HP recovery partition, but no recovery utility?

By Codesmith
in Microsoft (Windows)

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Codesmith

Posted
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I am trying to repair someone's HP DV2000 laptop. It came with Windows XP MCE, but someone attempted to upgrade it to Windows Vista and it went badly.

Anyway the owner doesn't have restore discs, so normally I would just take a generic OEM CD and add the appropriate OEMBIOS files.

However I notice that the recovery partition is still there, just no HP recovery software installed, either in windows or as a boot time utility.

I was wondering if it was possible to simply reinstall the recovery software and recover from the recovery partition?

Grand Master

+virtorio MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

You should be able to install the HP Recovery Manager program from the HP web site. If the recovery partition is intact I see no reason why it shouldn't work (to perform a recovery or create some restore disks), other than the fact it's an HP.

(I have an HP laptop and some of their software doesn't work that well, or in many cases, at all).

If you?re really desperate I believe you can order (at your expense) some restore disks from HP.

Grand Master

+jamesyfx Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
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Normally theres a BIOS option about system recovery which is disabled at first.

I think its alt+f10 or something (I have a HP Pavilion laptop and this is what I had to do).

Rising Star

Codesmith

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I know about the boot utility, but it was removed.

Is there a way to restore the boot time utility?

--

BTW The Vista OS is barely functional, no wired internet, no USB, touchpad's gone wacky.

The previous owner performed a upgrade install to Vista without entering a CD key and used an obsolete activation hack which seems to freeze the activation timer at 30 days. They neglected to install half the device drivers. The wireless worked so they installed limewire and used it until the system got infected with something.

I booted to a Linux DVD to checkout the hardware.

Then they sold the laptop to my friend at what I only hope was a very low price.

---

Rising Star

Codesmith

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Checking out the recovery partition from linux it looks like nothing more than a stripped down version of Windows XP, maybe a modified version of Windows PE?

So up in some boot loader software and added the recovery partition as an option.

My guess was on the money and it completely restored everything to the factory defaults including the F11 boot utility which will come in handy next time someone needs to restore the system.

Anyway its 100% restored to original condition and I didn't have to pay HP and wait 5-7 days or install everything from scratch.

Rising Star

Codesmith

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Just FYI, on HP laptops:

F10 = BIOS setup

F11 = recovery utility (if it exists)

It exists now :) The recovery partition restores the MBR and the recovery boot option with it.

Actually I think I could have just used any partition utility to set the recovery partition active.

  • 1 year later...
Neowinian

freythman

Posted
Posted

Hey guys,

For anyone else having this problem, here's another method that is pretty simple.

If you have installed XP or Vista, but still have the Recovery Partition (a.k.a. It wasn't deleted), here's what you need to do to access the System Recovery and get back in business... This obviously assumes that you do have XP or Vista installed, and just can't access System Recovery. It may work for Windows 2000, but I don't want to go through this again to find out...

Step 1: Right-click "My Computer" and click "Manage"

Step 2: Go to "Disk Management"

Step 3: Right-click the "Drive D/Recovery Partition" and click "Mark Partition as Active"

Step 4: Reboot, and press F11 as it starts up

It should work fine. Mine booted right up into the Recovery Manager and let me restore the machine.

Reference laptop was HP dv9817cl with Vista installed from the Factory

I know this is an old post, but I found this and many others in my search for a solution to this problem today, and this solution was the easiest I've found. I figured since I found this post, that someone else will someday as well. On that day, I hope this information is of use to them.

  • 1 month later...
Neowinian

mocks1

Posted
Posted

Thanks freythman!

I used your method to set Recovery Partition "D" to "Active" using your four simple steps and I was able to restart my HP desktop computer into HP System Recovery

Only I had to press F10 key on keyboard at bootup after setting D partition "Active". I think Laptops are F11 and Desktops are F10

I am using an HP Pavilion a350n desktop computer that was running XP Home edition.

