If you're like most PC users, you probably got Windows Vista with a new PC or laptop. And if you're like 99% of the population, you get your new machines from one of the major manufacturers. Dell, Acer, HP, Toshiba, Lenovo, they all have one thing in common: they don't give you a real Windows Vista installation disc with your purchase. Instead, they bundle what they call a "recovery disc" (that's if you're lucky - otherwise you'll have a recovery partition instead) with your machine and leave it at that.
It doesn't matter that you just paid a thousand dollars for a machine that comes with a valid Windows Vista license - your computer manufacturer just don't want to spend the money (or perhaps take on the responsibility) of giving you a Windows Vista installation DVD to accompany your expensive purchase.
The problem is, with Windows Vista, the installation media serves more than one purpose. It's not just a way to get Windows installed, it's also the only way of recovering a borked installation. The Windows Vista DVD has a "recovery center" that provides you with the option of recovering your system via automated recovery (searches for problems and attempts to fix them automatically), rolling-back to a system restore point, recovering a full PC backup, or accessing a command-line recovery console for advanced recovery purposes.
Microsoft seems to have realized this problem, and have thankfully made a recovery disc for this purpose. It contains the contents of the Windows Vista DVD's "recovery center," as we've come to refer to it. It cannot be used to install or reinstall Windows Vista, and just serves as a Windows PE interface to recovering your PC. Technically, one could re-create this installation media with freely-downloadable media from Microsoft (namely the Microsoft WAIK kit, a multi-gigabyte download); but it's damn-decent of Microsoft to make this available to Windows' users who might not be capable of creating such a thing on their own.NeoSmart Technologies is hosting a copy of the Windows Vista Recovery Disc for your convenience. It is a 120 MiB download, and in the standard ISO format.
Windows Vista x86 Recovery Disc Torrent
Windows Vista x64 Recovery Disc Torrent
Please see this post for info on how to download and use .torrent files.
You'll need to burn this ISO image to a CD or DVD before you can use it as a bootable recovery medium. NeoSmart Technologies has published a guide on how to burn an ISO image to CD or DVD with your favorite burning program, which you can read if you need more information or help on this topic.
This is great and useful. I'm wondering though, does one have to boot from it to use it, or can it be run live to restore the internal quirks of a working windows session?
You'll need to boot from it.
Guruji ur great ... simply great
first easybcd and now this ... u should now be neosmarter
Usually you can create a recovery CD/DVD from a recovery partition, however.
Yeah, that's usually the case with the newest PCs. But even then, that will be an OEM-specific system recovery CD/DVD - not a Windows Vista installation/recovery disc; and can usually only be used to wipe your system clean and start again from scratch - it doesn't give you the option of actually repairing your Windows installation.
The good thing is that the good ones will let you do some repair, for example entering the recovery console. In fact, the ones based on WinPE, such as Lenovo's, will lets you do much more than XP's recovery console can do. But I am talking about WinXP recovery discs here. In Vista, it is even easier because most PC manufacturers use WinRE for recovery and that allows access to a Command Prompt. Still, thanks, because I am sure that not all use WinRE and I am sure there are still some that still use DOS for recovery, even with Vista.
I didn't know that Lenovo's were WinPE based - thanks for the info. For us, the biggest advantage to everyone using a standard recovery CD is that we can easily provide support and instructions on various recovery procedures.
The nicest thing about the Vista DVD is the ability to use System Restore without being able to boot into Windows (safe mode or otherwise) - I don't know if this is a feature available in the OEM recovery discs?
BTW, only the latest version of Lenovo's recovery discs (in particular, those coming with T60 and later) are WinPE based. Older versions were only DOS-based and more limited.
>I don't know if this is a feature available in the OEM recovery discs?
I think the WinRE based recovery discs and partitions can do System Restore.
BTW, Lenovo's recovery discs and partitions are part of a feature called ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery and provides more than just Windows reinstall. Only version 4 and later are WinPE based.
http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/think/thinkvantagetech/rescuerecovery.html
Anyone actually get this to work? I have so far attempted two Disk burns of the ISO, and neither on of them will boot. The files seem to be there, but it is not bootable, so I am unable to repair my notebook. All I need is that bootsect.exe to allow me to repair the MBR. Ugh.
No floppy drive on the system either. Please let me know if you were able to get this ISO to boot.
Hi John,
You need to make sure that your BIOS is configured to boot from a CD or DVD. Also, you did burn it as an ISO image and not as a normal file, correct?
i upgraded my notebook laptop to vista from xp and now the system wont even let me log in
as it says that this system is not a genuine windows product and i was wondering if this recovery
disc download will let me restore my system without buying the xp or vista installation disc
all over again as i didn't do a back up disc of my xp from when i purchased the laptop
No, that won't work.
Computer Guru,
Yep, I burned it as an ISO and I'm set to boot from CD/DVD. I had no problem burning and booting the UltimateBootDisk ... but unfortunately the UBD does not work with Vista.
I lucked out and found out a friend of mine had a Vista Install DVD and ran the repair ... which solved my problem... but I still never got the Vista Recovery Disk to work. I even tried booting it on another computer with no luck... it just gave me a flashing cursor at the top left of the screen.
When I view the contents of the disk it lists a "/boot" directory and various files that look like they might be appropriate, but like I said... it just won't boot.
Anyway, my problem is solved, but you may want to check the ISO to check for yourself.
-John
I don't know - we've been using the ISO image in the forums for support-related purposes for a couple of months now, with great results.
