I need to restore the F11 hotkey function

Hello,
I have a Hp pavilion dv6-1045ee....
Actually, this notebook has a long history in modifying MBR and BCD......

--SOME OF THE HISTORY--"SKIP IT IF YOU WANT TO"
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My original problem was to burn the recovery disks, as the recovery manager software couldn't see the recovery partition. That's because when I first bought the notebook I wanted to divide its hard disk into several partitions, but that was not the mistake....The mistake was using Partition magic to do so....
It messed with my partition table (I guess).

However, I was able to retore the "LINK" between the recovery partition and the recovery manager software by applying the recovery partition's boot sectors of a friend of mine with a similar laptop on mine.

That was done after alot of MBR experiments to find out how to fix that problem.

So now I can burn the recovery disks, but I wont. The reason is that I want to be sure that the recovery partition functions properly before applying the "ONE TIME" burning process.


So first I tried to perform a full system recovery using the F11 hotkey function which did nothing, it just proceeds to load the VISTA OS.
Then I tried performing a full system recovery using the F8 advanced boot loader, then "Repair your computer" which loads the Recovery manager in the ramdisk (X:\).......from the recovery manager I choosed "Recover your computer" which was completed successfuly....


Although this was supposed to return the F11 function, it didn't.
It still doesn't work.

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My problem:

I need to restore the F11 hotkey function to make sure that the created recovery disks (not created yet) CAN boot up my system and actually recover my system.......
Now, when I press F11 it shows the error message :

PHP:

A disk read error occured 
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

Once I press F11, the system shows that error message and becomes unbootable. To make it bootable again, I use my Bootable USB Stick with MBRWIZD.exe on it to set the C:\ partition as active again.

So what exactly is the function of F11?

If F11's function is to set the recovery partition as ACTIVE, then it's working properly. It DOES makes the D:\ partition active instead of C:\ .....which I can do from windows itself (from Computer manager).

Does this mean that the recovery partition needs some neccesary booting files? or that it's location in the partition table is worng? or that its BCD file is corrupted?or it's all about a special MBR created by the HP technicans?

Just to be specific:

• The F8 Advance boot loader option CAN access the recovery partition and apply a full recovery from there. [I beleive that this depends totally on the BCD file in D:\.....Right?]
• The F11 key makes the recovery partition ACTIVE and shows the above error message.
• Activating the D:\ partition (recovery partition) from windows results in the same error message.

I need to know the suspect here......and then I'll try to fix the problem..

And please if somebody can explain (or post a link) how does an Active partition -that has VISTA OS on it- boots. And what files are needed?

Sorry for the LONG post......It has been a month since the problem began....

Thanks in advance.

 

Actually you can burn the recovery discs more than once. Follow the instructions in the attached PDF.

Try the instructions included in the second attached PDF.

All the information presented here is from this forum but I don't want to search for it again. The PDF's presented here are copies I made of info I thought I might need sometime and archived. You can search on the names of the posters in the documents and you might come up with more information.

 

This is useless advice in your case, but your can restore the f11 functions by using the recovery discs to recover your system.

 

Thanks for your replies...

deeastman, I actually heared about the HPCD file to burn the disks again......

Does this work with ALL HP notebooks?

The second PDF did not add much............

As I said I've done a lot of MBR experiments....
I've used HDhacker for storing and restoring my MBR and D and C boot sectors........

However,this made my system unbootable......so I don't recommend doing that unless you have a bootable USB Stick....

But the question has not been answered yet.......What's exactly the function of F11??

Let me explain my point of view:

F11 Activates the recovery partition by adding the 80h flag to D: in the partition table....This means that MBR is not corrupted where it CAN locate the recovery partition and set it ACTIVE....
When the D: tries to boot, it can't, showing the error message mentioned before.
I don't know if that's a correct conclusion or not, but it seems to be reasonable....

So what I really need to know now is :

• The sequence of loaded files needed to boot a VISTA OS.
• The actual function of F11.

Of coursse, I've searched the web.......but I just coudn't find what I need....I'm really exhausted here..

quickinferno, I've thought about that.....Burn the disks and then perform a full recovery from the disks...

Have you tried to do so and suceeded?

However, it seems little risky....If the recovering process failed in the middle...I think that I'll not be able to restore anything at all.

Since all the recovery files do exist, I don't think that that could happen.....

IMHO, if the Recoery disks booted the recovery manager, then it's safe to complete a full recovery.

So your solution will be my last option, and I hope it works!

Thanks

 

I haven't tried it myself, but I have heard others say that the recovery discs, when used, will restore the recovery partition, even creating it if non-existed. I, myself am 95% sure. One time I put some spare files on the D driver (the recovery partition) because there was some extra space, then used the recovery manager and all my files were gone.

If everything fails, and you are in warranty, (if you are within 30 days, it's best), then just go ahead an do the recovery. If your computer gets screwed up, just send it to HP.

 

FWIW, I haven't heard or read anything indicating it doesn't work on all HP notebooks. I used it and it worked with the notebook in my sig.

The main reason for including the second PDF is that the poster included a link at the end where a copy of his functioning MBR using HDhacker could be downloaded. Since you have experience with the MBR I thought it might provide you with some information you could use.

 

I have used the burned recovery disks from my HP notebook to install a new harddrive in my notebook. The HD and notebook functioned exactly the same as when new, F11 and all. Of course all the bloatware was there as well.

 

Ok,...
Thank you all for your assistance..

I'll burn the disks and do a full recovery from there....

But I have a simple question:
Is there any differnce between recovering from the D: partition and recovering from the disks?
Excluding the required time to complete the recovery, do they give the same resuts??(i.e same programs, games, interface,....etc)

 

Yes, they are the same. Essentially when you burn the restore DVD's you are just copying the image from the partition so it will contain the same infomation.

 

Yepe, It's done and everything is back to normal...

Recovery from the disks has an additional option: " Restore system to factory settings"
Choosing that option returned back the F11 hotkey function...

Thanks all.....

Regards,
Ahmad