Originally, and for other reasons, I ended up deleting (not formatting) all the files on the C partition only using a Windows PE Boot CD called MiniPE from DigIWiz

I originally loaded a temporary version of Windows from any available version of XP (in my case Windows XP Pro). Than I had access to Disk Management program where I followed your steps

For those of you without an available Windows install disc to borrow from a friend. A quicker option is to download any type of CD "Boot Disc" such as DigiWiz MiniPE, Hiren's Boot CD or Linux and use a Partitioning Utility such as Partition Magic, Acronis Partition, or Paragon HD tools that are located on many of these Boot CDs. Start up your computer and let the temp operating system load and than look for a partitioning or disc management type utility to set Recovery Partition (usually D partition) to "active"

Hope this helps anyone with an HP desktop that will not start the Factory Install Recovery process using the normal, repeatedly hitting the F10 key on startup---- to begin Recovery program

I bet you can make a previous image of your HP Recovery Partition using Norton Ghost or similar hard drive imaging program and if it ever gets damaged you can restore it back to your D partition, set that "active", restart the computer and it will begin Factory Install Recovery Process that way too. Another insurance policy in case the recovery CDs/DVDs are lost or damaged (or never made by you in the first place)

  • 7 months later...
Neowinian

CORSAR14

Posted
Posted
Hey guys,

For anyone else having this problem, here's another method that is pretty simple.

If you have installed XP or Vista, but still have the Recovery Partition (a.k.a. It wasn't deleted), here's what you need to do to access the System Recovery and get back in business... This obviously assumes that you do have XP or Vista installed, and just can't access System Recovery. It may work for Windows 2000, but I don't want to go through this again to find out...

Step 1: Right-click "My Computer" and click "Manage"

Step 2: Go to "Disk Management"

Step 3: Right-click the "Drive D/Recovery Partition" and click "Mark Partition as Active"

Step 4: Reboot, and press F11 as it starts up

It should work fine. Mine booted right up into the Recovery Manager and let me restore the machine.

Reference laptop was HP dv9817cl with Vista installed from the Factory

I know this is an old post, but I found this and many others in my search for a solution to this problem today, and this solution was the easiest I've found. I figured since I found this post, that someone else will someday as well. On that day, I hope this information is of use to them.

  • 4 weeks later...
Neowinian

dougmurray27

Posted
Posted

This worked like a charm ! Windows XP wasn't booting, so I used a Windows XP live Bootable Disk I ahd made previously. Followed the instructions he gave, rebooted computer, pressed F10 (it's an HP Tower) and wala, I was in the recovery partition and was able to restore the Windows XP Media Center Edition that was standard for the tower. Thank you !!!!

Hey guys,

For anyone else having this problem, here's another method that is pretty simple.

If you have installed XP or Vista, but still have the Recovery Partition (a.k.a. It wasn't deleted), here's what you need to do to access the System Recovery and get back in business... This obviously assumes that you do have XP or Vista installed, and just can't access System Recovery. It may work for Windows 2000, but I don't want to go through this again to find out...

Step 1: Right-click "My Computer" and click "Manage"

Step 2: Go to "Disk Management"

Step 3: Right-click the "Drive D/Recovery Partition" and click "Mark Partition as Active"

Step 4: Reboot, and press F11 as it starts up

It should work fine. Mine booted right up into the Recovery Manager and let me restore the machine.

Reference laptop was HP dv9817cl with Vista installed from the Factory

I know this is an old post, but I found this and many others in my search for a solution to this problem today, and this solution was the easiest I've found. I figured since I found this post, that someone else will someday as well. On that day, I hope this information is of use to them.

  • 2 months later...
Neowinian

Kevin Crooks

Posted
Posted

Hey guys,

For anyone else having this problem, here's another method that is pretty simple.

If you have installed XP or Vista, but still have the Recovery Partition (a.k.a. It wasn't deleted), here's what you need to do to access the System Recovery and get back in business... This obviously assumes that you do have XP or Vista installed, and just can't access System Recovery. It may work for Windows 2000, but I don't want to go through this again to find out...

