Vista - HELP! Restore to factory settings

I am using a HP Pavilion dv6000 running Windows Vista Home Premium. My computer has numerous problems: it won’t load certain websites, windows updates won’t work, I can’t load or re-download windows defender, I can’t download software from Microsoft.com…..and so on and so on. I have searched and searched the internet and tried many solutions from many different forums with none of them working. My last resort is to restore the system to factory settings however that too presents a problem. The files in my HP_Recovery drive have been deleted and the recovery disks that I created were lost when I moved. I know it’s a long shot, but is there any way I can restore my system to factory settings without the HP_Recovery partition or recovery disks?

Hello JaySlim561, welcome to Vista forums!

HP keeps copies of recovery discs, just contact them with the model / serial numbers
and they will send you a set of the discs for a fee.














Later Ted

Hi JaySlim561, welcome to the forums

I'm afraid to say without the restore partition or the restore disks the is nothing you can do.

However what I would suggest is if you contact HP support and explain the situation they may be able to supply you with replacement media (hopefully at a nominal charge.

The only other option I can suggest is that you obtain a retail disk (upgrade is OK and do a clean install using that.

Hi,


First thing to try is a system retore to a point before you got these problems - I would use the earliest restore point that is listed

System Restore - How to

You could then try making your own recovery dvd - last time I looked , you needed a bittorrent client to do the download

Create a Recovery Disc

That might do the trick.

The best thing is to borrow a Vista install dvd from a friend, and do a repair install

Repair Install For Vista

Since you don't need to enter your product key for a repair install, I think you could use either a retail or an OEM dvd. I understand that you can't use an OEM product key with a retail dvd and vice versa.

If you manage to borrow an OEM dvd, post back and I will show you how to use it to make your own.

Whatever you do, make sure you get your product key - it's not necessarily the same as the sticker on your machine

Product Key Number

Hope this helps

SIW2

Thanks for the suggestions. I wasn’t aware that I could get recovery disks from HP. I contacted them and I’ll have the replacements in a few days. The disks were free but I had to pay for shipping. Thanks again!

Hello again Jay.

I'm glad to see you found a solution, thanks for posting back!















Later Ted

That's handy - glad it's sorted for you

SIW2