Clean install gone wrong

i recently tried to do a clean install of windows vista home premium on my hp laptop, but didn't notice that the windows anytime upgrade disc i had was from my other laptop, which is 32 bit, not the 64 bit i need. Fortunately I burned system recovery discs, but I cannot get them to work. What am I doing wrong here? Ideally I'd like to avoid having to order the disc I need from microsoft if at all possible, but I cannot think of any other options.

 

Why can't you get your recovery discs to work?

Pop them up and start the computer...

 

You didn't say what notebook you have but for some more recent models there is a Recovery Disc Creator Patch for User Created Recovery Disc. If I'm reading it correctly, I think, unfortunately however, if you didn't apply the patch to the burn disc then your "user created" recovery disks are coasters and you have to ask HP for ones that will work.

Kind'a sucks....

Check this out:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&dlc=en&cc=us&product=3795469&os=2093&lang=en

 

i have hp hdx9494nr, and when I pop my disc in and start my laptop, i get a message stating bootmgr is missing. any suggestions? i have three laptops, any way i can add that patch and create a new set of discs that will work?

 

First…. I checked your notebook driver page and there is no reference for the patch so I take it that the patch isn’t required and that your recovery disks, if burned correctly, should work. You may be able to check the validity of the recovery disks by BOOTing them in another laptop. If the recovery manager starts, they are functional. Just don’t do the recovery. Exit and go back to your hdx9494nr.

Second…. If the recovery disks won’t BOOT, remove them and try F11 during startup. F11 will access the Recovery Partion, if it still exists or has not been deleted or corrupted by other installations, and begin the recovery of the original image.

Third…. If F11 fails to function it is very likely that the Recovery Partion & BOOT Manager was deleted or corrupted by your prior OS installs. Recovery corruption is a common issue that occurs when you install an OS that is different than the original (i.e. Vista 32 & Vista 64 ) even through you did not delete the recovery partion.

Last….if none of those options work, your only option is to wipe the “entire” drive and do a fresh install or… if you have a like unit…. image the like unit’s drive and then re-image your unit. If you need Vista 64 and don’t have an OS disk, an image, a functional recovery disc, or a functional recovery partition for it, if you have access, you can use an OS recovery disk from another vendor (i.e. Lenovo) and use the key on the underside of the notebook to register the OS correctly. The Lenovo recovery disks contain only the OS.

If none of those options work, I’m afraid you’ll have to purchase Vista 64 or 64bit recovery disks from HP…. if that’s what was origianlly installed. If Vista 64 was not the originally installed OS, HP won’t sell it to you. They will only provide what was originally installed.

See:
Using HP Backup and Recovery Manager
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...=us&lang=en&product=3747924&docname=c00809678

Order Recovery Discs for Windows Vista or XP
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...:3&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=3747924

Hope this was helpful. I just went through this exact same issue on a new TouchSmart unit that was upgraded from Vista32 Home Premium to Vista32 Ultimate so that it could connect to a domain. The upgrade failed and toasted the recover manager and recovery partition in the process, and unfortunately they didn't make the disks. End result…. wipe the drive of all partitions and a fresh install. In the end however... this was actually the best option in the first place.