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    Lost recovery after vista installed

    Discussion in 'Other Manufacturers' started by bojovan, Jun 23, 2008.

  1. bojovan

    bojovan Newbie

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    I installed vista on my 3200 averatec to try it out believing that I could switch back to XP home... I am not able to switch back, my recovery partition is missing and I can not find anywhere to get recovery disk... Please Help :confused:
     
    bojovan, Jun 23, 2008
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  2. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    There isn't much you can do aside from contacting Averatec for recovery discs (which you should have made when you got the laptop). When you installed Vista you destroyed the bootloader that had the recovery option, and it cannot be retrieved again.

    Best bet is to acquire an XP disk and use the OS key found on the bottom of the laptop.
     
    Greg, Jun 23, 2008
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  3. afterburner1

    afterburner1 Notebook Geek

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    Interesting reply, Greg. I put a 160GB HHD in my 7170 and Phoenix took 43 GB for the recovery partition. or about 26% of the HHD. I deleted Phoenix and will depend on my external HHD, System Restore, and an Averatec restore disk.
    I was curious about your remark " acquire an XP disk and use the key on the bottom of the laptop." I have tried that and can't seem to get it to work. I lost the key to the disk I tried to substitute, and without the key you can't download.(even with the key on the bottom of the computer) Once it is downloaded you can retrieve the key. A real Catch 22!
    afterburner
     
    afterburner1, Jul 15, 2008
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  4. Chutsman

    Chutsman Notebook Evangelist

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    When you say, "I lost the key to the disk I tried to substitute, and without the key you can't download", what are you trying to download, and from where?
     
    Chutsman, Jul 16, 2008
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  5. afterburner1

    afterburner1 Notebook Geek

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    Trying to download with an XP disk where the key is lost. (No key) Into a computer that had XP installed at one time. The key on the back of that computer will not work on the disk with lost key. Interesting also is that you can go into the lost key disk and find the product code and that code will not work either!
     
    afterburner1, Jul 16, 2008
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  6. Chutsman

    Chutsman Notebook Evangelist

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    Okay, that clarifies it ..... we just use different terms. I call that "install from the XP disk". You'll have to call Microsoft and explained what happened. But if you still have the original booting hard drive, you can retrieve the key that was used to install the original OS by searching the registry.
     
    Chutsman, Jul 17, 2008
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  7. afterburner1

    afterburner1 Notebook Geek

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    That's what I mean about the Catch 22. After you load it, you can retreive the key, but you can't load it without the key.
     
    afterburner1, Jul 17, 2008
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  8. serenityconsulting

    serenityconsulting Notebook Consultant

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    afterburner1-
    If I am following what has been said... That you have an OEM supplied product key sticker and it is not working with your XP installation disk ... then most likely your XP installation disk is not the same version of XP that originally came with the PC. Your key is for a specific version of XP. You cannot for example use an XP Home key to install XP Pro.
     
    serenityconsulting, Jul 18, 2008
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  9. afterburner1

    afterburner1 Notebook Geek

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    See what you mean XP Home and XP MC are not compatible for installation. well that takes care of that; another coaster for my Shiner Bock!
     
    afterburner1, Jul 18, 2008
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  10. beut

    beut Notebook Consultant

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    Assume that you installed Vista in another partition, then you can dual boot Vista and XP by using this free software to restore the boot loader of XP
    http://www.vistabootpro.org/

    More help from here:

    http://www.windowstalk.org/dual_boot_vista.htm

    However, 3200 doesn't have recovery partition, except 3270. So I guess your laptop is an Averatec 3270. Your XP recovery partition probably was deleted when installing Vista. The rule of thumb is never install two different OS in the same partition. I runs Vista, XP, and Windows 2000 in the same computer without any problem.
     
    beut, Sep 29, 2008
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