Windows Vista Recovery Disk and Repair Disc Download

2,732 thoughts on “Windows Vista Recovery Disk and Repair Disc Download”

1. I have an HP PC and just bought a new mobo, processor, ram and video card for it. I have the HP recovery disks but if I installed my new hardware with that I would get all the bloatware that originally came with my HP. Can I use this to clean install Vista? Im still not sure what this disk is supposed to do. I just want a way to clean install the OS, I have the product key and everything.
   Any help would be appreciated

2. FWIW – My uncle had a startup prob with Vista Home Premium SP1 on an Asus notebook. (caused by Protexis licensing).
   I used your excellent info to fix it up. All worked just great.
   Even did a bit torrent download for the first time.
   Many thanks.

   (Glen in Tassy – if that is Tasmania, I’m in Vic and happy to snail-mail you a copy of my rcvy disc in case u want to try it…)

   cheers
   radiocam

3. I have an HP computer with Vista on it. I just bought a new mobo, ram, processor, video card and power supply. The hp came with the recovery disk. Im still not sure what this Vista recovery disk does. Can I use this to clean install Vista? I have the product key for Vista. The thing is, I do not want to use the recovery disk that came with HP because I do not want to install all that bloatware and usless drivers for things I don’t have anymore. Can this disk help me?

4. Hi,
   I have downloaded and burned both ISO’s
   Tried both and each time Vista PC boots in to Recovery Mode no problem, but when trying to do a Startup Repair it fails with “OS version is incompatible with Startup Repair”
   Vista Build is 60001 SP1
   Any ideas?

5. Jim, have you tried tapping F8 at startup, and going into Safe mode?
   Then: start>Programs>Accessories>System tools>System restore to a earlier
   date before SP1. That’s all I can think of to help you get past this error, and then once you’ve done with the repair just re-install SP1. Also Jim, who’s the OEM for the system? Check with their Technical Support department to see if this is a known issue and they have a repair for the problem. Also another good idea is to check your OEM’s web site’s message board, perhaps they have had other users have this problem and they’ve been able to fix it.

6. Hey Jim,
   Does your error look like this by perchance?

   == Startup Repair ==
   Number of Repair Attempts: 1

   = Tests =
   Check for Updates
   Error Code = 0x0

   = System Disk Test =
   Error Code = 0x0

   = Disk Failure Diagnostic =
   Error Code = 0x0

   = Disk Metadata Test =
   Error Code = 0x0

   = Target OS Test =
   Error Code = 0x0

   = Volume Content Check =
   Error Code = 0x0

   == Root Cause ==
   The operating system version is incompatible with Startup Repair.

   If this is what it looks like, here is how to fix the problem, just go and follow instructions here
   http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/d807a440-90ce-4457-a23a-359ff2c9b9bf1033.mspx

   Good luck Jim.

7. Link to Vista x86 download seems to be broken. Is it me or the link?

   Howard Wexler

8. Hi Texas_Wolf

   The error message you listed is exactly what I see.
   I followed the link you kindly provided however it only describes the Windows RE process, it does have instructions on how to resolve the issue.
   In the link provided it does state that the error is caused by “The version of Windows does not match that of Startup Repair. For example, trying to repair Windows XP using Startup Repair will trigger this root cause.”
   I would understand this is my OS was something other than Vista but as stated in earlier post it is Vista build 60001 SP1.
   Does the fact that Service Pack 1 is installed likely to be the problem?Appreciate your input on this.

   Regards

   Jim

9. Jim, do as it had instructed you too. To resolve the problem, you need to remove SP1 (Service Pack 1) RE will then recognize your version of MS Windows Vista. After all the repairs have been completed, just go ahead and re-install SP1. This is a known Microsoft Issue currently being looked into by Microsoft. You can visit Microsoft’s site for other options that might help you as well. http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=ph;en-us;11732#tab0. I hope this will help you resolve your problem, and good luck Jim.

