HP Recovry Partition

[Doctor Micro]

Just had an HP laptop with a failing hard drive. Was able to image the drive and ignore the bad sectors. My HDD tools were unable to move enough of the data off the damaged sectors to good sectors, so in my mind the hard drive is toast.

The laptop has 2 partitions, the user partition and an "HP Recovery" partition. The damage seems to be confined only to the user partition. Here's my question, since the HP Recovery partition is the second partition and at the end of the drive, does anybody know if there is a way to just copy/clone/restore the HP Recovery partition only to a new hard drive and run the HP recovery process without also having to restore or copy the first (damaged) partition?

I'm thinking that if I take a new hard drive and partition it with the same sizes, copy over the HP Restore partition to the second partition, it should work, or am I delusional and coffee-deprived?

 

[vontreigo]

if it is xp then you shouldn't have too much of a problem... if it is vista... well you are out of luck and will have to load vista from your master dvd.

 

[14049752]

Try running rawcopy on it. It might work just well enough to make it work.

 

[Doctor Micro]

if it is xp then you shouldn't have too much of a problem... if it is vista... well you are out of luck and will have to load vista from your master dvd.

It is Vista Ultimate, 64-bit and the user does not have a recovery DVD, and apparently never did (hence the recovery partition) and never made a backup DVD.

At any rate, why does the OS version matter? If I understand how the HP system works, you are supposed to be able to initiate the recovery from the pre-boot BIOS options... it just tells the machine to boot from HDD(0), Partition(1) instead of Partition(0).

 

[angry_geek]

You might try booting from the recovery partition and restoring windows. The drive might last long enough for you to create a set of recovery discs. The easy way is to use any 64-bit Vista disc and using the key off the bottom of the machine.

 

[Doctor Micro]

Try running rawcopy on it. It might work just well enough to make it work.

Did that... sort of. The image I made was sector-by-sector, raw. I can mount the image and read/extract/copy user files... it just won't boot, no matter what I try. Since I can salvage the user's files and data, they're okay with a reinstallation. They'll have to reinstall their user-installed software, of course.

I'd really like to be able to use the HP Recovery option, since it has all the right drivers, and I don't have to call Microsoft and explain why I'm using an HP product key with a MS OEM disk.

Anyway, I may try the method I mentioned above and see if that works (pre-partition the new HDD). In the meantime, keep those comments and suggestions coming. Thanks folks.

 

[Doctor Micro]

You might try booting from the recovery partition and restoring windows. The drive might last long enough for you to create a set of recovery discs. The easy way is to use any 64-bit Vista disc and using the key off the bottom of the machine.

I'll try that. I know I can do it with a Vista 64 disk; I'm just not looking forward to the manual MS activation and getting all the right drivers from the HP download site or elsewhere. Funny thing about HP, they don't always list all the drivers for download... unlike Dell.

 

[angry_geek]

I agree. They have become a royal pain in the ass lately. Try looking for the cto version of that laptop. This will list all available drivers for the model group.

 

[JRDtechnet]

Go to HP.com and search for the computer model under support and drivers you can usually buy the recovery media for your model for a nominal fee, look for the heading "CD-ROM order page - Recovery Discs" in the driver download list page that comes up. That would be you best bet instead of trying to get to recover the recovery partition.

 

[dhrandy]

I was successfully able to do this with a HP computer running XP. Same situation. I was able to image the recovery partition and do a full restore.

 

[Doctor Micro]

Go to HP.com and search for the computer model under support and drivers you can usually buy the recovery media for your model for a nominal fee, look for the heading "CD-ROM order page - Recovery Discs" in the driver download list page that comes up. That would be you best bet instead of trying to get to recover the recovery partition.

Thanks, yes I know... I've ordered media from HP before. Usually all you need is a credit card, model and serial number. Was trying to find a slightly quicker solution (and maybe add knowlege and skills at the same time). I wish HP had a "download" option for their recovery media.

 

[Doctor Micro]

Resolved... sort of.

Motherboard is toast. Tried a new HDD with my OEM System Builder Vista 64 disk... system froze after a few minutes with a blank screen, no keyboard or mouse, no HDD activity. Booted to a Knoppix CD. Same thing. Tested the memory in another machine and it passed.

The system is less than 9 months old and still under warranty, so it's going back to the user to send in for warranty repair or replacement. I have an image of their hard drive, and backups of their user data.

Thanks to all for the suggestions. Sorry I couldn't report a happier ending.