How to boot into D:/ partition....help wanted

Toldo

New Member
Hi guys i recently installed windows xp onto my inspiron laptop,which has vista OS,but i want to switch back to vista OS which is located on the d:/RECOVERY partition,i formatted the c:/ with the xp,im finding it impossible to restore it because it dont give me the option on the advanced boot menu,can any body help?

Cheers Toldo
 
Did you receive a restore CD with your laptop? There should not be a boot option to choose from the recovery partition, as the Vista OS itself is not loaded on there, it's just the recovery partition.
 
First of all.. the D: drive is for recovery as it came that way in your laptop, which the OS is in C:...

You are using XP on the C: right now?

If you are using XP and Vista is somehow installed in D: ... then do the following:

Right click "My Computer" .... 'Properties' .... 'Advanced' tab.... 'Settings' under "Startup and Recovery" .... then select your OS under "Default operating system"
 
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First of all.. the D: drive is for recovery as it came that way in your laptop, which the OS is in C:...

You are using XP on the C: right now?

If you are using XP and Vista is somehow installed in D: ... then do the following:

Right click "My Computer" .... 'Properties' .... 'Advanced' tab.... 'Settings' under "Startup and Recovery" .... then select your OS under "Default operating system"


Yes im usung xp on the c: but the D: is for recovery only so i might have problems trying to boot into is,the vista was on the c: and i formatted that with xp,the xp wont give me the options to use the "restore factory settings" i presume because it an old xp and them options were not available when is came out,the bottom line is is it somehow possible for me to restore the factory setting again? if your theory don't work?

Cheers
Thanks for posting
 
[-0MEGA-];883517 said:
Did you receive a restore CD with your laptop? There should not be a boot option to choose from the recovery partition, as the Vista OS itself is not loaded on there, it's just the recovery partition.


i bought the laptop second hand and i dont have the cd,instead dell leave the OS on the d: some new piracy prevention
 
i also tried selection d: as my default but it only gives me one option the- xp,because i think the d: is maybe an iso image or something
 
d: cant be an iso image.

I don't understand how Vista managed to go into D: drive when the recovery drives in Dell laptops take only 10GB. Some weird partition madness occurred in that laptop.
 
You might be able to boot into the recovery program by pressing either F10 or F11 on bootup, but only if that option is still available since you reformatted C already. Another small possibility is that you can press F8 and it might give you the option to do a recovery from the safe mode area. I worked on a dell desktop that would allow you to do that.
 
d: cant be an iso image.

I don't understand how Vista managed to go into D: drive when the recovery drives in Dell laptops take only 10GB. Some weird partition madness occurred in that laptop.

How much space does vista home basic take up? when i had vista before i uses this utillity to restore factory settings over virus's and stuff,but now i cant get that option
 
You might be able to boot into the recovery program by pressing either F10 or F11 on bootup, but only if that option is still available since you reformatted C already. Another small possibility is that you can press F8 and it might give you the option to do a recovery from the safe mode area. I worked on a dell desktop that would allow you to do that.

I tried all them but to no avail,it seems im out of luck:(
 
you have to go to the dell website and find the particular model you have. then download and install the necessary programs to enable using the boot partition.

companies do this to save money on disks and make it easier for people to reinstall the os. they'll also give you an option to create your disks by using their program that was already installed. what you should've done was make a backup of the os using the bundled programs before wiping the os.

you can "probably" use acronis and clone the d drive then use it to install the c drive. i think this will work.

finally you can also order the os disk from dell. if they're anything like sony they'll charge you 20 bucks for it.
 
you have to go to the dell website and find the particular model you have. then download and install the necessary programs to enable using the boot partition.

companies do this to save money on disks and make it easier for people to reinstall the os. they'll also give you an option to create your disks by using their program that was already installed. what you should've done was make a backup of the os using the bundled programs before wiping the os.

you can "probably" use acronis and clone the d drive then use it to install the c drive. i think this will work.

finally you can also order the os disk from dell. if they're anything like sony they'll charge you 20 bucks for it.

Thanks dznutz,the thing is i work for dell:) its hard trying to get a payrise so maybe getting a disc wont be to hard
 
Hi guys i recently installed windows xp onto my inspiron laptop,which has vista OS,but i want to switch back to vista OS which is located on the d:/RECOVERY partition,i formatted the c:/ with the xp,im finding it impossible to restore it because it dont give me the option on the advanced boot menu,can any body help?

Cheers Toldo

Did you try booting from CD and then formatting the hard drive? Also, go into COM settings which is F10 as the machine starts, set boot device to boot from CD. Put the CD in, turn off the machine, and turn it back on. it will ask boot from CD or hard drive click CD. Run setup it will ask to format click ENTER for yes, then let it run and it will reinstall Vista. You can't run recovery you have to run reinstallation. Hope this helps.
 
If you have problems formatting your partition, then download Linux Ubuntu and use it as a bootable cd and use its tools for partitioning.
 
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