10. Hi

    Teaxa_Wolf, I didnt notice the first message you posted after my intital question. But since reading it, I have been to HP site nad read some documents. I Tried bootrec /fixboot and fixmbr but still the same Winload missing error on startup. 🙁 I also tried the bootrec /ScanOS and RebuilBCD options both returned the message “Total identified windows installations found = 0”
    It’s not my computer but I guess it is well and truly bust.
    The disapointing thing is that the user has no Vista disk so I will have to format it and put XP on instead.
    By law consumers should be given the OS disk incase they ever have to or even want to re-install the OS they have paid for:(((
    Thanks for your input on this matter.

    Jim

11. hey, thank you for making this =]
    but its not working on the laptop (toshiba sattelite u300) im using =[
    i need help, well its not my laptop but its my moms and ill probably be in alot of trouble >.<
    the CD sometimes works but rarely, i changed the bios settings, when i get on to use the recovery place says that the disk isn’t there or something, and then this morning i went to the repair computer settings option and went to toshiba recovery tool, it was working fine for a bit and then after 6 minutes it had an error. Now when i try to boot the CD seems like its not reading it or something, and it says the winload.exe is missing or corrupt when i turn on the computer with or without the CD. I’ve been trying to fix this laptop for 4 days already. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME? (i dont know much about computers To be honest)

    thank you in advance =D

12. Dear all,problem started for my HP dv2401when the window with WINDOWS EXPLORER STOP WORKING and after several fail attempt to stop this window I tried with my recovery CD which only results an error 0x4001001300001002 followed by BOOTMGR MISSING.
    Haven’t got any poitive response from HP.
    I tried this WINDOWS VISTA RECOVERY X86.After successfully downloading and write the same at CD I attempt to run that one but not able to do so.
    Can any body suggest me HOW TO RUN THIS CD AT THIS SITUATION OF MY LAPTOP.Please………….

13. I purchased a laptop today, an HP Pavilion DV6670. I didn’t get a Vista installation disc with it, and while trying to install the Vista that came with it, I got the BSoD and ever since I can’t try reinstall Vista. Will this recovery disc help me achieve what I need?

14. Also, do you think you could maybe give a mirror to the downloads? Torrents are sometimes awfully slow, and this is one of the slow cases.

15. Hi Texas_Wolf,

    Again thanks for your help. However I am unable to remoce SP1,
    I have tried various methods, i.e. start /w pkgmgr /up: VistaSP1-KB936330~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~~6.0.0. cmd says cant find pkgmgr have run command from c: drive from win dir and from sys32 dir, also ran dir pkgmgr /s from c: and it wasn’t to be found.
    Also tried uninstalling using Microsoft way –
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948537/en-us
    but again system could not find where Windows6.0-KB936330-X86.exe was (maybe deleted after sp1 was installed??)
    Anyway I have had it with Vista and am gonna format and fire on XP. 🙁

    Once more many thanks for your help.

    Jim

16. Jan Gacura, Your not hosed YET! Here’s what you do, go ahead and boot up that PC, and right after you turn it on, go ahead and press and hold down the F8 key, release it when you see the boot menu. OK, once you have to boot menu, go ahead and choose the Dos Prompt. Once you see C:/ type in CD d: once at that D:/ prompt type dir you should see a directory named RECOVERY cd into that Directory and start the install process.

    Good Luck Jan

17. Which download is for 32 bit. I downloaded the x86 option however when I try to use the ImgBurn program to burn to a cd however there are no supported files in that download. I am trying to download again in case of corruption.

18. thank you soooooooomuch Texas !!!!!
    it loads now but I’m having problems for the install part >.<
    It says “windows cannot open the required file D:\sources\install.wim. The file does not exist”

19. Texas_Wolf. Re: Recovery. Which file shoul one look for, and what is the command for starting the recovery?

20. Hi everybody,
    Very important. Please reply only if you know.
    After installing an Hp software update, my computer fails to boot.
    A black screen appears saying ” Disk boot failure. Insert system disk and press enter”
    I tried everything, but nothing happens. I also created the recovery CD, but the error message apprears, that I am missing a file, error 0800700002…
    Please whoever knows, how can I fix this problem?