Step 1: Right-click "My Computer" and click "Manage"

Step 2: Go to "Disk Management"

Step 3: Right-click the "Drive D/Recovery Partition" and click "Mark Partition as Active"

Step 4: Reboot, and press F11 as it starts up

It should work fine. Mine booted right up into the Recovery Manager and let me restore the machine.

Reference laptop was HP dv9817cl with Vista installed from the Factory

I know this is an old post, but I found this and many others in my search for a solution to this problem today, and this solution was the easiest I've found. I figured since I found this post, that someone else will someday as well. On that day, I hope this information is of use to them.

This worked awesome. I had installed Windows 7 on an HP Notebook. I'm going to sell the notebook and needed to restore back to factory settings. I never burned the discs, but this gave me the ability to use the F11 when booting command. Thanks so much!

  • 10 months later...
Neowinian

Tuan Tran VN

Posted
Posted

@freythman and Codesmith:

Thank you so much, i had a long storyvwith my beloved lap and while trying to google 'use hiren boot to use recovery partition' i found that help. Well using hiren i saved my data and was trying to see how could i recovery windows while windows couldnt start. Freythman's idea is great. Also thanks Codesmith for openingthis topic.

Thanks and best wish!

  • 2 months later...
  • 8 months later...
Neowinian

Chris Owens

Posted
Posted

wel, it worked, setting the recovery partitionto active then pressing f11.

I had tied f11 before but it couldnt boot from the recovery partition.

I registered today to say thanks and give some more useful info, the program , recovery Manager is listed on the recovery partition as softhinks, in the sources folder at the bottom, not an exe file, just says file. if you change it and put an exe extension on it , you can run it, I think, in dos or the version of os you had on your machine (tried it in win 7 said it was the wrong something or another)

Hope this solves the mystery of the missing recovery manager :shiftyninja:

  • 11 months later...
Neowinian

rtp1966

Posted
Posted

Thanks Freythman...I've been trying for a month to access Recovery Manager with no success, until I tried your solution...It worked great and now I'm recovery my laptop "HP HDX18t-1200 CTO to it's original factory condition...I even ordered recovery dics from HP, however when I read the instructions it said that the dics would access recovery manager when you started the process, which it didn't because it couldn't find it...Once again Thank you...Ray Payne

  • 10 months later...
Neowinian

dsnel23

Posted
Posted

Worked like a charm!!! I was at this for 3 days! Thanks so much!!!

 

Hey guys,

For anyone else having this problem, here's another method that is pretty simple.

If you have installed XP or Vista, but still have the Recovery Partition (a.k.a. It wasn't deleted), here's what you need to do to access the System Recovery and get back in business... This obviously assumes that you do have XP or Vista installed, and just can't access System Recovery. It may work for Windows 2000, but I don't want to go through this again to find out...

Step 1: Right-click "My Computer" and click "Manage"
Step 2: Go to "Disk Management"
Step 3: Right-click the "Drive D/Recovery Partition" and click "Mark Partition as Active"
Step 4: Reboot, and press F11 as it starts up

It should work fine. Mine booted right up into the Recovery Manager and let me restore the machine.

Reference laptop was HP dv9817cl with Vista installed from the Factory

I know this is an old post, but I found this and many others in my search for a solution to this problem today, and this solution was the easiest I've found. I figured since I found this post, that someone else will someday as well. On that day, I hope this information is of use to them.

  • 3 years later...
  • zhangm locked this topic
Grand Master

zhangm Supervisor

Posted
  • Supervisor
Posted
6 minutes ago, sooryan said:

Halo  i am using HP notebook PC r078tu I want installation file how I can install HP recovery manager for win 10

This thread was started in 2007. I'm locking it, since people may reply to older posts in the thread rather than your reply.

 

If you have a specific question, please start a new topic by choosing the Start new topic button near the top of each forum section.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
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