John, I just re-downloaded and re-tested the ISO myself on a real PC and in VMware... it works fine.
The MD5 for the ISO image should be aff5ceef6dbf202cc1beb9fc81e8d02b
As a matter of fact, it's been downloaded over 300,000 times since we posted this story, no one else has reported any problems. Perhaps you can try downloading it with the bittorrent link above to ensure it doesn't get corrupted along the way?
I tried to use the disk but when I went to repair my computer (I'm trying to do a complete PC restore) it says it isn't compatible and to try to use compatible media. Dose this disk only cover 32 bit versions of windows (I'm using an x64 version). If so, can someone point me in the direction of something that can help me?
Yeah, that's (unfortunately) a known issue. We're working on getting an x64 edition up ASAP.
Computer Guru, I bought a new HP 9576ea laptop which started to teeth with some problems. Gave it back to the ever useless PC World Tech guys who replaced it with a hard drive, and didnt bother copying the recovery partition. So with no recovery disc, i thought I would try the one here. Unfortunately I have come across the same problem as John did. I burned the image on nero to a cd. When i tried to boot from the disc, all i got was the flashing cursor on the top left. Could it be the disc only works for certain types of machines i.e desktops but not laptops?
I have ordered the recovery discs from HP but it will be 10 days before they arrive!
Shanni
Shanni,
I'm not glad that you experienced problems, but I am glad that someone else is experiencing the same problem I had. Both PCs I attempted to use the disk on were notebooks/laptops, so you may be onto something.
I downloaded the file again... but have not yet had time to retest.
-John
I stand corrected. The ISO for the Vista Recovery Disk using the original link worked just fine this time. Booted as expected.
I re-downloaded and used Roxio on this computer to burn the ISO instead of Nero which was on my girlfriend's computer during my attempts to repair this one. (Although I doubt the choice of burning tools had anything to do with it.)
It is nice to have this in case of future disasters. Although now I wonder if I will be more risky in my future endeavors, knowing I have the Recovery Disk in my back pocket (figuratively of course).
Thanks guys!!!
-John
Hi Computer Guru,
I am using Nero. Do I have to burn the ISO File as a bootable CD-ROM option in Nero?
Many Thanks, Lim
Thanks to NeoSmart Technologies. The recovery disc has helped me a lot.
John, glad to hear that's been resolved. If you do end up with any problems needing a recovery.... just gives us a shout in the forums; we're there to help.
@Lim: I recommend using the free ImgBurn, instructions on the best way to burn a (bootable) CD w/ ImgBurn can be found in the NeoSmart Technologies Guides Center at http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/G/Burning+ISO+Images+with+ImgBurn
@Shanni: Either verify the MD5 or your downloaded ISO image with MD5 calculator and compare it to the one I posted above, or verify the download by checking it against the .torrent files by following these instructions: http://neosmart.net/blog/2007/recovering-corrupt-downloads-with-bittorrent/ (or just download it from bittorrent from scratch).
What burning application did you use, btw, Shanni?
I've got an HP Pavilion dv9000 which came with Windows Vista Home Premium and one of those useless recovery partitions.
At one point, I had to use something to recover some permissions on some system files. The recovery partition on my machine did indeed contain the repair system -- I could roll back, attempt automatic recovery, and (if I waiting through enough menus) get to a DOS prompt as SYSTEM.
Nevertheless, this looks like a useful tool. I'll have to download it and burn myself a copy just in case I can't find my recovery DVD (I burned one and deleted those partitions.. I paid for that disk space!).
Hi I am woundering if you can redirect me to some one that can give me a link to download the windows vista kit it came with my computer and now i am trying to use it cause i wiped out my hard drive do to alot of spyware on the system. come to find out my disk driver ca not read the disk now. Please tell me if there is away to load it from a link. Microsoft said that i would have to pay $70.00 for a new one. even thought it can this way from them in the package.
@JR: Sorry, you won't find a legal download link for Windows Vista online anywhere.
Hi, I wonder if he same exists for XP, I have an HP system and don't like the CD recovery system.
Thank you
Windows XP's own CD doesn't even have a real recovery center - just a command prompt.
As like most tosspot companies Toshiba failed to include a disc in my purchase, I downloaded your recovery disc file, tested it... and it all works fine.
Stats:
Toshiba Equium A100 Windows vista Home Premium Italian Version.
"Anyway, my problem is solved, but you may want to check the ISO to check for yourself."
Hold down “F12″ while booting to open up your “Boot To” menu prompt. Select “CD-ROM” and then continue by pressing enter.
Computer Guru,
I am going to redownload the file and burn it with Nero, which is the application I used previously. I am burning it using the Burn Image. Lets see if it works this time.
Thanks Shanni
I think Nero has a problem burning bootable ISO images - I advise you to attempt to burn it with ImgBurn instead (it's free and a tiny download).
Also, please check the MD5 of the downloaded ISO if it still doesn't work.
And Lo Behold, there was LIFE!!! Thanks Computer Guru, the error was being caused by Nero. It works fine :)
Shanni
Glad to hear it worked for you. You used ImgBurn?
I was Thinking, Maybe someone can make a CD Cover for this Great Recovery Program, Something Cool and Awesome Looking.. That Would Be Great To Have too. Thanks.
Guru, Yep your chosen program was the saviour! I think you should point it out at the top in the commentary, that program will not work on Nero. Just a thought.