21. Jan Gacura open up a elevated command prompt with administrator privileges. Confirm any security warning that pops up.
    Execute the install.cmd from the extracted softmod-l.iso folder. You must execute install.cmd from within the folder where it?s located itself, so CD into the folder first. Installer will attend to copy and install vstaldr, vstaldr.img and menu.lst to all drives with Windows Vista installation, and modify the MBR (Master Boot Record) to load the BIOS crack driver as bootstrapping process to load simulated SLP 2.0 supported BIOS with SLIC table data. (If installation on certain drives fail, as long as it?s not the Windows Vista boot volume drive, the failure can be safely ignored.
    Restart the computer.
    Optional: If your computer fails to boot up or start, use Windows Vista installation DVD to boot up the computer, and choose Recovery to repair the computer.
    Download and install the appropriate OEM certificate (ASUS in this case), if your Windows Vista DVD media is not OEM edition.
    Change product key to Windows Vista OEM key if necessary.
    To uninstall vstaldr driver, simply click on uninstall.cmd from the extracted archive.

    Good Luck Jan

22. Gunnar46, Just follow the same instructions that I had given Jan Gacura and you should be fine.

    PEOPLE LET ME REMIND YOU, THE COMPUTER GURU ASK THAT WE TAKE SUPPORT TO THE MESSAGE BOARDS HERE. I know he’s being very kind by letting me assist you, but I know there is a limit to his kindness, and I would rather not lose my account on the board here by NOT following the instructions he had given us all. SO PLEASE THAT ANY FURTHER TECHNICAL SUPPORT HELP YOU MAY NEED TO THE MESSAGE BOARDS HERE>

23. help anyone? im trying to fix my mothers laptop (hp) originally windows vista,she had viruses so she decided to try to load windows xp,well now she gets the this is not a genuine windows os? also she didnt recieve a recovery disk with her laptop for vista,and somehow she lost her windows xp disks,here’s my question, does she/i have to buy a new disk/disks or is there a way to reboot vista without it? i also have a laptop with vista but didnt recieve a recovery disk either… im not sure if this is the right forum so, my appologies if its not, any help would be greatly appreciated….. thanks

24. Grant, No she doesn’t. She needs to contact HP thru this link;
    http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html?pageDisplay=support
    She WILL need the information on that sticker on the bottom of her Laptop
    to get a set of recovery discs. Depending on her computer initial purchase
    they may or may not charge her postage for those discs. Also so she knows, it will put her computer back in FACTORY DELIVERY CONDITION!

25. grant, forget that other URL, go here directly and order a set of recovery discs, or put in a support request with HP.

    http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=bph07143&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3629378&os=2093&lang=en

    That should handle it for you.

26. Hi i want to reboot my laptop from scratch but it doesnt let me it says somethink about a files missing when i try with the disc i burnd.

27. Hi,
    I have formatted my recovery partition on my compaq notebook without creating recovery disk.
    1- can i use this recovery disk to create Windows Vista installation disk from my notebook;
    2- can i re-create my recovery partition using this tool or using WAIK ?
    3- i have tried to get back the data of my recovery partition using disk recovery tools (unformat kinda thing) but its not 100% correctly recovered. can i use this tool to repair that.

28. S.O.S S.O.S Please help me on this…..
    I created a recovery CD for Vista 32bit, but when I try to install it, this message comes out

    “””Windows cannot open the required file D:\Sources\Install.wim. The file does not exist. Make sure all files required for installation are avalable, and restart the installation. Error code: 0x80070002″”””

    Please help, how can I fix this?????

    I tried everything else…. my hdd is recongized, all the cables are connected with the hard drive, the PC is only 1 year old, I have already reseted my PC to factory settings, etc….

29. James just go here and follow the instructions to repair your computer.
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310794 James this problem occurred because A problem is preventing Windows from accurately checking the license for that computer. This is a KNOWN Windows XP issue, and easily resolved. Myself and the Computer Guru are going to have to start charging you guys for this personal support we are giving you.(g) Please James next time you have a problem with your PC, go to the forums/message boards that the Computer Guru has taken the time to setup and we can trouble shoot your problem(s) there. And you all might of noticed but I think we exasperated the Computer Guru and he’s given up on this thread.

