I tried the chicken, but it doesn't work...

[cundor]

Hi all,

I have a HP Pavilion on which I recently installed Windows Vista. When I bought the PC, it came with Windows XP. HP has this "Recovery system" installed, so that when you reboot your computer and press f10, you can re-install Windows XP and clean your computer.

My computer has 3 partitions:
- C: Vista
- D: "System Recovery" this is the partition which allows me to do the system recovery. You cannot use it to store data, it's a "closed" hard disk
- E: my music & video's and stuff

After having tried Vista for a month or so, I decided to go back to XP. I decided to perform a system recovery, but when I pressed F10, nothing happened. I just got this menu, but there was no installation what so ever. I used the system recovery before (while having Xp though, not Vista) and it worked out great. The installation of Windows Vista has probably got something to do with this.

any help?

Thx

Cundor

[RoDNeY]

[project dragon]

Any chance that you backed up the recovery drive onto disks like it first asks you?
I've never had vista, but I have a HP and I've had to use the recovery drive. Unfortunately, my harddrive was broken, so I got a new harddrive. It doesn't have the partition, but I have it backed up on DVD's. I didn't use it though, so I don't have all the HP propaganda on my laptop.

[cundor]

I don't have any back-up DVD's, only that specific partition.

But there has to be a way to "boot from that partition"? No?

Man, getting desperate here

[Lizard Fuel]

when you hit F10, choose "Boot up in Safe Mode"...
when everything is done loading go to.....
start --> control panel -> performance & maint -> system -> system restore...
from there you can restore the settings of your pc before vista was installed...you just need to select a date which was prior to installing vista.

(Note: you will lose everything installed AFTER the date you choose, to include pictures/music/etc) So you may want to save those before you do this.

I didn't read this page, but it will probably describe the process better than me....so here: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...ystem-restore/

Hope It Helps

[cundor]

Thx, I'm gonna give it a try.

I noticed that when I hit f10, i can also enter a path for a file to load. This path currently is leading to some file on C:\

If i'd new the exact file (on disk d) which has to be loaded make the system run the Windows XP, then I think my problem is solved!

I'll let you know!

Edit: there are no restore points from before the installation of Vista so no luck there