<< What I find confusing about that "Q" Recovery Drive is if you can't boot the computer (worst case scenario)...you can't get to that drive. >>
That's something to check with Lenovo since I think that when you do the F11 or other magic button thing while turning on the computer it bypasses Windows and boots up to possibly Linux or some other OS within the Q partition. This would fit in with what I read about transferring the hidden partition to a thumbdrive from which you can then bootup and use the contents of the hidden partition that are on the thumbdrive.
I know my ASUS motherboard (my PC is home built) has a facility on a chip on the motherboard that you can boot up to and even do some things like acessing files on the hard drive as well as email and accessing the internet .....
Just did a search on
lenovo t-400 thinkpad 7417cto recovery Q drive
and what comes up but:
Understanding hard drive partitions on Lenovo systems with Microsoft Vista - Desktop, ThinkPad and Workstation
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?LegacyDocID=MIGR-70829
with a full explanation including how to make disks!
Hopefully this applies to your Windows 7 .... I hope your Recovery is not to VISTA !