How to boot from recovery drive?

Hello all,

Quick question. In my alienware i have a samsung ssd and a 750gb HD. I installed the SSD and reformatted the computer and 750gb drive but left the recovery partition alone. The partition is in fact untouched and intact. I cannot use windows repair to boot from the recovery partition, is there another way? Thanks in advance.

 

oh boy.
Okay so when you formatted your main hard drive, that was pretty much game over for your recovery partition because ur mbr, bcd were all wiped.
Now if you have the cds then it's no issue, You can use magicdisc to create an iso outta those cds then use the easybcd utility to create an entry for each iso , on your boot list.
I have neither the cds nor the recovery partition and it's not an issue, I just got a generic win7 dvd for repairing startup problems and reinstalling windows, and I downloaded all the drivers from dell and burnt them on another dvd.
Anywho, sorry to say this but there is no longer a way you can boot up from the recovery partition.
For future reference, before you format, clone the recovery partition and backup you mbr and bcd.
Take Care.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Great stuff! Thanks for the help. +1 Rep.

 

OK. So what I am "interpreting" from this is that your 750gb was your factory drive that you put on port 1 and put a new SSD on port 0, right? - obviously the SSD has no partitions on it as its new.

I've reinstalled windows to a blank drive many times that still had the recovery on it and had no issue in then booting a factory image from that recovery partition.

If you left the recovery on the 750gb and deleted the OS partition, thats fine. As long as the recovery is still in tact you could whip out the SSD, put the 750gb back in and re-install windows on it. Simply insert the OS disc that came with the machine and turn it on....F12 at the "alienface" splashscreen and select boot from cd/dvd and windows will install itself. (when windows asks "where would you like to install to", if you have the OEM partition and recovery in tact, leave them there and install windows to the unallocated space).

Then, you should be able to F8 at boot and restore the factory image that is held in the recovery partition.

Alternatively (and alot less work), if you created recovery media (discs or USB) just remove the SSD and put the 750gb back on its original port and F12 at boot (with the recovery media in the optical drive or USB 2.0 port), select boot from cd/dvd or USB and voila! - your factory image will be restored to your original 750gb HDD.

BTW, what are you hoping or trying to accomplish here anyway?

 

I was just wondering if I could boot from the partition and install on the SSD with both drives in the computer together.

 

If you are asking wether or not you could install your Dell factory image on your new SSD by booting from the recovery partition on your 750gb, the answer, afaik, would be no. If you have recovery media, you could try removing the HDD and booting from recovery media to the SSD. If that works, you would end up with what I think you are after, and that is a factory Dell install on your SSD.

This may or may not work as the drives are different sizes. The factory image is based on your 750gb and your SSD is considerably smaller. Some users have reported success in doing this so it may be worth a go if that is indeed what you hope to accomplish.

 

I booted from the recovery discs to my ssd and windows install was fine. I tried to boot from the recovery partition prior to recovery discs and the install did not work. I was looking to do the windows repair thing but that did not work to the SSD, but thanks for the help.

 

So you achieved what you wanted to do, right? - you got the Dell factory image installed on your SSD just fine, which is great news. Maybe when you feel more confident, you could look at doing a clean install....possibly practice a "dry run" on your 750gb HDD....

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...er-install-order-guide-alienware-systems.html