The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Boot to hidden partition

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by jonnyollet, Oct 13, 2009.

  1. jonnyollet

    jonnyollet Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Hi Guys,

    My friend recently installed Windows 7 on her Advent 4213 netbook, but recently the netbook has developed a hardware fault.
    We want to take it back but think it needs to have XP re-installed on it.
    The TechGuys recovery partition is still intact, but during booting, there is no option to select it.
    Is there a way of making the recovery partition visible or booting directly to it?

    Thanks in advance for you help
     
    jonnyollet, Oct 13, 2009
    #1
  2. LLS

    LLS Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    105
    Messages:
    127
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I don't understand your question right but I don't think that you can boot to any recovery partition, because there isn't any operating system installed in there, so there is no such thing as "booting it".
     
    LLS, Oct 13, 2009
    #2
  3. DetlevCM

    DetlevCM Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    4,843
    Messages:
    8,389
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    205
    Well, to access the recovery partition hit F10 (for vaios, differs from manufacturer to manufacturer) immediately afterpressing the power button and keep pressing/hitting it.
     
    DetlevCM, Oct 13, 2009
    #3
  4. gerryf19

    gerryf19 I am the walrus

    Reputations:
    2,275
    Messages:
    3,990
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    If not f10, try f12
     
    gerryf19, Oct 13, 2009
    #4
  5. josmol

    josmol Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    10
    Messages:
    125
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I can only give you a brief recollection of my memory on this issue so here goes...

    I had a coworkers Dell system that had (as most do now adays) the recovery partition. The Fxx key didn't bring up the option to boot to it and reimage the system so I googled for a while and found some great instructions on how to use Norton Ghost as well as a bootable partition manager to basically do exactly what you want to do.

    Of course this worked because Dell systems apparently use some for of Norton for recovery and your friends system probably uses something else, possibly something proprietary.

    Basically it went like this - I booted to the partition manager and changed some hex values to get the boot sector to point to the hidden partition. Then I booted into Ghost which then saw the hidden partition and took the image and recreated the system. I booted back into the partition manager and undid the original hex value switcharoo and rebooted into a freshly installed OOBE Dell system.

    I know it's not as helpful as you're looking for but google the manufacturer and repair boot problems and you'll probably get enough information you need to get started.
     
    josmol, Oct 13, 2009
    #5