30. Thank you very much for your reply. But my operating system is not Windows Xp, but Windows Vista 32 Bit. The instructions, don’t seem to work with Windows Vista. Do you know anything that can help???

31. Thank you very much for your reply. But my operating system is not Windows Xp, but Windows Vista 32 Bit. The instructions, don’t seem to work with Windows Vista. Do you know anything that can help??? please

32. James, did you give the right error code? The one you gave is for WindowsXP.
    Make sure to copy it down correctly, and completely.

33. Yes, I am 100% sure I gave the code correct. I tried anyway, and the only one I found was for the ” HKeyusers/default/software/microsoft/cryptography/providers ” which I deleted it.

    But I don’t think it did anything. I am still having the same problem.
    I am able to turn on my Vista Pc, the first programs start, but after a few minutes, everything freezes, and I can’t do anything, but only to turn the system off(by pressing for 3 seconds the off button).

    For a year, my PC was working perfect. I have a lot of software installed, a lot of video players, I had customize it, and it was working superb!!!.

    One day, I got the automatic update notice(as I was usually getting every 2 months). After I installed the new found update, that’s when it all started. I was getting a black screen, with a notice ” System boot failure, enter system disk and press enter”
    I tried system restore, I tried system recovery to its original factory settings, I tried everything else, I also created recovery CD from this website, NOTHING.

    Although the recovery CD’s I created look they might do the job, I get the message that “Install.wim file cannot be opened” the one I mentioned before…

    I don’t know what else to do!????

34. thank you for you’re effort

35. thank you ^^

36. thank you. i looking for this file .
    thank you ^^

37. I had the same problem as john on my first burn of the disk. I could read the files but it didn’t appear to be a boot disk. After reading the feedback, I burned a second copy (same media, same burning software – cheeta) and had no problems.

38. James please don’t get offended, but what you detailed is EXACTLY what I have ran into with computers that had illegal content on them i.e. Illegal Music, Movies, and Software downloads on them. At this point I’m going to need to direct you to your computer brand manufacturer.

    Best of luck James.

39. oke i did evrything i burned it to a cd but i ged the blue screen of death STILL!

    please send me back a mail

40. Cheers dude!

    Saved me a world of pain. Fixed my corrupt partition table in the blink of an eye. Now back to Hackintosh exploits… Tx

41. Hi,
    I was prompt to install Windows Update Service Pack 1 for vista, during installation, my PC just crashed with blue screen that says: “a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. A driver has overrun a stack-based buffer. This overrun could potentially allow a malicious user to gain control of this machine.” then in the bottom of the screen, it says ” collecting data for crash dump, initializing disk for crash dumpm beginning dump of physical memory, dumping physical memory to disk, physical memory dump complete.”

    I tried to boot it on a safe mode with command prompt and typed rstrui.exe, but its giving me the only restore point as the serivce pack 1, I can’t even do it manually to choose other restore points. Would really appreciate if someone can help me…

    Thanks!

42. I’ve been reading this forum since my laptop crashed last week. Hoping that the last chance I have is creating a recovery disk. Here’s a problem with my COMPAQ PRESARIO:

    OS is Vista Premium, 32-bit. The desktop is not loading already, nothing you can access. All you can press is the F8 Options, BUT even the options (e.g. REPAIR COMPUTER, SAFE MODE etc.) are not loading. Pressing F11 to perform full system recovery, is not loading anything, just the BLUE SCREEN and a CURSOR.

    I found this post and thought that it might solve my problem, but when I burn the recovery disk I downloaded with this filename: Vista_Recovery_Disc.iso (120Mb)

    I booted my laptop in my CD ROM with the recovery disk. A splash screen is displaying, letting you choose the LANGUAGE. By clicking the NEXT BUTTON, INSTALL (with an arrow) appears and below is REPAIR MY COMPUTER. I did BOTH, because I tried doing the REPAIR MY COMPUTER first and left it from 12AM til 9AM, It never was finished. I checked the LIGHT if it’s still reading, it does not read already. So, I restarted and do the INSTALL but still it’s just an HOUR GLASS that keeps on hanging and not reading the disk….

