Gateway System Recovery questions

Hi guys
I bought a brand new Gateway® P-7809u laptop, and I have some questions about how Gateway System Recovery works
Now I have two partions on HDD, one is hidden and second is OS, I am wondering if I will create a third partition for data purposes and then after a while I restore at boot (is says that reformats the hard drive), what will happen? system recovery will erase data from both partitions OS and Data?
If I am installing Windows 7 over Vista and after a while I want to restore Vista, is it possible?
Thank you

 

Before you do anything you should always create your recovery disks. The disks are exactly the hidden partition. Create them than hide them somewhere safe and than start modding things.
About what the recovery does is it looks for the partition C: nothing more so you could create partition D:, E: ect ect.

 

Thanks , I created one additional partition and then restore from alt+f10 option , works great (usually I create a backup disk with Norton Ghost but this is better) , still don't know if Windows 7 installation will mess up something in mbr , if the restore option will work after-that

I cannot create recovery disks, don't know from what reason,

 

How to fix the MBR is easy. Use easybcd if it doesnt boot how you want. Ghosting/cloaning works fine.

What I ended up doing was instantly making recovery DVDs. I than did a clean install from recovery. Cleaned all the bloatware off. I used Vlite and slipped new driver in. Made an image of that as a backup. Of course those are both final back ups. I use deepfreeze most of the time.

 

Great info , I didn't know about those programs, can you explain me in few steps how to use them
I manage to create those 3 recovery dvds , now what drivers do you said that you slip , latest from gateway site?

 

I created the recovery DVDs and put them away. I did one last recovery from the recovery partition. So now its like the first time turning it on from the store. I than cleaned off the bloatware. Used CCleaner to clean up any left over crud from the bloatware. Now you have a clean version of vista 64. Download from windows Sp2 and download all the new drivers that you want for your computer.

Now you will want to install Sp2. Clean up Sp1. It freed about 1.1 gigs of space for me. Doing this makes windows smaller and you also can not revert back to Sp1. Now that you have done this find and install the drivers you need. Use whatever software you want for making an image/iso of you windows. With waik I have been able to make that image into a partition and have it on my raid setup.


Drivers:
Wifi/Sound : Intel
Video : Nvidia, LaptopVideo2Go These are going to be different for all computers.
The rest from gateway

 

what bloatware did you remove sparkyman2000?

 

Oh wow, um all the stuff you dont plan on using. I havent loaded vista 64 in a while. Use the search button and look in Gateway forums for Bloatware. Someone might be able to give you a list. Sorry I just havent done it in a while. PC Decrapifier should do about 75% of the bloatware than just uninstall with CCleaner.

Ask and I can tell you.

 

I remove those bloatware with some uninstaller program Revo
then clean with CCleaner

@sparkyman2000, W7 is faster than Vista?
I will receive W7 when it will be released but Home Edition x64 , since then I can try to install versions from torrents

Still I don't understand how Vlite works, I install Windows Automated Installation Kit , but when I click browse in Vlite and insert DVD that I made with Gateway System Recovery nothing happens

 

If you're not sure what you want to keep and what you don't, you can start from scratch. Reformat the OS partion and re-install Vista using your Gateway provided OS DVD. After, you've done that, use the DVD's you created to restore drivers, and then the apps you know you want. It may take a little longer that way, but the process is more simple, and get a leaner, better performing installation.