Lenovo laptops come with a their Lenovo System Toolbox. I was doing some preventive maintanence and noticed the ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery was not backing up. Lenovo Service team said that I have erased the partitian drive and therefore the only way to reinstall Rescue and Recovery properly is to backup all my files and repartitian my drive and reinstall everything.

Is there a short cut?

If I have been backing up to another drive occassionally. It does not mean I get all my important files? Is there a process you would recommend?

If I do this, the goal would be to bring the computer back to optimal setup and maximum performance.

My usual reasoning with this sort of thing is that anything that your OEM sends to you (software-wise) is total garbage (which it usually is).

I would not contact the "Lenovo Support Team" unless you actually have a hardware issue, and forfeit all of their software immediately.

Usually when I get an OEM computer, the first thing that I do is totally wipe it down and start over, fresh copy of Windows, fresh everything. OEMs load the computer up with too much junk that just ultimately slows it down. This fad of putting a separate partition on your hard drive for them to install garbage that purports to be recovery tools on is just another example of why they aren't to be trusted.

If you keep information on your laptop that you want preserved, there are tools for ensuring that just that data is always available. Alternatively, you can create regular images of your hard drive with a tool like Norton Ghost or Acronis.

Personally I just regularly drag-and-drop my important files onto a place on my file server that only someone with my Active Directory logon credentials can active, and call it a day. Losing software installs and/or Windows isn't really a big deal -- you just put the disc in the drive and you're back-in-business.

Fully with Spike on this, don't worry about doing a format ect, just get your self another system back-up programme if need be.

Lenovo does have alot of software on the computer. I am not using the fingerprint function on the computer. I have to dig in and see what else is there. Your point is well taken. My greatest concern is if I start pulling off some of the Lenovo software, if it messes up something else, I may end up backing up and reinstalling and updating everything. That may improve the efficiency of the computer. But it may also require a good full day to do it all. I'm not lazy, just busy. For now it is running good, fast and strong.