hey guys i think i goofed big time when i installed windows 8 i just chose to upgrade windows instead of setting a partition if i chose to complelty return my computer back to facotory settings would that fix it. my main issue is my computer did not come with a windows 7 installation disk or cd key.
well all i can say is thank god for hp system restore apparently my computer had a back up of the original software so all i had to do was run system restore in recovery but i did lose all my stuff in the process.
Related
I got a copy of Android - I think its 1.6 - running on my laptop - and it seemed to work ok and be stable so I wanted to put it onto the machine permanantly.
Trouble is its decided that nothing else on the machine exists and I can't get back into vista whatever I try
It boots into something called grub loader and the only two options are the normal boot and a sort of safe mode - that lists drivers much like the old one for Windows 95/98 where you could y/n each one...
I really need help to get vista back again since there is stuff I really need like internet banking that I don't think I can do any other way (to be fair I have yet to try)
Thanks in advance
Jemma
Please tell me you partitioned off your hard drive before doing this?
If not then its a reinstall I guess, which isn't to bad as it allows you to install a decent copy of windows such as XP
That quite simply isn't an option - I was told that there is a way of solving it by using a windows CD or boot disk to reload the MBR - I was also told that the file running GRUB can be edited to find windows.
The problem is I don't have another machine and I am on state benefits - I need this computer up and running and I need access to my documents.
I can't seem to mount anything in android - and as the only option is 'format sd card' I don't really want to take it..
Does anyone else have any suggestions?
Jemmauk said:
That quite simply isn't an option - I was told that there is a way of solving it by using a windows CD or boot disk to reload the MBR - I was also told that the file running GRUB can be edited to find windows.
The problem is I don't have another machine and I am on state benefits - I need this computer up and running and I need access to my documents.
I can't seem to mount anything in android - and as the only option is 'format sd card' I don't really want to take it..
Does anyone else have any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well thanks for the sob story but what does being on benefits have to do with anything?
Anyway simply set your pc bios to boot from cd first, insert disk and boot up. From there you will be asked do you want to install or repair. Choose repair.
I'm unsure of the next step because I don't use Vista *spits* but if you can get to recovery console then you can run fixmbr from the prompt and also there is a boot manager that can fix your boot sector.
Alternatively you could from a dos prompt delete the 1.6 folders and rewrite the msconfig to open windows only.
There is also the root of trying the f8 safe mode boot into admin account and rewrite the msconfig from with windows if accessible from f8 safe.
But hell I ain't anyone else but I guess my 24 years in the business of building custom machine and my extensive knowledge of windows xp and below means nowt? Maybe try being a little less dismissive next time hey?
Add me on gmail - [email protected] if you want me to help you sort it out faster than we can here
Did you create partitions before installing android? if not then windows doesnt exist anymore, which is why grub didnt automatically add it to the list of things to boot (mine always listed everything, but sometimes it doesnt do that automatically)
this happend to me to. I had to use I linux live cd to delete the linux partition. and fix the mbr.
Sent from my Liberty using XDA App
Hi there,
I just bought my HTC Shift. I really like it. However, I would like to reinstall Windows Vista because an important application that I need will not install. I heard that there are problems with wifi/bt and drivers in general when using XP or Windows 7.
Since I am happy with how it runs on Vista I would simply like to reinstall. The problem is that I bought the device from a 3rd party without any CDs or manuals. Is there a hidden partition that contains the Vista kit with drivers? Or how exactly does this work?
Thank you.
Vista recovery
stargatesg1 said:
Hi there,
I just bought my HTC Shift. I really like it. However, I would like to reinstall Windows Vista because an important application that I need will not install. I heard that there are problems with wifi/bt and drivers in general when using XP or Windows 7.
Since I am happy with how it runs on Vista I would simply like to reinstall. The problem is that I bought the device from a 3rd party without any CDs or manuals. Is there a hidden partition that contains the Vista kit with drivers? Or how exactly does this work?
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi stargatesg1,
If the partition is not damaged you can do a Vista system recovery as follows:
Hard Disk Recovery
In case of system failure, Windows Vista® can be recovered to the hard disk by running the hard disk recovery utility. Before starting this utility, make sure to back up important data and files.
To run the hard disk recovery utility
1. Shut down the Mobile Computer and then power it on again.
2. At the start of the boot-up process, immediately press F3 to run the hard disk recovery utility.
3. You will then see the following screen:
Recovery process is starting .....The process will delete all data on the hard drive.Do you want to terminate the process? (Y/N)
104 Securing and Managing the Mobile Computer
Press N to continue with the hard disk recovery process. If you press Y, the hard disk recovery utility is terminated.
