How to recover without Recovery DVD

Compaq Presario F500
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor TK-53 1.70 GHz
1470 GB RAM
32-Bit OS

Okay so my laptop didn't come with a recovery DVD for vista. Im trying to figure out how im going to recover if and when the time comes. Also incase I decide to format my laptop and install XP if I can. If i change my mind and want to use vista again or if it flat out doesnt let me install XP

Now, I have a partitioned drive D: that says it has recovery files incase my computer needs to be rebooted. Now, im guessing that when i format my laptop, i format C: and leave D: alone. Then after its done formating C: i guess i boot up D: to reinstall vista?

 

You have to make the recovery discs. And you should always keep the D drive with the recovery on it incase you want to reinstall the factory settings (back to it's original state)

 

All laptops come with a restore DVD creator. Once you make restore discs, you can trash the D: drive if you want.

 

yeh i found it, u can make it on 2 dvds or 10 cds, sadly i had to make it on 10 cds... cuz for some reason all my dvds werent "blank" Maybe i should have did a slow erase to see if it would make it entirely blank.

Are you sure I can format the D: drive after i make cds?

 

Well if it's not bothering you, I would suggest you to leave it alone (might come in handy sometime).

Also have a look at this document
HP Notebook PCs - Issues with Downgrading HP Pavilion and Compaq Presario PCs to Windows XP and Restoring Windows Vista
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...2639&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

 

I agree you should leave the recovery drive on there you never know if you lose or damage the cd

 

Yea I found out about the problems of downgrouding my laptop a few hours after making my 2nd post. But as for the recovering drive. It said I only get 1 copy. So will it not allow me to make more?

I dont really need to delete it since for me 66 gigs is more than enough for all my music and movies. I dont really install many games cuz thats what my xbox is for and i dont keep movies around to long cuz i make em into dvds. I was just wondering incase i ever did decide to.

 

Nope it will not allow you to make any more copies of recovery disks.

 

Okay bud. listen up.. I just go my dv6500t this week, and i decided to wipe it and install a fresh copy on vista, i did not make a backup using cd's thought hey, if i am not deleting the recovery partition, than i should have no probelm. SO i went a head and partitioned my regular hp drive, and installed fresh copy of vista. Then after i wanted to check if my recovery partition was still working. So i restarted the computer, and pressed f11, and nothing happened. I started to panic. So this was around 11 o clock at night, decided to go to sleep. So i woke up the next morning, put a boot cd and made my HP recovery partition active, so the computer would see that partition first. Which it did, and went into recovery mode.
Sorry for details,
just felt like sharing.

 

I deleted the recovery partition totally. I have XP running on my system and it's quite speedy now.

Any chance anyone got the Quickplay to install to a 1028MB partition? When I launch Quickplay, by pressing the button at the top, it boots into XP instead and loads the Quickplay software.

 

You need to install QP from the disc before installing XP. It changes the master boot record (MBR) and installs on a hidden partition.... then install XP. QP will not boot at all if you have Vista. You can only use QP from within Vista...

 

I was researching and there was no mention about installing QPD first then install XP afterward. I have XP all setup nicely now so I guess I can live without QPD.

 

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3369405&lang=en&docname=c00297718

I guess you didn't search HP support for all of 3 seconds to pull this up...

 

That page still says to install Windows XP first. The only thing that mentioned was to set up a partition available to QPD. I used Partition Magic and already reserved 1GB for QPD.

3. Continue to follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation and setup of Windows XP.

4. Once Windows XP is installed, insert the DRCD or DRDVD and follow the prompts to install all of the required drivers and software.

 

Do you have the QP cd? Did you make the small partition? If so, use the CD to reinstall QP. Can you boot from the QP cd? If so, what does it instruct you to do?