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From: - Bobb - on 31 Mar 2010 16:24
I got a Lenovo 3000 PC from friend who was tossing it ( wouldn't boot). Had
no CDs for me, but I took it. I can mount drive in another system and the
disk itself looks ok - but Vista is toast. I had already ordered win7
UPGRADE for another PC but now thinking - this will be my new box.
So, I called Lenovo - ordered the original Vista home premium CD/DVD set and
it will be here in a few days. I asked if it needs an oem partition to do a
reinstall and was told 'no - these DVD's can be used in a brand new drive
and will install fine.' I'd like to get the most from Win7 and it seems like
to do that I need to upgrade from Vista and not XP. If I can I'd like to
multiboot with XP too, so , could someone familiar with Lenovo as well as
Vista/Win7 structure critique this plan:
Partition drive - 4 partitions ? ( 1=XP, 2=Win7, 3=DATA and 4= Lenovo
diag/utility partition)
I install XP , then Lenovo Vista, then upgrade Vista to Win7
Or will installing Lenovo disks wipe XP and leave disk with 2 partitions -
one for me and one for diags ?

If I can have XP and Win7, any difference if I install all updates to Vista
prior to win7 upgrade or will win7 end up the same either way if I wait
until vista is installed , then go right to win7 then " windowsupdate" ?

Thanks for ANY info.


From: JD on 31 Mar 2010 16:46
On 31/03/2010 9:24 PM, - Bobb - wrote:
> I got a Lenovo 3000 PC from friend who was tossing it ( wouldn't boot). Had
> no CDs for me, but I took it. I can mount drive in another system and the
> disk itself looks ok - but Vista is toast. I had already ordered win7
> UPGRADE for another PC but now thinking - this will be my new box.
> So, I called Lenovo - ordered the original Vista home premium CD/DVD set and
> it will be here in a few days. I asked if it needs an oem partition to do a
> reinstall and was told 'no - these DVD's can be used in a brand new drive
> and will install fine.' I'd like to get the most from Win7 and it seems like
> to do that I need to upgrade from Vista and not XP. If I can I'd like to
> multiboot with XP too, so , could someone familiar with Lenovo as well as
> Vista/Win7 structure critique this plan:
> Partition drive - 4 partitions ? ( 1=XP, 2=Win7, 3=DATA and 4= Lenovo
> diag/utility partition)
> I install XP , then Lenovo Vista, then upgrade Vista to Win7
> Or will installing Lenovo disks wipe XP and leave disk with 2 partitions -
> one for me and one for diags ?
>
> If I can have XP and Win7, any difference if I install all updates to Vista
> prior to win7 upgrade or will win7 end up the same either way if I wait
> until vista is installed , then go right to win7 then " windowsupdate" ?
>
> Thanks for ANY info.
>
>

I've recently fixed a couple of Lenovo laptops, and I have used win7 for
a while, doing full installs and upgrade installs.
The best thing you can do is leave the hard drive alone, and boot from
the upgrade disk it will detect the old vista partitions and allow you
to upgrade, what you want to do is a CUSTOM install remove all the
partitions and use the whole drive for Win7, this will give you a fresh
install with no crud and no activation issues.

I've been using the 64 bit version of windows and "didnt" see the point
of the 32 bit versions, but after installing it on a few different types
of computer you might be best installing the 32 bit version if its a
older machine, esp if it has a NFORCE 4 or lower chipset as this isn't
supported by win7.

as for XP I personally wouldn't bother with a dual boot as I use a
Virtual XP on my machine (comes with win7 pro) however there's nothing
stopping you installing the VM software on win7 home premium you just
have to make your own XP image, very easy to do, just keep your old XP
serial number handy.

JD

From: - Bobb - on 31 Mar 2010 17:06

"JD" <No.Reply(a)Sorry.com> wrote in message
news:4bb3b48f$0$2485$db0fefd9(a)news.zen.co.uk...
> On 31/03/2010 9:24 PM, - Bobb - wrote:
>> I got a Lenovo 3000 PC from friend who was tossing it ( wouldn't boot).
>> Had
>> no CDs for me, but I took it. I can mount drive in another system and
>> the
>> disk itself looks ok - but Vista is toast. I had already ordered win7
>> UPGRADE for another PC but now thinking - this will be my new box.
>> So, I called Lenovo - ordered the original Vista home premium CD/DVD set
>> and
>> it will be here in a few days. I asked if it needs an oem partition to do
>> a
>> reinstall and was told 'no - these DVD's can be used in a brand new drive
>> and will install fine.' I'd like to get the most from Win7 and it seems
>> like
>> to do that I need to upgrade from Vista and not XP. If I can I'd like to
>> multiboot with XP too, so , could someone familiar with Lenovo as well as
>> Vista/Win7 structure critique this plan:
>> Partition drive - 4 partitions ? ( 1=XP, 2=Win7, 3=DATA and 4= Lenovo
>> diag/utility partition)
>> I install XP , then Lenovo Vista, then upgrade Vista to Win7
>> Or will installing Lenovo disks wipe XP and leave disk with 2
>> partitions -
>> one for me and one for diags ?
>>
>> If I can have XP and Win7, any difference if I install all updates to
>> Vista
>> prior to win7 upgrade or will win7 end up the same either way if I wait
>> until vista is installed , then go right to win7 then " windowsupdate" ?
>>
>> Thanks for ANY info.
>>
>>
>
> I've recently fixed a couple of Lenovo laptops, and I have used win7 for a
> while, doing full installs and upgrade installs.
> The best thing you can do is leave the hard drive alone, and boot from
> the upgrade disk it will detect the old vista partitions and allow you to
> upgrade,