This saved my laptop!!! I have been looking for this forever and i finally found it! My laptop hasn't been working for a month and best buy would have charged me over $130 to do the same thing as it took me to do with this download in 15 minutes! Super Duper Gang!!
So here is something interesting to ponder... I have a Sony VAIO laptop, which has the Vista recovery partition that required me to use this download last weekend when nothing else would work.
Well... on the "Sony Updates" site for this model, they have just released "by popular demand" an XP downgrade DVD for those who want to escape Vista. I ordered it "just incase" (only had to pay for shipping). I'm not sure if it will let me do a "dual boot" (Sony tends to modify things to only work "their way") ... but I'll probably give it a try when the disk arrives knowing I have my Vista Recovery Disk for an emergency.
Anyway... back to the Nero discussion... it is curious that Nero does not work with this ISO ... when it worked fine with the UltimateBootDisk ISO (which booted fine) .... which I tried JUST before the Vista Recovery Disk. Seems like with 300,000 downloads that it would be unusual for only 2 of us to use Nero. If I get some extra time, I'll do some experimenting and report back.
-John
We created the ISO with MagicISO (CD to ISO image conversion), if that helps any...
Excelente... muchas gracias.
Thank You downloaded and tested work great here
won't boot from it. still says: WINDOWS FAILED TO START
it says you need the installation disc but i don't have it (FILE: \boot\bcd) THIS IS VISTA, BY THE WAY
helo I had preinstalled vista on my laptop
ltr on i have installed WINDOWS XP .. now its not booting vista at the startup
i hav recovery disk of vista with me
but wen boot using that..
IT shows only
1:computer chkup 2: system restore 3 : file backup prgm 4: system recovery -> it recovers computer to its original factory condition..all user created files will b lost
SO PLZ TELL ME WAT TO DO
Hi guys, Thanks for this, However, I am wondering, I have virus' in my system, if I run this, will this cure them?
Thanks
Hi Mark,
No, it won't. For any support-related issues, please start a thread in our support forums at http://neosmart.net/forums/ and you'll be sure to find the friendly help you need :)
Downloaded ISO in 5 minutes ....works fine 1st time as stated using Easy Media Creator 10
i booted it and everything went well until during the installation it said it was missing a file of some sort but i looked every where in the download to see if it was corupted but didnt find it at all
Check the MD5 of the ISO image that you downloaded and use a program like ImgBurn that can verify the contents of a burned CD against the original content on your hard disk.
Hey I was wondering, does this work with all versions of Vista, ie: Home basic, home premium, ultimate, etc??
hi i just downloaded this and burnt it to disc and then tried to run it but it just opens my burning software program. so i oppened the file from where i downloaded it and it just does the same thing. opens my burning software.. any help? i just want a recovery disc :(
Hi Dont open the file itself, it will not run on its own...... use the software to select it and " burn iso to disc" The downloaded file will have the icon of the burning software loaded on your system. it should not be opened separately.
Manish "Repair start up" will fix and allow Vista to be re seen and selected in dual boot systems
thanks. but i still don t understand. i have burnt it to a disc so what should i do next?
if you have vista and xp and vista breaks. then try using xp's HDD and use xps startup troyubleshooter
that made absolutly no sense to me at all... i have the recovery disc burnt on to a disc . what do i do know?
You need to boot from it. Depending on how your BIOS configuration is, you either press F12 before boot (at the POST screen) to boot from the CD, or edit your BIOS settings to boot from the CD first then the HD.
Does this work with all vista versions
Yep, all x86 editions of Windows Vista. We're still working on getting an x64 version up, unfortunately.
Amazing!!!
I have a DV2313CL Pavillion from HP and a bad driver update for their Conexant (horrible sound card) HD audio card caused me to loose my audio output through the speakers. Thanks to Vista's driver install module no amount of roll back, etc. would fix the issue. So I did a system restore. Well that totally fried the graphics drivers and no amount of safe mode booting (regular, networking, or command prompt) would bring up anything but a black screen with a nice mouse pointer icon. Thanks to this little tool I was able to restore my system without having to follow HP's dumb practice of formatting the drive when all else fails.
how do i change my bios settings?
Lisa,
I am assuming that you need to change it to boot from CD first? If this is so please let me know the make and model of your machine.
hey when i run the disk its saying the install.wim is missing how do i fix this
Download it again from the torrent, and burn it with ImgBurn (make sure to use the [x] verify option)
If anyone is having any problems with the CD, download it again from the torrents and burn it with ImgBurn, making sure that ImgBurn's "verify" option is checked.
Bittorrent downloads cannot get corrupted. When you download it via bittorrent, you can be 100% sure that it isn't damaged or missing any pieces.
hi, would like to check, my fren just bought a new laptop fitted w/ Vista Home Basic. But we decided to re-partition the C drive into 2 drives, and install WinXP instead. The recovery partition is still present.
Now, we realised the audio isn't working correctly in XP, and wanted to revert to Vista. However, the problem was tat we thought that as long as the recovery partition is there, we need not burn a recovery disc. Now, pressing F11 at the bios startup doesn't work.
Will the recovery disc be able to help us read the info from the recovery partition and reinstall Vista? Thanks in advance!
Itried that its still saying the same thing
whazzup-
When you install XP after Vista, XP overwrites the boot information because XP is not aware that Vista boots differently (MS recomends installing XP before Vista)... but if you have done the reverse and you want to boot back into your Vista partition you have to fix the boot info... this ISO will help you do that. Then once you're able to boot Vista, you can then configure Vista boot process to be aware of the XP install. (Google it for details).
