Screwed up and installed windows 7.

On my DV5z and its a little bit screwy. But i didnt know i wouldnt be able to boot to recovery using f11 after doing it and now i cant restore my pc back to Vista because i never made restore Disks. I still have my drive D folder and wanna know how to make a new disk using just that.

How should i do it and what should i do?

 

hmm, I dont know how to make recovery disks from the D drive, but maybe you can order them from hp.

 

You can order a recovery disk from HP, but you can also hold F8 while booting (on faster systems this can be hard to time - if you see the windows screen you waited too long) that will bring up a boot screen and one of the options will be repair or restore system - select that and you will be able to get to an option to restore from your recovery partition on the hard drive. Let me know if you need more info I have a step by step in my e-mail.

 

i probally need the step by step. all it gave me was options to restore from W7 not to vista. How could i like burn My D:/ drive to a dvd? or something.

 

did u reformat your C: drive? maybe you can "uninstall" windows 7

 

It Reformatted It.


What Does F11 Do?
Doesnt it set it to boot of D:/ ?

Couldnt i get a app to let me temporarily change it to D:/ ?? !

 

Did you try the f8 option that jnickell mentioned in post 3? HP uses a specialized software to allow you to make your restore discs and since you formatted that option is no longer an option. So try the f8 which should allow you to still recover when booting. That should allow you to format/install your recovery partition while booting. If you have trouble call HP and they should be able to walk you through.. Don't tell them you installed seven though.. just tell them that vista won't boot (black screen).

 

Ok i guess i may. When Pressing F8 it only gives me W7.

 

Wait is there a way i can get the software off my dads comp?

He has a Compaq with Vista could i use that to restore?

Or my old pc with Vista 32?

 

Go on W7, go to disk management and try settings the recovery partition as Active.

 

Doesnt that require me to Deselect My Windows 7 Partition? Then i woulnt be able to Reset it.

 

Setting the restore partition active should allow you to boot into the restore partition and start the restore process. But, yeah once you do thatyou wont be able to boot into Win 7. So, backup your essential data to an external drive but doing the above should allow you to restore the system back to factory state.

 

Guys,

Just so you know, the F11 or F8 options to go to the recovery manager booting from the recovery partition are part of the vista bootloader.

That is wiped and replaced with the windows 7 bootloader during a fresh install (not sure on an upgrade install, very likely the same, but may copy those settings, I'll be trying one soon for other reasons)

So you will not have those options available, or if they show they will not function in 7.

You can, as a last ditch option, go to disk management and make the recovery partition active, which will cause the machine to boot to it, I did this and the recovery began, but then failed.

I bought a set of discs myself, and recovered back to vista with no issues, I believe my set was only $23, worth it IMO.

If you burnt a set, use it or you will have to obtain a set top get it back.

 

Always burn the recovery DVDs!

 

You used to be able to buy Vista anytime upgrade DVD for like 5 bucks at compusa.. I did. But now I see people are charging 10 dollars for a used one.. http://www.amazon.com/441643-001-Microsoft-Windows-Anytime-66C-00094/dp/B000SSNLIM/ref=sr_1_8/182-3337461-5198201?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1238334593&sr=8-8

With this or any copy of vista you can do a clean install but you would have to call MS to get it activated with the serials on the bottom of the notebook. You can copy any vista disc since MS has never used disc protection but rather they rely on authenticatoin. Back in early 07 HP used to send out the anytime upgrade disc with new systems. Now HP will tell you your not allowed to do a clean install with the oem key. In reality, MS could care less as long as you have a legit oem key.. which you do on the bottom of the notebook. So my suggestion is just borrow any vista disc from anyone you know, and install the version of vista cleanly that your computer shipped with.. then call MS to activate it when it prompts.. You can very easily copy that borrowed disc but its not allowed as I said before.. but there is no disc protection as there has never been for any MS software that I am aware of. But in the end, MS is really only interested that you have a legit oem key that is tied to your system. At this point since your going to have to start over anyways, I strongely suggest doing the clean install for a leaner, faster booting system etc... then to order another set of install discs from HP that include all the bloatware. IMO, HP screws up the default vista install with too much of their crap.

 

Thats a good idea. You should be able to use your OEM key on any Vista disk..

hp's bloatware really slows the system down.