    PLEASE, hope you can help me with this. I’m sooo devastated and all I want is to do Full System Recovery.

    Any advice?

43. Worked like a charm. Kept me from having to reformat.
    Thanks very much!!!

44. since its a torrent do we put the torrent onto a cd or should we put it after we do it after lime wire finishes downloading it?

45. People for the last time: I have been advised to ONLY answer your tech support questions thru the users help message board located at http://neosmart.net/forums/
    SO PLEASE PUT YOUR COMPUTER SERVICE REQUEST THERE, AND THERE ALONE! Myself and others will NOT answer anymore tech questions in this thread anylonger.

46. Hi tech gurus,
    I have sony vaio vgnCR220E laptop. I tried formatting it to install XP. But as some functionality was not working i again switched back to Vista from my friends Vista disk. Some of my drivers are not working now. I do have my laptop recovery disk but they are not working correctly.

    I have a recovery partition but not able to recover using that drive. ITs giving me error “Cant recover C:”.
    Can anyone tell me how could i get my laptop to the original factory settings that i have bought. OR
    How to write a recovery disk again from the recovery drive? OR
    How to get the recovery disk for my laptop?

    Any help will be appriciated. Thank You

47. Gents,

    I have an ACER F5 laptop that got stuck during reboot. The windows recovery page appeared with two options: repair (not working, same page apeared) and start windows normally, which shutdown the machine. Using F8 I started the safe mode with DOS prompt and noticed the sudden stop after loading the crcdisk.sys file. Nothing helped. All internet pages told me to reinstall my laptop. But…. this tool solved it!!! After three reboots, the laptop came back alive.

    After booting from this CD, you simply enter some language questions. On the second page the repair option is shown. It does some checks and then asks you to reboot your machine. The first and the second time it did not help and I was just about to through this CD in the trashcan. But then I noticed that after every unsuccessfull boot, the repair option of the CD goes one step further…. And after the third repair action, which took more than 5 minutes, I was asked to reboot my machine. Not believing in any magic, I filled my glass of wine and when I came back, there was my desktop!

    Conclusion, if you are able to boot from this CD (Acer, press “ESC” during the post/bios screen to choose the boot device) give the repair CD some chances to repair your system. I keeps on trying solving the problem and every time it checks the next step of the boot sequence.

    By the way, I burned this CD with IMGBURN 2.3.2.0, which is not the newest version, on a running X64 Vista system (www.imgburn.com)
    I do not have any program like Roxio or Nero running.

48. Right, I’ve had a totally hellish experience with my Vista (6 months with no issues) over the last few days. A rogue driver (probably MS… or possibly Shockwave) has been really screwing things up for me. (I know now if I ever do get my system back to disable auto updates and monitor driver updates more carefully, who’d have thought this could cause so much damage and time…)

    It’s gotten so bad with Blue Screens of Death (error: 0x00000024) that now I can’t even start Vista in ANY mode. No safe modes (stops at crcdisk.sys) no boot from last known etc etc option… all options bring up that ruddy blue screen…

    I’ve run every VAIO recovery checker and my CPU/Hard drive/memory/C Drive tests have all come back A-OK, so again I’m sure it’s a driver issue.

    Now, I decided to take a chance with repairing vista using the above download, it installed fine and I burned the ISO to a cd using “ISO Recorder v 2”

    BUT, when I changed BIOS to load from CD and restarted with the disk, all I get is that dreaded flashing (-) and nothing more.

    I know my laptop CAN boot from CD ok because I tested it with an old XP startup disk.

    Tomorrow I’m going to make another disk using ImgBurn to see if this helps.

    So I’d just like to report that this ISO Recorder v 2 is possibly causing issues.

49. torrent sites & torrent downloading is blocked where I am currently staying. can anyone send this to me by pando or something!?

50. hi i have windows vista 32 bit home basic and i need to restore my computer to when i first used it how do i do it?
    Need Serious HELP!!
    which one of those torrent files do i download.

    kind regards.