Here's another trick I figured out... when I boot into my recover partition it just gives you a menu for recover options but not much other access. I needed a command prompt in order to repartition my drive... and the other boot tools I used did not recognize my vista-only hardware.
So, I pressed CTRL-S in the recovery menu... which gave me a windows save dialogue box. I then created a short-cut to one of the files in the directory... changed the properties of the short-cut to run CMD... and then opened the shortcut ... which gave me access to do all kinds of fun things.
Dear Sir/Madam, I have vaio laptop model no : VGN-FE855E. windows vista license version already loaded and its all backup inside laptop. some errors in my o/s. so, i formatted my hard disk. and after open vaio recovery centre for install original factory loaded software. but some problem create for its recovery time. windows vista's 1 system file corrupted, so, no longer process in my laptop. and i have not any external recovery disc. so what i am doing for resolve my problem. u know any one software for repair my system file or run vaio's recovery centre for complete installation. any web source for downloading so mail to me, pls help me.
my problem is that the disk is saying the install.wim file is missing no matter what i do and the disk wont boot into the install program how do i get the recovery disk to work
I downloaded the recovery disk through a torrent when i go to use it it keeps saying that the install.wim is missing and wont let me do anything ive burt the disk 4 time someone help please
Hi - great tool, but I'm wondering if there is even a multi language/German version be available? Thanks - Jens
girish
i also have a sony vaio so i understand your situation
unfortunately if you have formatted your main partition and there is also an unrecoverable error on the recovery partition then your only hope is to either get a replacement install disk from sony or purchase your operating system of choice
one last thing you might try is to run chkdsk on your recovery partition
there are other web tools out there that might help fix errors on the drive
but as i understand it the above iso file will only repair an installation of vista that already exists
apologies for the lack of punctuation i"m having keyboard "issues" at the moment
hi, i have figured out how to get into my settings and boot from cd but when i do it nothing happens it just goes to setting up as normal?
Lisa,
You probably need to reburn the Windows Vista Recovery ISO to a CD. An ISO is a special type of file and needs to be burned as an Image to a CD. A single ISO file when burned properly to a CD will result in a CD with multiple files and folders. Think of an ISO as a package of files all stored as one when not on a CD. You can locate the specific instructions for properly "burning and image" to a CD in the help section of your burning software. If you use Roxio for example you will find the "Burn CD from Image" option under the file menu. This will ensure that your CD has all the proper files.
Here's a guide on properly-burning ISO images with most popular programs: http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/G/Burning+ISO+Images+to+a+CD+or+DVD
Just don't use Nero because it's not working with this one for some odd reason.
ok first i would like to say thanks heaps for the people that hve been helping me todo this myself! thankyou. right so i have burnt the disc using image burn .. successful.. went into my bios settings and found where to change it to boot from cd. it says to select hit enter on boot from cd rom but i do that then go to save changes and exit but then when the computer starts up it still doesn t boot from disc... hmm so i am thinkin i must not be changing the settings somehow. but when i am in bios it doesn t seem to let me do much.... if anyone could help a litle more would be a champ. and if it would helpmy laptop is an acer aspire 3680
ok firstly. i fgured out how to change my settings. i put boot from cd rom as number 1 then saved an exited... then the computer does something a little odd. it sounds like it is reading the disc then it just comes up after a few seconds and then runs as normal . i so don t understand... what the hell am i doing wrong?
Lisa,
If your system is booting from CD-ROM correctly then on startup (when you are still in the black screen) you should see a prompt that says "Press any key to boot from CD..." The periods on this are like countdown timer. Each period it adds to this message is a second and it usually only displays this for either 5 or 10 secs. This should help clarify some stuff. If you are not seeing this message displayed then it means we are still having a problem either with the CD itself or the boot order is still not correct.
Hi there,
I downloaded your rec. disc, burned it and booted from the cd. Everything looked fine but now my OS couln't be found. (Select an operation system to repair and click next - window) My OS is just not listed but it is installed on my harddrive. I don't have a dual boot system, I got a preinstalled vers. of vista on C:.
What could be the problem? pls help
That's a known issue with the recovery media - it just means that there is something wrong with your installed Vista and the recovery system couldn't detect a valid and working installation of Windows.
You can still use the command line to recover your system :)
I am using Microsoft Virtuial PC. I inserted the ISO image into the cd slot, it came up saying that there was a error. Is there anything that I can do?
This is a great way of getting round having no cd.
Thanks for sharing
hi. well firstly i burnt the disc using image burn and clicked the x to verify. then i changed my bios settings to boot from cd rom. then when the black screen comes up after i have exited bios and before windows starts up. it gives me a boot option. but it only gives me 1 option. windows vista. no recovery disc no nothing so i click it anyway and it just runs windows as normal.. its driving me nuts
Nero worked fine for me in burning this. I do use Nero 6.6.15 to avoid the "bloatware" nature of more current Nero versions.
Some of these boot problems could easily be overcome with the F12 key.
Lisa, that boot option is from the hard drive's boot menu - not from the CD or anything.
It's still booting from the hard drive.
I can only get as far as 'Justin' above. I've burned the disk serveral times all using different methods.
used the direct file, used the torrent, used alcohol 120 (which i already had), and tried ImgBurn with the Verify option selected. Each time it told me that the file "Install.wim" was missing after i keyed in my Vista key. It's just so frustrating because I know im so close! hahaha!
I am having problems with the .NET framework when I used the recovery that was on my PC from Gateway.
