Recreating missing Vista recovery partition.

This is something weird -- I think I may have mentioned when I first got this computer, they had to send it back because the BIOS and recovery partition were both passworded.

So a while ago, I found out the recovery partition is now empty. About 4 gigs, IIRC. And the rent-to-own place can't get a hold of a Vista CD for me.

So after the blue-screen incident, I'm a bit nervous, so what I'd like to do is to recreate my recovery partition, including:

-- latest hardware drivers
-- Windows Updates (would slipstream if neccessary)
-- Mozilla Firefox (I HATE IE!!!!)
-- Also a custom Vista theme which requires a hacked DLL :-o

But the problem is, I can't do a fresh install as I have no CD. And I have a whole bunch of programs and stuff installed now, so it would get rather messy even if I uninstalled everything.

Would expand the 4-gig hidden partition if required.

Also, I would need a free way to do it.

Any suggestions? Thanks

 

I think this is a lost cause, sadly. IMO your only option is to use Acronis (or something similar) to create a backup image of your system in its current state. Then every time you wanted to restore, you'd use this image. But if you have lots of software installed, games and whatnot, the image will be unnecesarily large. Personally, when I perform a clean install on my home PC, I install my 'core' software (Firefox, anti-malware, media codecs, Windows updates, MS Office, etc), then I use Acronis to build an image of this and it fits on a single DVD. Acronis will also built a boot disc, so in the event that you cannot access the hard drive, or it completely crashes and you need to install a new hard drive, you can boot to the disc, then restore from the image and everything is good to go. I know some MG members who keep 2 regular Acronis restore images on an external hard drive and they rotate it every 7 days or so. This way, they are never more 3-4 days behind in the even of catastrophic failure. That's too much work for me... I'm lazy, and I don't feel the need to back up 75gb of game software that I can simply reload from the factory discs. Enough of the rambling.... check out this article on how to create a bootable OS install disc from a pre-installed system. It's aimed at WinXP but may (or may not) be applicable to Vista. I built one for XP on my own a couple years ago, so I know it's possible, at least with XP....
Good Luck!

[dlb]

(link to Acronis True Image: http://www.majorgeeks.com/Acronis_True_Image_Home_2009__d2236.html I use an older version of Acronis 8, which was offered for free a year or two ago)

 

Thank you.

 

You might have already on your system the means to create recovery disks, in which case you wouldn't need the recovery partition. My HP laptop has a program on it called HP Backup and Recovery Manager, from which I can make set of Recovery Disks in case I need to reload the OS after a HD failure. Of course, if making the Recovery Disks needs the info in the Recovery partition, that won't work for your situation, and making periodic images may be the only thing you can do if you can't get a Vista CD. I get the impression, though, that recovery disks can be made without a recovery partition, at least on some systems, and having a set of Recovery Disks on hand would be preferable to periodic imaging, for sure. Other manufacturers of OEM systems should have something similar.

I googled "recreate recovery partition vista" and there was a lot of hits with problems the same as or similar to yours (and including yours!). Perhaps one of those will give you some ideas. It seems recreating the recovery partition can be done, at least that's the impression I get. If you can at least make recovery disks, that should put you at ease some. (Note that HP allows a set of disks to be made
only one time, though they can be copied, of course.) My xp system took about 8 or 9 disks and about an hour to make them.

You might check the computer manufacturer's website (or call them and explain your situation), or F1-Help and Support Center to see if there's anything there about system recovery from disks, or making recovery disks. Also check Start>Programs and see if you see anything about System Recovery or System Backup, or Backup and Recovery, etc.

Hope this helps at least a little.

 

Actually Kip if you had thought into it a bit more you could have copied it all onto 2 dvd-r 4.7gb 8x speed thats what i did and they work fine, it saves all the hassle of using loads of disc's like you have and it takes a lot less time when you do have to do a system recovery, so try that it halps a great deal.

 

@Rusty,
Thinking had nothing to do with it. When I first booted the computer and windows was installing, it prompted me to make recovery disks NOW, so I did. Not until it finished booting did I see that there was a recovery partition, which my previous XP laptop did not have. And I used CDs and not DVDs because CDs were all I had available at the time.

 

Well if thats all you had @ the time i suppose then you go for it that way then !