4. The next message prompts you whether or not to rebuild the MBR (Master Boot Record) data:
Recovery process is starting .....The process will delete all data on the hard drive.Do you want to terminate the process? (Y/N) NDo you want to rebuild the MBR (Master Boot Record) data? (Y/N)
If, aside from drive C, you have created other partitions in the hard disk and you want to keep them, press N. If you press Y, your partitions will be deleted.
5. A confirmation message then prompts you whether or not to continue. Press Y to start the hard disk recovery process. If you press N, the hard disk recovery utility is terminated.
6. After the recovery process is complete, slide and hold the POWER/HOLD switch for about four seconds to shut down the Mobile Computer.
Before overwrighting the current OS (if different from Vista), I would save an image of it using a dedicated freeware e.g. Macrium Reflect Free in order to put it back when needed because Shift with Vista is running very very slow. As far as I know there are very little problems with XP or Windows 7, I would rather install one of them than Vista.
Good luck!
Since I am going to loose all data it wouldn't hurt to try a different OS as well. If I install XP/7 will I still be able to recover Vista in the same way with hard disk recover utility?
Mersi
Yes, for sure, if not touching the Vista recovery partition (which it doesn't get written during the normal installation process).
hello guys i had windows 7 installed and i installed windows 8 on my other partition and after some days i did a format on win7 partition but the dual boot menu is still there any solution to remove that ?
Go to msconfig boot tab.delete windows 8. If that doesnt work,try to go to disk management and delete the partition for windows 7 or change the drive letter.
Hit thanks if i helped you
Deleting the partition won't do anything useful. If you are unable to remove the second boot item using the graphical tools, you will need to use bcdedit. This program is command-line and requires Admin, but isn't really that hard to use. It has a lot of built-in help info, plus you can find lots of info and examples online.
By the way, this isn't really a Win8 problem. BCDEdit has been around since Vista. Don't worry if you find instructions for Vista or Win7; they'll probably still apply on Win8.
Since December 2013 I have Lenovo G505s laptop that came with Windows 8 pre-installed. Contacted Lenovo to get a Windows 8.1 upgrade disk. No avail.
So I decided to upgrade the laptop via Windows Store to Windows 8.1. The upgrade took hours. Best: Had no problems with Windows afterwards. All drivers are working. Thank God.
The laptop comes with a recovery drive, but this - by nature - only holds a copy of Windows 8 pre-installed. Not useful when it comes to refresh/restore the laptop - currently Windows 8.1.
Because the recovery drive will include Windows 8 pre-installed, I have need to upgrade to Windows 8.1 again after I refresh or reset my laptop. At least thus is stated by Microsoft here (Step 8)
Anybody can tell me how to refresh the recovery partition? I won't work with USB stick.
MS has no consumer-based solution for what you're asking. For IT and OEMs, there are commandline tools to capture and deploy WIMs (Windows images). To go this route, first use DISM to capture (back-up) your current setup into a WIM file. Next, update the System (ESP) partition, then the WinRE partition with files from Win 8.1 boot disk. Finally, apply the captured WIM into the recovery partition, overwriting the old WIM. Commandline tools to do these are dism, reagentc, et al. All of the needed info are available on Technet. Start at the below link, and branch out as needed:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825072.aspx
The vastly easier (and faster, and more efficient) solution is to forgo the MS solution, and simply use a good image backup solution. I use TrueImage backup, and there are many others. You can back up directly to a USB storage device at any time, obviating the need for a recovery partition. Recovery is just a USB boot key away.
If opting for the latter, aside from reclaiming space from recovery partition (30GB), you can also reclaim space from the now-obsolete "driver" partition (20GB).
Will try the next days what you suggested and report whether could solve my issue succesfullyl. For now, thanks a lot.
Hello guys, my brother had this tablet for a short period of time and he upgraded it to windows 10, everything was fine but then he wanted to revert back to windows 8.1 so he wiped everything. After that nothing worked, he kept getting a partition error (missing partition) and could not do anything about it. He gave me the tablet in hopes of fixing it so i got a fresh copy of windows 8.1 from the microsoft downloader and put it on a pen drive. I also used to tool to make it into a bootable storage space and even injected the drivers from the CAB from the dell website using NTlite, but every time i start the setup the touch screen doesn't work (so i used a keyboard) and it also says media driver is missing. When i start the tablet without the usb i get missing hard disk error and can only access the BIOS and diagnostics check (shows no errors there).
This community has helped me before, hopefully they can help me again because i can't seem to wrap myself around the problem