I want to correct this.
I burnt this recovery disc and it came up. I pressed the repair the computer and it recpgnized my o/s but did nothing. Do I need to use the install feature to overwrite the bad .NET overlay from my last recovery.
You cannot "repair install" Vista the way you could with XP to fix your Windows install after breaking it. If .NET really is broken (and installing 3.5 doesn't help) then you'll have to format.. sorry.
I really need help with this whole "install.wim" problem. All the other tools don't seem to work. I can't even do a system restore because I get another error. (something about I/O).. There is absolutely nothing I can do!! I've only had this laptop for about a month and I need it for business!
Is there a way for u to swap out that drive u r trying to boot it with? The I/O error and the inability to find the install.wim lead me to think it may be the CD/DVD drive causing issues. Ive also seen issues like this caused by things as simple as the speed in which the disk is burned as well.
For everyone having install.wim problems, is unable to boot from the CD, or otherwise cannot get the recovery center to load (x64 users excluded): we're working on a method that lets you boot into the recovery CD without needing a CD drive at all (and, hence, not needing to boot from one either).
It's great stuff, thank you whole team and computer guru. Well done.
hi all i have burn the vista ISO image using Magic ISO, and i can boot from the cd but when it start installing vista an error massege appear said there is a missing file, can any one help me please bye
What happens if my hard drive crashes and I need to install a new hard drive? How will I install Vista on the new hard drive if I dont have the full Vista DVD?
You don't.
Well it should be illegal to sell a new PC without the original Windows DVD. Because when a persons hard drive crashes, and they need to buy a new hard drive, they would have to also buy a new Windows, which is not proper. It should be illegal to sell a new PC without Windows on a DVD.
Any luck on a disk for 64bit vista yet? I have a preloaded copy of vista w/my HP DV9000 and have had this exact error: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927391, but of course my "system recovery" dvd does not come with the bootrec.exe that I need. Anyway I can get the bootrec.exe file for vista somewhere??? Thanks!
i still didn't moved to vista becaude is resources but thanks for the link
thanks for the files
I have booted up using your CD, and it opens a display tha tgives me the option to Install Windows or Repair Windows. I chose to repair and it took me to the same System Recovery screen I had been to when booting my system on its own without the CD. It's asking me to load my drivers and I'm not sure where I need to point it to. Should I have chosen to install instead of repair? Would you happen to know what driver(s) I need to point it to in order for it to boot up properly? Thanks!!
i need vista recovery dvd for x64. thanks,
This literally saved me, well done, thank you, really great stuff
Hi, my Acer laptop needs a recovery disk to start working again and Acer have tried charging me £50 for this and also said it will take up to 40 days to actually arrive! Can I download this and it will work? I don't want to make the laptop worse so it cannot be fixed...if you can help email me on linekar_9@hotmail.com please. Thanks Corinne
Actually, I don't know about the other guys, but my computer that I bought from Dell does come with an OEM copy of Vista. It's not a "recovery DVD", it's a full copy of Vista, that is just branded for Dell. I'm surprised that no one clued into this slight error in the article. Now, the recovery CD seems like a great idea, and I've seen these over the years in my computer career, but Vista comes with a lot of interesting tools in the WinRE. As well, there are lots of 3rd party tools that one could mount onto a CD, DVD, USBKey, etc in order to repair a computer.
As well, repairing a Windows installation is usually a band-aid solution at best. It usually is good enough to gain enough stability to remove your data and back up everything before doing a full reinstall of the operating system. I haven't seen is actually fix anything in the long term.
Good luck, though.
Corinne, thanks for the warning
My VAIO laptop is really busted - it won't start cause of corrupted windows, I really hope this works.
I downloaded the ISO file from the above link and used it today. My Vista windows got corrupted in the registry while editing HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.pip section for security fixes. After that some error came to run "msiexec.exe/unregister" command. I did but, but a big problem arose with .exe, .ink and .zip types of files. So I repaired it by using this heavenly recovery disc. Although it took a long time to understand using it. I was almost about to reinstall the windows newly. I burned into CD by transferring to my friends PC with USB disk. Thanks to this saviour disc which saved from reinstalling windows.
Hi, I was just wondering if there was a solution yet for those of having the "install.wim" problem. I downloaded the recovery disk both ways and copied them to cd's using ImgBurn with no luck. Could you please let us know when there is a new file to use? Thanks for all of this, it is a life saver!
i have windows vista home premium and media player 11 is a bit messed up. I have yet to find a solution. Vista will not allow me to reinstall wp11, says my version is newer. there is no place in the OS to uninstall it either. will this recovery disk fix wp11?
I bought Acronis TrueImage Home 11. I love it. If anything happens to Vista, in 15 minutes I am up and running again. Acronis TrueImage is fantastic.
"but it's damn-decent of Microsoft to make this available to Windows' users who might not be capable of creating such a thing on their own."
hahhaha decent is a word M$ don't understand
I bought a lenovo $1000 laptop, came with no restore cds, didnt matter i installed my Ububtu CD and in 15 minutes I had OS, office suite, wireless and internet working easy.
"but it's damn-decent of Microsoft to make this available to Windows' users who might not be capable of creating such a thing on their own."
