windows vista recovery disk

D

Dollar

New Member
Hi. My pc is not prebuilt so it does not have have the recovery disk like those provided by dell, gateway etc. All I have is only the windows vista OS disk (single) and all the other CD Roms Drivers for the motherboard etc.
How do I make a recovery disk myself?
I have 2 partitions 160gb on C and 160gb on D. How would I go about installing a recovery partition on D Drive when I reformat and reinstall windows vista on C drive?
Thanks.
 
When going to reformat if actually needed and reinstalling Windows on the first partition there(C) that will leave the second uneffected. Any files and data unless you have another version of Windows installed will remain intact.

The Vista disk itself now see the repair tools as well as separate drive tools for formatting partitions after they are created or for a simple reformat. Your full version Vista dvd is already a recovery disk since you can work with that to see a fresh copy go onto the reformatted C primary.
 
I have the windows vista home premium OEM version. Not the retail version.
Is it a full version vista dvd recovery disk too?
 
It's no different then the OEM disk used here. As long as it is a non branded disk you bought separately it won't be tied to any hidden recovery partition like seen with prebuilt systems. You simply use a method of repair or you perform a full install if for some reason you are unable to save the current.

The brand recovery disks are those that rely on the hidden partition and are tied by product key, serial number to the one machine. A full install OEM disk bought separately allows you to swap drives out without worry in case the first fails or you simply want a larger capacity drive.

For the creation of recovery disks plural there for restoring a prebuilt system the manufacturer will provide steps for downloading disk images to burn to cd-rs. On one older eMachines case with XP for instance 5 cd-rs were needed since the system came without the original Windows and software recovery disks that should have been included. Once ownership was verified the actual owner was provided with a link for download of the 5 images.

Other manufacturers will provide information on how to create them by extracting files already tucked away in a hidden partition in order to see the system restored to factory condition. For you with a custom build and besides seeing D used as a storage partition there are softwares like Norton Ghost and Acronis Disk Manager for creating data rescue disks where the image of the drive is burned to removable media.

The installation disk you already will do a little more then use recovery information store on the drive but will also prepare the drive for seeing Windows put on it as well as seeing the partitioning and option to format a partition. I'm still waiting to find a good guide for performing a repair install like is seen with XP that sees that option in order to preserve an existing copy of Windows and programs.
 
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