Recovery partition problem

Hi there after successfully dual booting vista and ubuntu 7.10 on my ASUS f3sg notebook I can no longer run my recovery partition, I get a message with a big "ERROR" on the screen and saying cannot open "C:\RECOVERY.DAT". What should I do? I have the recovery DVD and driver CD so does this mean I can delete this partition? (I rather not delete this but if push comes to shove I will) any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Did you by any chance overwrite the partition? Otherwise, the boot settings might have been lost when you installed Ubuntu. But judging from the error message the files that are supposed to be there are no longer there... or they are unreadable.

Yes, the recovery optical disks will replicate the function of that partition entirely, so it's no disaster if you lose it. The disadvantage is that recovery from disks takes hours instead of one half hour or so.

If you didn't overwrite it and figure that you'll need it in the future, don't delete it just yet, there may be people around who will be able to help you regain its functionality. I don't know how.

 

Yeah I'm not planning on deleting the recovery partition yet its just kind off annoying having 8gigs of space laying there if that makes any sense. I'm pretty sure I didn't overwrite the partition because I can still see the partition from both vista and ubuntu. Also I can see the "RECOVERY.DAT" in my "C" drive and when I opened it all I see is "f3sg,f3sv" and nothing else.

 

Then it's probably an MBR problem... Also the partition should not be visible as a drive in Windows, it should be tagged as hidden. So there is something wrong with it.

Maybe the easiest solution is to just remove it. You can try making an image out of it first, just to be on the safe side. After all, from the optical media you can also make a clean Windows install -- from the recovery partition you can't.

 

I downloaded the files to create my own legal copy of a Windows Vista installation DVD and applied the SP1 patch the other day. Now I can reinstall Vista Home Premium SP1 using this one DVD and then pick and choose what Asus applications and drivers to install. The recovery partition on my harddrive is now erased. If I want to go back to the factory condition, I'll use the two supplied disks.

I am very happy running a clean install of Vista SP1 and just a few Asus apps and drivers.

Jeremy

 

You could also have done a clean install from the recovery DVD by not inserting the drivers CD when the recovery process asks you to. But a Vista disk is even better.

Is there such a procedure for XP, as well? (making your own XP install disk that you can use with the SN on the bottom of the notebook)? If so could you please post a link? It would be very useful. Thanks.

(In fact a link for the procedure for Vista would be equally useful)

 

Oh sorry I meant to say that computer management under "administrative tools" can see the partition but windows explorer cannot see this recovery partition, and how do you make an image of the "partition" isn't that the same as the recovery disc that came with my f3sg?

 

Right then it's hidden and that's OK. But I still suspect MBR problems.

Imaging, I meant use Acronis True Image or smth similar to make an image of the partition. Not necessary, really, since the optical recovery media entirely duplicates the function -- but in case you're over-careful and want to do it anyway

 

Oh thanks for the info E.B.E, how should I approach the MBR problem? Or is it too complicated and I'm better of just deleting the recovery partition?

Edit: I started to search around and found out that you need a vista cd to restore the MBR, but the problem is I dont have the vista cd only ASUS recovery cd. So the question is can the ASUS recovery cd fix the MBR if not is there any other way of restoring the MBR without the vista cd?

 

Hi, MBR is just a theory as I really don't know how booting from the recovery partition is implemented. Also, the message "I get a message with a big "ERROR" on the screen and saying cannot open "C:\RECOVERY.DAT" suggest that actually it may be a different problem than MBR...

One possible solution that comes to mind is if someone with the exact same computer & a working recovery partition.

a) makes a backup of the MBR
b) makes a backup of the partition itself

and you restore from these. There is a good chance this would work.

But using Vista's fixmbr feature, I don't think that it make the recovery partition work correctly again, since fixmbr only provides for Vista's boot settings.

Maybe it's easier to just delete it and be done with it. I don't suppose you plan to install Windows so often that those 4-5 hours of recovery from the optical media are extremely important.

 

A very valid point I guess its best for me to completely remove the partition considering I've already got the ASUS recovery cd which does pretty much the same thing as the recovery partition except slower haha. Thanks E.B.E