I got the PC because it wouldn't boot, so "leaving it alone" isn't an
option. At this point there are 4 partitions on the drive. I think #1 was
Vista, #2 was user data, #3 is Lenovo diag, and #4 is "what's left over -
very small amount of drive". If Vista were on there I would have left as-is,
but since drive is clobbered I have to start somewhere. So I TRIED that when
I got it and Win7 told me :not enough room on part #1 = "need min of 5445
mb" and a prompt of what to do. I chose format #1 - thinking it would start
fresh. Console then showed 30gb free for part #1 and then I know longer saw
it as a " Vista Home Premium32" partititon - as shown before - now it was
just blank. I have no idea why, but then I had a boat anchor.
Since I had received no media with the PC ( I asked - and was going to just
fix it for her) but they had no idea where the install disks were.

That being the case I thought I'd use XP for now on part #1 - until Lenovo
install media arrives. What I didn't know was : will the Lenovo DVD wipe
part #1 and put Vista there ( as it originally shipped from factory) OR
could I choose Part #2 for it. ( Then use my Win7 upgrade disk to upgrade
Vista.) Leaving me with:
#1 = XP
#2 = Win7
#3 = Data
#4 = Lenovo restore area

> what you want to do is a CUSTOM install remove all the partitions and use
> the whole drive for Win7, this will give you a fresh install with no crud
> and no activation issues.
>

> I've been using the 64 bit version of windows and "didnt" see the point of
> the 32 bit versions, but after installing it on a few different types of
> computer you might be best installing the 32 bit version if its a older
> machine, esp if it has a NFORCE 4 or lower chipset as this isn't supported
> by win7.
>
> as for XP I personally wouldn't bother with a dual boot as I use a Virtual
> XP on my machine (comes with win7 pro) however there's nothing stopping
> you installing the VM software on win7 home premium you just have to make
> your own XP image, very easy to do, just keep your old XP serial number
> handy.
>
> JD
>


From: JD on 1 Apr 2010 04:26
On 31/03/2010 10:06 PM, - Bobb - wrote:
> I got the PC because it wouldn't boot, so "leaving it alone" isn't an
> option. At this point there are 4 partitions on the drive. I think #1 was
> Vista, #2 was user data, #3 is Lenovo diag, and #4 is "what's left over -
> very small amount of drive". If Vista were on there I would have left as-is,
> but since drive is clobbered I have to start somewhere. So I TRIED that when
> I got it and Win7 told me :not enough room on part #1 = "need min of 5445
> mb" and a prompt of what to do. I chose format #1 - thinking it would start
> fresh. Console then showed 30gb free for part #1 and then I know longer saw
> it as a " Vista Home Premium32" partititon - as shown before - now it was
> just blank. I have no idea why, but then I had a boat anchor.
> Since I had received no media with the PC ( I asked - and was going to just
> fix it for her) but they had no idea where the install disks were.
>
> That being the case I thought I'd use XP for now on part #1 - until Lenovo
> install media arrives. What I didn't know was : will the Lenovo DVD wipe
> part #1 and put Vista there ( as it originally shipped from factory) OR
> could I choose Part #2 for it. ( Then use my Win7 upgrade disk to upgrade
> Vista.) Leaving me with:
> #1 = XP
> #2 = Win7
> #3 = Data
> #4 = Lenovo restore area

Sounds Like you didn't chose the CUSTOM install, that's what you want.
You then Delete ALL the partitions giving you a blank drive, which it
then installs Win7 onto, the Installation disk detects that you HAD a
previous version of windows thus allowing it to upgrade.

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/clean_install_upgrade_media.asp

as for the upgrade media you ordered that was not really required if the
recovery partition is intact, you just press F11 after the POST/BIOS
screen and restore the drive back to factory condition, altho you might
have overwritten the original boot sector when you installed XP

if you do want to dual boot xp and win7, format the drive, partition it
the way you want half and half etc, install win XP first on one half,
then do a win7 custom install for the second half selecting the blank
partition, win7 will boot sector will allow you to swap between XP/Win7,
I prefer to use a Virtual Machine for XP tho.

Couple of free tools that may come in handy if you want to partition
before install, or just removing the partitions:

Gparted:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php

Ultimate Boot CD:
http://www.ubcd4win.com/downloads.htm

As for what the restore CD does you ordered it probably just installs
vista, its usually just a re-branded Vista OEM disc with the Lenovo
drivers installed, it wont do anything fancy like making Recovery
partitions, I never use them, I have the original disks for every
version of windows (except perhaps ME).


JD



From: - Bobb - on 6 Apr 2010 11:55
quick answer - Vista restore DVD from Lenovo got it going .

"- Bobb -" <bobb(a)noemail.123> wrote in message
news:hp0dhd$7l2$1(a)news.eternal-september.org...
>
> "JD" <No.Reply(a)Sorry.com> wrote in message
> news:4bb3b48f$0$2485$db0fefd9(a)news.zen.co.uk...
>> On 31/03/2010 9:24 PM, - Bobb - wrote:
>>> I got a Lenovo 3000 PC from friend who was tossing it ( wouldn't boot).


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