Lenovo won't refund the Windows fee without an NDA

Why would Lenovo ask for an NDA? Are they trying to avoid retribution from Microsoft? Is it their attempt to minimize the profile of people who ask for Windows Tax refunds? The first sounds paranoid, so I suppose it's probably the second. Refunding people their money seems like an administrative hassle, so you'd want to minimize that.

As far as not getting an install disc... that's absurd, and I would complain to Lenovo. Laptops are prone to all kinds of damage, especially on the hard disk, so you'd think you'd want to be able to reinstall if necessary.

When I bought a Lenovo thinkpad, I ended up paying around $20 extra just to get XP on it instead of Vista. And it came preinstalled so I didn't get an installation disc!