Solved Boot into recovery partition problem

Hello everyone!

I have a Compaq Presario C735ET laptop which is designed only for Windows Vista. There is not any driver for Windows XP or Windows 7 so I am stuck with Vista.

Because I was not very happy with Vista, I installed Ubuntu on this computer, however, for some reason, I needed Vista again and removed Ubuntu. I deleted all partitions except the recovery one. Using Hirens Boot CD v14, I made that partition "not hidden" and "active" but I still could not boot with it. These actions were probably wrong but I just gave it a try.

I used "Startup Repair" option using Vista recovery CD but it did not work.

Then I used "bootrec /fixmbr" and "bootrec /fixboot" commands using the same CD, at command prompt, but they did not help.

Then I messed it even a little more, I tried to manually use bcdedit.exe however it still did not boot. Unfortunately I lost probably already corrupted /boot/bcd file in my recovery partition during this process.

At this point I decided to ask for help here, because I am tired and I know that if I try more I am afraid the situation will get even worse.

I do not have recovery CD's of Vista, we have never had them, and the image of C: drive I've taken with Macrium Reflect did not work, thus I am having all these problems.

Please find attached "dir /s" command output of my recovery partition.

I need my computer to boot into recovery partition to use this computer. I will greatly appreciate any help.

If youi don't get it to work, you can download a Vista iso from here and activate it with the key on your COA sticker. If you do not have a key for Ultimate, you have to finagle the iso like this: Windows Vista: Making a

As a note on my previous desktop I had a fair amount of luck getting Vista drivers to work on 7 with the exception being the sound card but you are correct about XP. However I haven't tried doing the same thing on a laptop. As for your current situation it sounds like the bootloader for linux messed up the Windows based partitions and you might very well have made them worse. You might have to do a complete hard drive reformat.

Try making a new Macrium Boot Disc
I have just fixed someones computer that failed two attempts at recovery with Macrium
After I made a new boot disc it worked fine

ilikefree said:

Try making a new Macrium Boot Disc
I have just fixed someones computer that failed two attempts at recovery with Macrium
After I made a new boot disc it worked fine

Click to expand...

A Macrium recovery should never fail - unless the VHD is corrupted. Else you can mount the VHD and reimage it. Then use that image to recover.

I am happy to announce that my problem is solved.

I examined files in my recovery partition and noticed that there is a huge file named "BASE.WIM". I looked into it using 7-zip. It looked like the complete image of original system C: drive.

A quick Google research confirmed my thought: "(Just for reference, as I have noted elsewhere, the wim file can be extracted and deployed directly to the system drive in most HP systems.)" (Source: Tech Support Guy Forums - View Single Post - Solved: HP Recovery via base.wim file.)

Then here is what I've done to solve the issue:

1. Boot into Mini Windows XP using Hiren's Boot CD.
2. Extract all files in the BASE.WIM file into C:\ path using 7-zip.
3. Reboot using Vista Recovery CD.
4. Startup Repair recognized boot problem and directly asked me to fix it. (Finally!) I accept.
5. Windows Vista boots from HDD. (Yes!)
6. Since there is a confusion in drive letters, some things were weird. I fix this problem as explained here: How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows . I deleted user account created during setup and created a new one.
7. All problems solved. :D

Great job. Thanks for sharing.