Hahahahhahahahahhahahha
Microshaft ONLY serve the stock market, ps i bet the above download links are illegal
Americans are utter wankers, us brits pi$$ on them
Hello, I downloaded the disk twice and there is no sub-menu for "Repair", and the only way to get to a command prompt is to hit Shift + Rt Click, then the only thing you can run is Notepad. I have a HP-preloaded with Vista Home Premium. I had a working dual boot for a couple of months, then I had problems with Xubuntu 7.10 AMD64 X-Server, so I lost my cool & just reinstalled Gutsy. That's when I lost the main Vista loader. I still has the Recovery partition, but I tried to fix the MBR with an XP system disk, now it says it's not even formatted on one program, but all the sectors are still there. I used EasyBCD before the first install of Linux & loved it. I've tried for days to get some kind of boot loader to work in Wine & CX-Over, with NO success. I would just install XP on free space, but I don't want to mess things up even more. Anyone know where to find the full-menu version Repair Disk that was mentioned above? I can't wait to be rid of MS once and for all, but for now I need to get back into my files again. They're only about 75% backed up.:-(
Thanks.
Hi everyone i have windows vista ultimate and when it was installing i was tidYing up my computer leads and the power cord for the hard drive came out! When i went to turn my pc on it said windows installation is not complete please reinstall. And then it restarts and the says the same in some sort of loop - but i dont have a disk - will this recovery iso repair my vista? Any other help needed ~thanks~
the download keeps freezing.
I really liked your program, and wrote about it on my site. I will be seeding this torrent for a while to help out.
Keep up the great work.
If the download freezes, use the torrent. It's very well-seeded (thanks guys!) and should finish in no time.
Thanks, my problem i deleted xp (while i had vista isntalled) ( xp was broke somehow) and the problem to start vista was removed to, so there was the 2 hours of stress. but finaly found something usefull :)
When i boot from this disk (and the 'repair' option on f8 boot menu) it show the windows loading screen then gives me a black screen with a white cursor. anybody know whats up with that?
Mike,
When I fixed my Vista MBR (through TestDisk in Ubuntu) I had to use the Vista Recovery Boot Disk to get back into the Vista Recovery. My F8 Option stopped working.
Hope this helps!
gday, i downloaded this file and burnt it as a image, the program work no problem however after inserting my product number the error E://Sources/Install.win file does not exist error code 0x80070002 comes up
if anyone can assist please do. Ben
Hi all. Last week I bought an HP Pavilion dv6625ep laptop which, as you know, comes with that recovery partion thing (heaven forbids HP from including a couple of DVD's containing the Vista I PAID for). I was doing some tweaking and remembered it was a good idea to backup that recovery app to a couple os DVD's. Since I had removed Roxyo from the computer, the "Create Recovery Disc" application simply wouldn't run. Instead, if posted the erros "This system does not have a unit capable of recording CD or DVD", or something like that. This despiste I had installed Nero and a couple of other burning software.
So... rolled back to Roxyo, tried to create the recovery discs again, and it worked. Crazy, huh? So I guess I'll be sticking to Roxyo, and a lot of other apps that Vista is apparently forcing me to use. God, I hate Vista...
Just a correction to my text: where it says "Instead, if posted the erros (...)" it should read "Instead, IT posted the ERROR". Kind of sleepy and mixing portuguese with english, sorry about that :)
Ben, did you switch disks to your own Vista Recovery disk after booting with this one? You can only recover the boot files from this disk. If you want recover the whole system, you have you switch to your own Vista Recovery disk -- that has your product number verification. If you don't have the DVD, you can start from F8 or F11 when booting up & it should open your Recovery partition and give you a menu. That will restore your system if you can get to it.
thanks scott, i have wiped off my recovery of my hard drive there is nothing on my hard drive. and yes i only used the software which i downloaded off here. My system was inbuilt with vista home premium. any ideas?
thanks scott, i have wiped off my recovery of my hard drive there is nothing on my hard drive. and yes i only used the software which i downloaded off here. My system was inbuilt with vista home premium.
Everything works fine for me but when i reach up to the point of almost getting it done it stops in the middle of everything and tells me there's a problem with my disk. Is there something I'm doing wrong?
Same for me, it asks for my product key and everything and starts loading up, but at the final stage it says something like a component error and cannot complete the process...Really need to get my laptop working again, so any suggestions would be great! Email me on linekar_9@hotmail.com. Thanks :)
Well guys, the ONLY way you can get your system disks is from the manufacturer of your laptop/desktop (HP, Dell, etc.) and give them proof of ownership. Then they'll either send you the DVDs (for a nominal fee) or let you download the ISOs. If you bought your laptop second-hand, you'll need to go the the original owner and have him/her get you the disks, or prove somehow that it's yours. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
Yeah I know that but Acer are trying to rip me off for £50 for a disc which I'm not willing to pay at the moment. Any other advice would be great.
Hey Guys can u pls help me on this one, if i use this recovery disc and if this run on my PC, does it will erase o return my system to fresh one or my it will only repair some problems at let my installed programs intact.pls help me im new in this process ive never try any recovery disc and im afriad to lose some programs and files on my system, im totally rookie on this matter, can someone email me. eckszever@hotmail.com Thanks Guys
Corinne, it is illegal for them to try to make you pay extra money. Kick up a stink and demand it for free, or else you will report them to dept. of fair trading etc. Be courageous and demand the disc for free from Acer.
Corinne, it is illegal for Acer to do that to you. They must by law give you what you paid for. Kick up a stink and demand they give you the CD, or you will report them to the dept. of fair trading etc. Be courageous and demand what you are entitled to. If you demand it and threaten them with legal action, they will give you the CD for free.
