Factory reset: Thinkpad Yoga S1

[Howell]

I inherited my Yoga from my coworker and he had removed the restore partition. I want to restore the hard drive to how it came from the factory including the original partition structure. I have created the USB restore drive from another Thinkpad Yoga but I get an error when I boot from it and go through the reset process. I have found some batch files on the USB drive but they don't seem to get called when the reset is run. The specific error message I get includes the text: "unable to reset your pc. the system drive cannot be found"

Has anyone done an end to end restore procedure on a recent UEFI Thinkpad?


I have also posted the problem here: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkP...ad-Yoga-S1/m-p/2196115/highlight/false#M11968

 

[Mercutio]

I've done Windows 8.1 on a T540, but that was off included DVDs. Where did you get this USB drive?
Also, if you're doing Windows 8 or 8.1, you can install from any OEM disc without need of a product key. The OEM branding will just magically appear. I can make you the relevant media if you need it.

 

[Tea]

I want to restore the hard drive to how it came from the factory including the original partition structure.

Why would anyone want to do that?

(Serious question. Not an important one I hasten to add, just idle curiosity.)

 

[Howell]

1. I want to see how the manufacturer intended it. This is my first machine with UEFI/GPT and I'm learning the edges.
2. If I can figure this out I will understand how the push button restore feature works in W8/10 and the underpinnings it requires.
3. I have less need for the hard drive space than I have need of my usb drive.

 

[Howell]

I've done Windows 8.1 on a T540, but that was off included DVDs. Where did you get this USB drive?
Also, if you're doing Windows 8 or 8.1, you can install from any OEM disc without need of a product key. The OEM branding will just magically appear. I can make you the relevant media if you need it.

I made the USB recovery drive from my coworker's Yoga. I just think there is some minor flaw in the automated process; or there is a manual process I don't know to do. In particular I don't know what the error message means and.
There are various txt/xml/cmd files on the drive with contents that resemble those described here. Barring more specific advice I'm going to try merging the information from here and the USB files.

 

[Howell]

FWIW, I'm trying to restore to a previously used SSD with the partitions removed.

 

[Tea]

Thanks Howell. Curiosity satisfied.

The restore feature expects a partitioned drive. (This must be true as it runs from the drive itself in the normal case.) So let's give it one. Can't hurt to try that. It occurs to me that it is also possible that the restore feature looks for a partition of a certain name, though this would be an excessively stupid way to design it. Oh, and Windows Vista & higher always creates a small hidden boot partition. (Daft idea.) I trust you don't need to do that as well.

 

[Mercutio]

Unfortunately, that error can mean lots of things, like missing BCD data or a registry that won't load properly or because the installer is looking for some specific partition layout. Lenovo does usually install a bunch of its tools after the base system install with batch files. Sometimes they'll even flash on the screen as they're executed.

Is your Yoga in the factory default boot configuration? I'm guessing that's probably EFI-only boot with a GPT drive and Secure boot enabled.

 

[Howell]

The restore feature expects a partitioned drive. (This must be true as it runs from the drive itself in the normal case.)

The restore feature is capable of a bare metal restore, theoretically, when run from a thumb drive.

Unfortunately, that error can mean lots of things, like missing BCD data or a registry that won't load properly or because the installer is looking for some specific partition layout. Lenovo does usually install a bunch of its tools after the base system install with batch files. Sometimes they'll even flash on the screen as they're executed.

Is your Yoga in the factory default boot configuration? I'm guessing that's probably EFI-only boot with a GPT drive and Secure boot enabled.

I turned off secure boot and set the boot mode for both UEFI and Legacy with CSM turned on. My crash course was in UEFI started with getting Arch to install.


I think part of the problem is specific to the ADATA SP600 64GB SSD. I dug out an old spinning disk and the process came much closer to completion. I don't remember why the spinning disk was in the spare parts box but it might be on its way out and why it did not complete all the way. The SSD came out of a working W8.1 machine with older Core2Duo hardware so I'm hesitant to think it's bad. Still, the SSD causes the machine to hang at the BIOS screen for maybe 2 minutes and the spinning disk does not. I thought the pause was a function of the combination of blank disk and UEFI but apparently not because the spinning disk behaves differently. My next task is to update the firmware on the SSD but for that I have to resurrect a desktop; the update program is DOS based. Fun Fun.

I have copied the contents of the drive to a zip file, replacing the large WIM and SWF files with place holders. If I could follow the process the drive is supposed to take I could manually recreate it but how it works escapes me.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/out7ltn7ykmryus/thumbdrive.zip?dl=0

 

[Mercutio]

Another possibility: the reset may be set up in such a way that minimum partition sizes are larger than the 64GB total available on that SSD.

 

[Howell]

I had to take some time away from the problem, and am now testing this process on a spare C2D. I have discovered that if booting from the USB with no HD attached I get an error code x0000098 with file \boot\BCD.

First I have a basic question, does this mean something is broken on the thumb drive, or that the thumb drive may be fine but relies on data on a hard drive?

 

[Mercutio]

On a standard drive with Windows installed, the x00000098 error would mean that your BCD folder is hosed for some reason. Startup Repair usually fixes that, or you can actually manually run BCDedit and fix it by hand. Since you're running it on a flash drive with no other disk, it sounds like the content of the disk is at fault, either because of an improper disk flash or because the image you're reading from is messed up somehow.