Vista Boot up disc

PostVista Boot up disc by **FatDaz** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 4:48 pm

Technical question and I'm a complete noob at anything techy.

I have an old laptop that I want to restore to factory settings so I can sell to a mate. Now I want to clear everything but I don't have a windows vista recovery disc.

I have followed the software that came with it (HP) to create a recovery DVD but every time it gets to a certain point (finishing disc one and about to start disc 2) it fails. Doesn't give a reason just says - failed to create disc. Ive lost about 4 blank DVD's this way and I cant afford to keep wasting them.

My question is this: Is there a way to get a recovery disc for windows without creating my own? Can I download one or are there other ways to restore windows following a system wipe?

Thanks for any help people can offer.

PostRe: Vista Boot up disc by **Lagamorph** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 6:09 pm

Is there no on-board recovery? While it's booting up keep tapping F11 (I think it's F11 on HP, different manufacturers used different keys) and see if you get into the recovery manager.

PostRe: Vista Boot up disc by **FatDaz** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 8:36 pm

Lagamorph wrote:Is there no on-board recovery? While it's booting up keep tapping F11 (I think it's F11 on HP, different manufacturers used different keys) and see if you get into the recovery manager.

Will that let me reinstall windows operating system? I figured a restore to factory settings wipes it all and since I don't own a copy of vista (came pre installed) I don't want to have a laptop without OS.

PostRe: Vista Boot up disc by **Lagamorph** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 8:42 pm

FatDaz wrote:
Lagamorph wrote:Is there no on-board recovery? While it's booting up keep tapping F11 (I think it's F11 on HP, different manufacturers used different keys) and see if you get into the recovery manager.

Will that let me reinstall windows operating system? I figured a restore to factory settings wipes it all and since I don't own a copy of vista (came pre installed) I don't want to have a laptop without OS.

Restore to Factory settings also reinstalls the OS usually. It basically sets the system back to how it was when you took it out of the box.

Have a look here,
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/docu ... e=bph07143
"Recovering your computer without an HP recovery kit"

Or here,
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/docu ... =c01612373
For some more step by step instructions under "Resolving a system recovery failure". It's technically for if your recovery using discs fails, but it's the same process since it's covering restoring from the Hard Drive.

PostRe: Vista Boot up disc by **FatDaz** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 9:45 pm

Cheers

PostRe: Vista Boot up disc by **FatDaz** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 8:58 am

Well that didn't work. I've just bricked my laptop. strawberry floats sake. Won't even go into recovery mode with F11. You try to power on and then within 10 seconds it just powers off without warning.

PostRe: Vista Boot up disc by **Lagamorph** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 9:21 am

What did you do? Recovery mode shouldn't brick a laptop, just reinstall the OS. That's why it's there.

You could try downloading an OEM Vista image to install, then use the license key on the sticker on the bottom of the laptop to activate.

PostRe: Vista Boot up disc by **FatDaz** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 11:23 am

I used F11 restore to factory settings. Everything went well until it tried to re activate windows, error came up saying it wouldn't boot up then it killed power. Now every time I try to power it on, it lasts 10-20 seconds then dies for no reason. Won't allow me into F11 or anything.

Can't even boot up safe mode.

PostRe: Vista Boot up disc by **Errkal** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 12:08 pm

Sounds more like a hardware issue than an OS one.

PostRe: Vista Boot up disc by **FatDaz** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 1:36 pm

Errkal wrote:Sounds more like a hardware issue than an OS one.

But it only happened after I initiated restore to factory settings, that suggests it's software. Laptop was working fine before I started it. Puzzling.

PostRe: Vista Boot up disc by **Lagamorph** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 2:02 pm

The symptoms of the current issue do suggest hardware though. If the OS was knackered it generally wouldn't just power off like that, it would typically just hang or give an OS not found error.

Can you access the BIOS or does it power off if you try to do that as well?

PostRe: Vista Boot up disc by **FatDaz** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 6:33 pm

Tried it again and bizarrely it worked

Not complaining of course but a bit mysterious.

PostRe: Vista Boot up disc by **Lagamorph** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 7:07 pm

I'm sure it was all the computers fault and of course nothing to do with the user

PostRe: Vista Boot up disc by **TheWay** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 7:44 pm

You're putting Vista back on?

Vista Boot up disc

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