Corrine,
You can always go with Linux, Xubuntu is just like Windows, even better because it's FREE, all of it, and it's almost 100% Microsoft compatible. You can download the ISO for free at http://www.xubuntu.org/get and if you want the disk sent to you, I think it's about $5.00 US.
This website is the closest thing I have found to help, but I need somebody to tell it to me straight.
I run Vista Home Premium on an Acer laptop from compusa.com. I also use Windows Live OneCare. No recovery disc or Vista disc came with my purchase. Everything was already installed.
After moving to New Orleans and using a free public wifi hotspot, OneCare did an automatic update and asked me to reboot. After reboot, OneCare could not start; I had strange programs listed in my "blocked programs list" (inihid); my tray icons would not update (like when you plug in a USB device), the start menu would freeze if I tried certain run commands, like msconfig; my volume control and function buttons on the laptop would no longer work; my network center is completely inaccessable; the dollar sign/euro sign button on my keyboard has no response; I can only run a select few programs; and other strange anomolies.
I've spent a few hours with the OneCare tech people, each of their attempts to download a program from the internet and open it leads to simply no action on screen. They just can't seem to help.
Here's the point. I would love to move my important documents and music files, 20gb or so, onto a external hard drive, and do whatever it takes to make my laptop functional again. Is it possible to start over? Wipe out everything and go back to a time before I had this debilitating problem? (The only program I can use now is an ancient version of MS Word).
If I can follow the instructions on how to burn this .iso image onto a blank dvd on a friends computer, am I on the right track? Is there something I don't know about in a partition somewhere on my computer?
I have no attatchments to my configuration or anything else except what I can shuttle over to a external hard drive. Is anyone listening that can tell me if I have the freeedom to format and start over?
Thank you. Your experience is valuable to me.
Sincerely,
Danny
after downloading it on a cd and than inserting in to my laptop how do i go about that how do i recover the windows cos im trying to do this cos i forgot my password anyone help me with the steps please
Danny, I'm afraid this CD will not help you reinstall Windows. You're going to need to contact Acer and get a recovery DVD (assuming you don't have a recovery partition).
Thanks for the advice. Tony, apparently I would of been prompted when I first got my laptop to make a recovery disc so it's my fault really as I didn't do that. I'm no 'technical wizz' so had no idea the importance of this. So I'm not entirely sure if I can actually threaten them with legal action at this stage... I hae just ordered a CD from Ebay that should hopefully recover my hard drive and system, it only cost £2.99 so I thought I would give it a try. Corinne
Hi! After a resent power cut my computer will not restart the loading vista screen pops up then blackscreen for about 5 secs ,as if its goin to load then BAM! blueescreen to fast to read the computer wil not start now and do the samething ova and ova will this recovery disc help this problem.
running windows vista
thank u
Thanks for providing this utility!
I'm having a small problem with it, which I thought you might be able to help with. I downloaded and burned the image, booted to it, everything seemed to be working. It took a very long time to boot, and now I've been staring at a black screen with a white mouse pointer for a long time.
The pointer works, moves around and such, but there's nothing else going on, and it doesn't seem like the computer is doing any work (the disk light is off, the CDROM doesn't seem to be reading...).
I did use Nero to burn the image, but since it booted normally (up until the end) I didn't think that was the issue. Any thoughts? This is a brand new Sony Vaio VGN-FZ140E, with what seems to be a bad hard drive. Any help you can give would be appreciated.
I have HP Compaq nx7300 and Vista Business came pre-installed. A set of one recovery disc is allowed for each PC, when I purchased this notebook PC, someone has already made a set of recovery disk. When I tried to do it, it said only 1 set allowed per PC. What shall I do now? Please tell me the way of making one new set.
Secondly, my system has one recovery partition which is around 8 GB big and total hard disk size of 120 GB. I want to create one more partition where i will keep my documents. Incase, any dangerous virus gets in, i can easily format the C drive where Windows is installed and recover it later. Tell me the procedure of creating one more partition without destroying the recovery partition.
When I purchased my notebook, the shop person installed HP windows XP Sp2 saying that Vista might cause compatibilty problems with my old peripherals. I have realized that Vista is superior than XP and all of my devices will work properly with Vista. The recovery set discs option is already used and recovery partition too has Windows Xp in it. I have Windows Vista sticker near my keyboard and Vista Business seal (including product key) at the bottom.
Is it possible to request HP to send to me the HP Windows Vista CD (OS which came preinstalled) and drivers CD as I didnt receive a single CD from HP
Hi everyone,
I tried the burn twice with Nero and cd was not bootable. Then I used ImgBurn and it is bootable. Now I have another problem if you can help.
After selecting Repair, I have a window asking me to select an OS to repair but there are none. There is a message it says "If you do not see your operating system listed, click Load Drivers to load the drivers for your hard disks.
I pressed load drivers and it is asking me to "Insert the installation media for the device and click OK to select the driver."
I do not know what to do?
Please help,
Calvin
Hey Guru, for some reason I keep getting an error when I go to burn the CD-RW it keeps saying this...
