Asus Recovery CD to entire HDD - Has this deleted the hidden partition?

Hi everyone...

I managed to mess my drive up a bit after installing Ubuntu. Anyway, I tried a recovery via the recovery CD (chose the 'Recover to entire HDD' option) I didn't know about the F9 recovery at the time.

Anyway, after the recovery disk finished it asked me for the driver cd which I inserted. It then asked me for 'XP service pack 1 CD' which Asus don't include in box.

So I called them yesterday and was told to go home and try recover with F9 as that still has XP installed, but if that failed, I would have to send the laptop back. I tried the F9 at home but no luck.

However, when I called them today, I was told that the hidden partition "cannot" be deleted and if I go home and try the 'Recover to first partition' with the CD XP will be back.

So now I am not sure if they are giving me the run-around... Can anyone clear this up for me?

Would really appreciate anyones help!

thanks and sorry for the long post.

Silverfox.

 

Hi, sure the recovery partition can be deleted. If you did delete it while playing with Ubuntu, then there's no way to use recovery from HDD (obviously).

Here is what I suggest: recover from the optical disks, and when it asks you for the driver disk, don't insert it but force a reboot instead. That will give you a clean WinXP installation. Hopefully that'll get you past the XP service pack 1 step.

Then you can install updates, drivers, etc. manually. Much better since it results in a less bloated system.

 

Hi EBE and thanks for the reply,

I didn't delete the recovery partition while playing with Ubuntu (I know that for sure)

What I am wondering is if selecting the option to 'Recover to entire HDD' could that delete the hidden partition? I am assuming the hidden partition IS on C: ?

Also E.B.E. , When you say 'force a reboot' do you mean Ctrl+Alt+Del at that point? And also how would that give me an XP installation? are you saying that Windows XP is on the Recovery CD?

Thanks again,

Silver.

 

Hi,

A well-coded recovery process should not delete the recovery partition or make it unbootable. You should check with a partition manager such as qtParted from Linux or PQMagic from DOS to see if you still have the recovery part.

I mean either Ctrl Alt Del or if that doesn't work just push the power button until computer shuts down then boot it back up.

It would give you a clean installation because it would bypass the pre-scripted driver and bloatware installations. In the way ASUS recovery CDs are done, there is a basic WinXP image that is being recovered first, then the drivers & apps (including bloatware) are installed using batch scripts. Therefore if the second step is skipped you get a clean installation.

 

Thanks again EBE,

I'll try that tonight.

Appreciate the help.

Silver.