How to Perform Full System Recovery Without Disks? (Utilizing Recovery Partition)

[Smoolean]

I've had my Vista PC (HP Pavilion a1730N) for around 3-4 years (have had it since Vista first came out) and it feels about time to reformat (boot up time keeps slowly increasing). The only problem is HP didn't provide any recovery disks.

However, there is a Recovery Partition, 6.25GB, which is nearly full, so I imagine that contains all the restore files I would need.

But, (there's always a but, right?) when I open the HP Recovery program and choose to restore, it says that "there is no recovery partition, you need to insert Recovery Disk #1."

Next up: When the computer first turns on, the HP splash screen, says to push F11 for System Recovery. Pushing F11 quickly does nothing. Holding F11 for a long time freezes the computer at the HP splash screen. Or perhaps it just needs to sit there for a long time and I'm not patient enough?

Any ideas? I don't know that much about the underpinnings of computers, so I'm not sure where to look for other solutions... Perhaps some sort of boot file that needs to relate the two partitions? I have no clue, so I'll stop embarrassing myself

For now, that D drive just sits there mocking me. Has anyone experienced something similar?

Here's a screen shot, for what it's worth.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[ImDonly1]

What you can do is...
There is a program that allows you to backup your windows validation.
http://directedge.us/content/abr-activation-backup-and-restore

Do that save the file somewhere other than the pc you are on since you are formatting it.
There is also a folder on the c drive that has different hp applications. Some of them are not available to download on the hp website. You might want to save this folder somewhere else. It is right in the C: \
Obtain vista dvd for the version of vista you have. Usually you can edit a file on the dvd to change the versions of vista to yours. Also edit it to make it oem. Google search how to do this.

Install vista with the modified file on the dvd saying its oem and the version you have right now.
Then do the activation restore.

The activation restore only works if you don't change any hardware.
You can obtain the vista dvds from wherever you like such as torrents. Make sure you get a version that is not already pre-cracked etc. I would try to get an unmodified msdn version.

Obviously this way does not use the restore partition, but it allows you to reinstall without the hp cds. You can reinstall the hp programs from the folder you backed up and it will be like you got it from hp.

 

[ImDonly1]

If this is the first time you are reinstalling. There might be a hp backup and restore program. This allows you to make restore cds. Try to find this program. It will make the restore cds for you. It might be called hp backup and recovery.

I think you can buy the cds from hp for $15 or so.

 

[Smoolean]

Thanks for the help, if I can't find any other method I might try the "find a Vista DVD image and make it my own validated OEM version" route. That's pretty creative thanks for the idea.

About creating the restore disks... I found the HP program, and I was excited, but alas, when I clicked "Next" to begin making the disks, it said "Recovery Partition cannot be found."

I have an idea why this is... I recently gave Ubuntu a try. I shrank my main C partition by 20GB, and installed Ubuntu there. Then since I wanted to completely wipe out my computer and reformat, I deleted the Ubuntu partition and expanded the C partition back to its original size. Perhaps toying with the partitions messed up the recovery partition? It's still the D partition and it's still a nearly full 6.25GB.

Is there anyway to reset the partitions using a tool like EasyBCD? I'm grasping at straws now

 

[ImDonly1]

I think hp pcs have a hidden partition that is like 100 mb and has hp tools on it needed to run system restore. If you delete it then you can't press f11 from the bios. Somehow it could have been deleted maybe. I am not sure of a way to restore it except from the restore cds.

 

[Smoolean]

I think I know what the problem is.

I used EasyBCD to get rid of Ubuntu's GRUB bootloader. EasyBCD replaced GRUB with Vista's default bootloader, which worked as far as making Vista load by default on booting up. But I guess it removed my original HP MBR?

Is there anyway I can edit the BCD file myself and try to rebuild the link to the D recovery partition? I Googled, and found this on another forum, someone wrote:

Here is how it worked for me:

   1. Create the {ramdisktoptions} object in your BCD store by specifying the following. Drive should be the drive that contains the image.
      bcdedit /create {ramdiskoptions} /d "Ramdisk options"
      bcdedit /set {ramdiskoptions} ramdisksdidevice partition=D:
      bcdedit /set {ramdiskoptions} ramdisksdipath \boot\boot.sdi
   2. Create a new boot application entry by specifying:
      bcdedit /create /d "Boot from WIM" /application OSLOADER
   3. This will return an identifier (GUID) for the newly created entry. This new entry will be referred to as {GUID} in the rest of this procedure. Next specify the following:
      bcdedit /set {GUID} device ramdisk=[D:]\sources\boot.wim,{ramdiskoptions}
      bcdedit /set {GUID} path \windows\system32\winload.exe
      bcdedit /set {GUID} osdevice ramdisk=[D:]\sources\boot.wim,{ramdiskoptions}
      bcdedit /set {GUID} systemroot \windows
   4. If you are booting into Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE), then you will also need to specify:
      bcdedit /set {GUID} winpe yes
      bcdedit /set {GUID} detecthal yes
   5. Next specify the following to add your new entry to the display order:
      bcdedit /displayorder {GUID} /addlast

Where my HP recovery partition is D:

Only problem is that I don't know how or where to make these edits. Any ideas?

 

[melek-taus]

with our asus notebooks u need to keep pressing f9 after u turned on the power of the notebook.

Just like entering bios u will now enter the windows setup menu from the windows recovery partition. This works for acer toshiba asus and my guess it works for all laptops and some prebuild pcs. But i am unsure about that.

 

[tcsenter]

Order recovery discs = about 30 bucks:

https://warp2.external.hp.com/driver/dr_country_select.asp?Product=5092-6006&lang=en&cc=ca

I would recommend obtaining an OEM copy of Vista and doing a clean install.

 

[Smoolean]

I found a solution. Just in case anyone is ever in a similar situation...

You simply right click on My Computer and click "Manage." Then in the left column, find Disk Management. Then make your recovery partition "Make as active" - then restart your computer and push whatever F key you need to and you're good to go, the recovery will work

 

[RebateMonger]

Thanks for the follow-up.

Now make the HP Recovery disks if you can. If your hard drive fails next time, the Recovery Partition will do you no good.