"Device error:(16580608) Could not write to Disc (LBA: -150 Length: 26). Unkown Error. -0x072700" -This was for CDBurnerXP, there was a similar problem with ImgBurn also. What do you think is wrong? When I burnt the image to a regular CD-R disc it worked for Nero but when I ran it on my notebook it didnt do anything, just sat there with the lil blinking -... Then it said
Calvin, when you try to boot to the HDD, does it say "NTLDR Mssing"? If so, the way I fixed my problem was to download the Linux Ubuntu Live ISO for free, then boot from that disk. Open a terminal window (in a full screen) and type "sudo testdisk" and choose ANALYZE. It will show you what's wrong with your disk/partition. Then go to ADVANCED and REBUILD NT BOOT SECTOR, then LIST, then WRITE. This is a radical solution, but it will rebuild your NT Boot Sector, which sounds like what happened. After you rebuild the NT Boot Sector, you can boot with the Vista Recovery Disk and your Vista installation will show up and it will repair any damage.
Hope this helps!
Can I install Windows Vista from this Cd to a notebook which has Windows XP currently installed and was shipped with Windows Vista product key....
For more details ready my post above.......
Hi Scott,
Thanks for the reply. Even though it did not find any OS I still clicked next and did some repair. After restart I got this message "BOOTMGR is missing". I booted from the cd again and did another repair. This time in the middle of repair, I got a window saying the recovery can not fix all the problems and asked me whether I want to report it to Microsoft like all the other error reporting they have.
I tried to do a recovery from the built in tool which comes with Vista by pressing F10 which is supposed to take me to the Utility. But something amazing happened and windows started. I logged in and now all is fine. No idea!!! But hey I am happy.
Calvin
DELL Doesn't provide recovery discs with machines. They provide Vista re-installation disc with which you can either repair or even format your hard drive and reinstall clean windows. The disc doesn't include any promotion software or device drivers. The drivers need to be installed separately from a driver CD (provided separately)
Anyone who has the the Windows Vista Anytime Upgrade disc also has a bootable Vista recovery environment, the same one that is one the Vista installation disc.
Some manufacturers may include this Anytime Upgrade disc with the PC, even if they don't included any other disc containing the recovery environment. For example, HP is notorious for not including a true reinstallation disc (one that is capable of doing a clean install), but apparently does ship Microsoft's Anytime Upgrade disc with at least some systems. See: http://h20219.www2.hp.com/services/cache/456746-0-0-225-121.html
In any event, one can buy (for $7) the Anytime Upgrade disc from Microsoft, among other vendors: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/windowsanytimeupgrade/faq.mspx https://na.windowsanytimeupgradestore.com/WAU_DIRECT/Purchase.aspx
What if I already formatted the drive and deleted all partitions? I did this to install another OS, but now I want to go back... Any ideas? I have the OEM serial number that is attached to the PC tower. It is an emachines computer.
Computer Guru:
where did you find the program , crc , that will scan this iso file to provide the hash number??
thank you. james
Before i was bored with Windows vista, whereby i have to reinstall Vista whenever i encounter systematic error,till when i came across neosmart vista recovery disc through techrepublic. I am highly impressed, and wish to get more from you.
I'm really glad I found this.
Quick question, though: will this upgrade my XP (I had Vista but removed it, now I need to restore Vista to use my warranty) or do I have to format and clean install?
Either works for me, I just would like some pointers to getting Vista up and running before I send my laptop back to HP.
Hi, I have been dealing with a problem on my vista(home)for some 3 weeks now,it just suddenly started having problems with opening windows explorer files,with a cycle of windows explorer is not responding then windows explorer is restarting and in few sec back to the not responding so i can do anything,i cant even reach the recovery disc partition without having the same problem opening that part itself,in a bid to attempt to fix this i tried re-installing the operating sysytem but this caused my recovery partion to be full and now i cant install needed programmes,so i'm wondering if this recovery download can work for this
Thanks for this altruistic download it has just saved me parting with a lot of cash for a technician.
After suffering five or six mini power outages in succession my Vista Ultimate PC would not boot up I just got an error Oxc000000f windows\system32\winload.exe missing or corrupted.
The rescue disc fixed everything in minutes.
Thanks again, James.
I downloaded the torrent version. It showed a size of 20KB instead of 120MB. Any ideas? Thanks.
You should all switch to UBUNTU and life will be much better for all.
Hello,
I updatede my vista with windows update causing it to go in an endless loop of rebooting
"Vista constantly rebooting after this week's updates - "Configuring updates stage 3 of 3""
Took the visa recovery and was able to restore my vista else it would have costed me 300$ for a reinstall.
Thanks Computer Guru.
Thanks Rupesh.
Hi I bought a Vista Home Premium upgrade disk to upgrade from XP. If I needed to recover my system would I be able to use this DVD download or would I have to reinstall XP from the original recovery disk supplied with my laptop and then use the Home Premium upgrade disk again to reinstate Vista?
Thanks
Larry, you'll need to open the .torrent file with a bittorrent client like µTorrent: http://utorrent.com/
Hey Guys.
I downloaded the ISO and wrote it to a CD, configured my BIOS or whatever so that it would boot from CD/DVD, got a prompt that told me to "Press any key to boot from CD", had a bar across the bottom that said "Windows is loading files" and then BAM....black screen with a cursor and no more.
Anybody know what the problem might be?
And if its of any help its an Acer Aspire Laptop.
Can someone help me please i did all of this. I burned this to a cd and put cd rom first in the boot order and I don't get any message like "Press any key to boot from CD...". I dont think it's the cd because i tried the one that came with the machine and this. Please help.
Can someone help me please i did all of this. I burned this to a cd and put cd rom first in the boot order and I don't get any message like "Press any key to boot from CD...". I dont think it's the cd because i tried the one that came with the machine and this. Please help. I have an acer aspire laptop too.
I was SOO hoping that the boor disk would solve my pro