[achilles9]

Hello,

I have an HP Laptop (DV 6646 US) with a Windows Vista installed.. During the last 1yr my laptop has been falling apart (literally) with first the audio drivers crashing, then problems with the DVD writer etc. When I bought the laptop, I had a recovery partition & was not provided a Windows Vista CD/DVD. Since my DVD Writer has crashed, I do not have the option of creating recovery discs now. Could anyone please suggest a method for me to reinstall/recover Windows Vista from the recovery partition without having to use a CD/DVD.

Thanks in advance!!

[Elvandil]

The recovery partition exists as a replacement for the DVD. Nothing is needed to access it. It should be on the boot menu (often F12 but it may say on your boot screen). If you had a DVD, you would not need the revovery partition.

[achilles9]

Thanks Elvan for the really quick response..
Well, I would call myself as a "novice" when it comes to Operating System Installations, so just some follow up questions:
As soon as I switch on the system & press F12, would I be able to reinstall a fresh copy of Vista onto the machine using the recovery partition or would it only try to fix for errors?

[Elvandil]

I'm not sure it is F12 on your machine. But if it gives a boot menu, recovery will be an option in some wording that may not use that exact word. Once you enter recovery, options will appear. A full recovery is one of them. System Restore in another that is often included in the recovery environment, as well as Startup Repair that people get when they boot the DVD.

It won't just start running away on you without your knowing what is happening, if that is what you mean.

[TerryNet]

With HP my first guesses would be F11 or Esc to get to the Recovery partition. Usually the needed information in on the screen right after power on, and HP usually gives you that information along with your purchase and on their web site.

[achilles9]

Hello,

I followed the instructions & tried to "recover" my Windows Vista.
Here is what I did:
Press F11 as soon as system is switched on
HP lets me recover/reinstall Windows related programs
Windows screen opens up & provided me option to recover from a checkpoint
I am provided with a total of 5 checkpoints from the last 6days (after I checked the "Show me more than 5days" option)
I select the checkpoint 6days ago, system reboots after changes
Still facing problem since the problem has been existing for few months now & no checkpoint/recovery points exist in menu to recover beyond the last 1week

Please help!!!

[Elvandil]

You used Restore Points. If you want to go back to factory settings, do a complete recovery.

[Fractalogic]

Don't forget to backup your important files on a different disk drive or volume/partition before proceeding with reinstalling Windows. See 'Backup and recovery' section on page 131 in your Maintenance and Service Guide.

For reinstalling Windows from recovery partition, see page 134 - 'Recovering from the partition on the hard drive'.

[Fractalogic]

If you do not have your Maintenance and Service Guide see the link below.

Manuals for HP Pavilion dv6646us Entertainment Notebook PC: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/m...oduct=3552675&

Direct link to the Maintenance and Service Guide (PDF): http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01295877.pdf