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recovery disk assistance

Long story short: my Lenovo laptop (8.1 OS) has a BSOD with a "critical service failed" error, and is in a continuous loop of restarting by itself. I want to try and use/make recovery discs to basically reset the laptop completely (I have tried nearly everything to boot into safe mode). My friend has a lenovo laptop with an 8.1 OS as well, so my question is: how do I use his laptop to make recovery/restore discs for mine?

November 3, 2014

4 Comments • Newest first

BobR

@johncenaADV The first thing to investigate is whether or not your specific model Lenovo laptop came with a "hidden recovery partition" already on its hard drive containing all the files necessary to reinstall Windows to factory-new condition.

Apparently this varies by model and Windows version, so it's not entirely clear without knowing your computer's model how you should proceed with recovering Windows for your computer. It could be as simple as booting the computer while holding down a key, usually F11 or F12 while turning the power on and following the on-screen instructions to restore Windows.

Failing that, this page gives fairly detailed instructions showing how to create a Windows 8 recovery disc on a USB flash drive from another computer, and then how to recover Windows on your computer using the USB drive: http://neosmart.net/wiki/lenovo-recovery-disk/#Recover_Windows_8

Use the links in the Contents to find sections 2.4 to create the recovery disc on a USB flash drive, then section 3.4 to recover your computer from the flash drive.

Reply November 3, 2014
johncenaADV

@Ecyz With lenovo's, atleast the ones me and him have, they didn't come with any kind of disc with the laptop

Reply November 3, 2014
Ecyz

Edited cause I'm not familiar with Windows 8.1
If you copy a recovery partition to a USB stick using your friend's laptop, that should work

Reply November 3, 2014 - edited
johncenaADV

@Thiefy996 Like most laptops, if you do an update that results in everything getting messed up, situations like this can happen. In my case, there was an update involving the OS I think, which caused this.

Reply November 3, 2014 - edited