Vista recovery disk download not an iso file

banco

Member
Hello,

I am trying to fix a friend's Sony Vaio laptop which is stuck in the update loop where it gets to installing update 3 of 3 and promptly shuts down. He doesn't have the dvd so I have attempted to download the Vista recovery disk. On the instructions it says to use ImgBurn to burn the image to a disk. My problem is that the download comes in the form of a zip file and when unpacked contains 2 folders (boot and sources) and the file bootmgr.

My question is - where is the image file for the recovery disk? All I see are the folders and the bootmgr file which is incompatible with an image burner.

Many thanks for your help.
 
Hi Banco, welcome to NST.
The downloaded torrent is an ISO file.
If you are seeing it as a zip, it's probably because you are not viewing "known file types", and an app like winRAR has grabbed the .ISO file association.
Make sure that your folder options are set thus.
Don't process the downloaded file in any way.
Burn the entire download with Imgburn.
 
Thanks for your help Terry, I also had winrar as the default program for .iso file types so once that was changed to ImgBurn it worked a treat.

Cheers.
 
Hi Banco, welcome to NST.
The downloaded torrent is an ISO file.
If you are seeing it as a zip, it's probably because you are not viewing "known file types", and an app like winRAR has grabbed the .ISO file association.
Make sure that your folder options are set thus.
Don't process the downloaded file in any way.
Burn the entire download with Imgburn.

Hi Terry, im wondering if you could help me out.

I installed IMGBurn, then the windows 32 bit recovery disc torrent supplied on this website from uTorrent. I then followed the intructions off this website. But every time i found that the cd's im burning are coming out like this . I took your advice about the folder options, but to no avail.I unistalled WinRAR because i wanted IMGBurn to be the default program. That also didn't work. I've used up 5 discs already and feel im not getting anywhere.

Any help would be grateful.
 
I did everything the instructions told me mate, if the instructions involve "Write Image File To Disk" then i would have done it. I must be going wrong somewhere though. :glare:
 
Have you tried booting the disk ? It looks OK.
If it doesn't boot, do you have your BIOS set to boot CD/DVD before HDD ?
 
To enter your BIOS, press F2 or a similiar key at the first splash screen you come to at startup (it should tell you which key to press). Then simply find the "boot sequence", "boot order", or something worded a little different, and set your CD/DVD drive to boot first, instead of the HDD.
 
Ok chaps, i managed to find the BIOS part, make it boot from the cd first, got to the vista part and when it asked me to put in a serial code i had to click "NO", and leave that part, shortly after it then says a file "install...??" is missing, then takes me back to the main menu. Any hints/tips/clues/riddles? :tongueout:
 
You can't use the NST recovery disk for reinstallations (I believe it states that clearly in the wiki, and also possibly in the blog as well...). It is only for using Startup Repair and System Restore.
 
Cheers guys, you told me all the right stuff, but i assumed the disc was something it wasn't. I was hoping the disc would possibly be able to restore my computer to its factory settings. By any chance, do you guys know of a torrent or download that can satisfy my request?

Cheers,

Dr G
 
In order to do a factory reset, you'll need to order a recovery disk from your OEM (assuming of course there IS one for your model of computer), if you failed to create one from the partition.
 
Are you sure your factory reset is lost ? Have you tried to access the OEM recovery partition ?
Try F12 F11 Alt+F10 as you power up. (or better still go to your OEM website and find out what key(s) they use to instigate the recovery process)
If you can find it and enter it, take the oportunity (which will be one of the options there most likely) to burn a portable bootable copy of the recovery partition for future emergency)
If your recovery partition is borked, you're at the mercy of the OEM, but that's generally cheaper than buying a new copy of Windows.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top