Recovery Partition??

i was just wondering if i re-format my c/ drive can i still use the recovery partition 2 re-install windows XP? i dont have the "original" Windows XP Home CD..my comp came with the "recovery" partition instead... i have a c: drive with 40gig, also a D: drive with 140gig & a recovery partition with 6.01gig...thank you in advance..

 

If you format the c: partition (usually, options are presented for choosing which partitions to format), then your d: and recovery partitions should be fine...

Normally, routines are provided for booting to the recovery partition, from which you will be prompted to format the OS partition and reinstall the factory defaults...

 

Caliban is correct. I have done exactly what you are stating with a Compaq Presario desktop that had a corrupted C:\ drive. Formatted the C drive and re-installed the OS via the recovery partitioned D drive. Worked great with out any hitch. Good luck. Just need to make sure you set the BIOS to boot from the recovery partition.

 

How do you manage that then? You can set BIOS to boot to a drive, but not to a partition. Booting to a recovery partition is normally from a function key, not BIOS.

 

Your right, mind was wondering to something else. F key to recovery partition not BIOS.
Don't mind me, have my mind on 20 things at once, sometimes they cross paths. :-D

 

Try hitting F11 right after turning on the power. At least, that was the key for a Compaq I worked on.

Also, if you get that computer working via a re-installation of Windows from the recovery partition, try burning a recovery DVD disc from your recovery partition. This is protection against a failed hard drive. But, if you do encounter a failed hard drive and do not have a recovery disc (on DVD/CD), recovery discs can be ordered from HP for many models for a small fee.

 

Also, since all MS updates will be lost one might want to consider burning an XP SP3 disk, 316MB, which should only take 40 min. to update the machine. Then the rest of the updates can be gotten normally to greatly reduce the total update time.

 

what of slipstreaming? do you have any good links? I have still to make one for my first time

 

I have not done it either but I believe this reference is a good one: http://www.howtohaven.com/system/slipstream-xp-service-pack-3.shtml

 

There have been several good slipstreaming threads here recently - some good ones:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=215828 , http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=217321 , and post #16 in this thread: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=222215 .

 

I slipstreamed SP2 into an XP Pro CD and it was a piece of cake.