas how to get the drive ID reset to the original 0X12 COMPAQ so I can at least reinstall programs?

thanks

That changed the id but the driver software can't find the partition

Click to expand...

What driver software?

If the partition type is 0x07, assign a drive letter and look inside. Do that from within windows as you are still able to boot in - ( as far as I can tell. )

Any ideas how to get the drive ID reset to the original 0X12 COMPAQ so I can at least reinstall programs?

Click to expand...

I thought installing win8 made that useless?

1.You were asking if you can reinstall from windows.old.

Yes, you can.

2. Otherwise, if you are not now able to use the recovery partition - make it visible, as you have - and we can see what is in there - should be able to make something from that.

If you have got lost, post a screenshot of disk management.

I can and have changed the partition to 07 and can assign a drive letter and look at it. I am at this point concerned with making recovery disks.

The utility you recommended changed to the 07 but will not allow me to go back to the original 0x12 Compaq ID. If I can make disks without that that would be fine. I was going back in case Lenovo fixes their software in the future.

Explanation: The unit has a restore portion that allows the making of disks - does not work. The unit also has a software to reinstall programs. That did work but does not since the drive ID has changed. That does not bother me if we can get the disks made.

The partition has the following directories and a whole bunch of numbered files with .cri or .exe extensions. Example: 11001565.cri and 11001565.exe.

Boot
EFI
factools
OKRBacckup
OneKey

If it is too big a problem to do this I'm fine the way it is. If I decide to go back to seven I have spare coa/disk.

Also if you can direct me to instructions to reinstall from windows.old that would do fine as well.

Thanks either way.

It is probably easiest for you to restore from windows.old

You need a boot disc you can see what you are doing.

Plenty of linux live cd's out there.

Here are screenshots from when I did it. I used my winpe disc with explorer included ( that's why you can see the aero transparency ).

If you have secure boot enabled - you will need to disable it in Bios setup.

From your boot disc - this is what your win8 drive looks like:




This is what the windows.old folder contains:


Look in windows 8 drive Program Files - you see will a lot of programs that are NOT in windows.old program files .




Copy them to Windows.old Program Files.




If you are using 64 bit - do the same with Program Files (x86)

Look in windows 8 drive Users\yourusername and copy the files I highlighted below into Windows.old Users\yourusername



Look in Windows 8 drive yourusername\Appdata\Local and copy your folders to windows.old \yourusername. ( don't copy the win 8 rubbish like packages and virtualstore )




Do the same for Appdata\Roaming





If you have any 3rd party boot critical drivers - e.g. Acronis\Easeus, etc - you MUST copy them from windows 8 drive windows\system32\drivers to windows.old windows\system32\drivers ( I think Acronis has snapapi.dll in system32 - copy that over as well )




Next, make a folder on the drive called WINDOWS.EIGHT.




MOVE ALL the highlighted folders into WINDOWS.EIGHT.



Your drive should now look like this:




MOVE ALL the folders from Windows.old onto the root of the drive



You now have this and can reboot into windows 7.




You may still need to copy stuff from windows.eight folder back - but you should be able to boot into win7 ok.

You may also need to re enable services - your A/V for example- win8 upgrade process will have disabled a few things.

Useful way to do that is to open msconfig>services tab>hide all MS services >enable all.

Thank you very much, should be able to do that. That was a lot of work you did for a fool that didn't make restore disks Thanks again.

stan