A friend of mine is having a lot of issues with his Vista and needs to know how to use the recovery partition to restore it to factory conditions. He's tried f10, as well as trying to reformat, but doesn't understand what it means (he doesn't have a recovery
disc). I've never used Vista, so I don't really know how to help. A step by step on how to do it would be the most helpful, any help at all would be appreciated, thanks.
The Recovery Partition is imaged on the Hard Drive by the Computer Manufacturer, not Microsoft.
It is their Software.
It may be F10 or F11, Acer is Alt + F10.
Each manufacturer has their own way of doing this.
Contact them for advice.
How to obtain Vista recovery Media and/or use the Vista Recovery Partition on your computer.
There is no legal free Vista download available.
Contact your Computer Manufacturer and ask them to send you a set of Vista Recovery disk/s.
They normally do that for a small $ cost.
Also, ask them if you have a Recovery Partition on your Computer/Laptop to restore it to Factory settings.
See if a Manual came with the computer, or go to the Manufacturer's website, email or phone them for info on how to do a Recovery.
Normally, you would press F10 or F11 at Startup to commence the Recovery Process..
Another way I have seen on some models is to tap F8, and go to a list of Startup options, and start a Factory Standards Recovery from in there, by
selecting the Repair computer option.
You can also make Recovery Disk/s from the Recovery Partition in case of Hard Driver failure or System Crash, when you are up and running
again.
They will tell you how to do that.
Each Computer Manufacturer has their way of making Recovery Disk/s.
Or borrow a proper Microsoft Vista DVD(not Dell, HP, etc).
A proper Vista DVD contains all Vista versions.
The Product Key determines which Vista version gets installed.
There are 2 Vista disks: one for 32bit Operating System, and one for 64bit Operating System.
If a clean install is required with a proper Vista DVD (not HP, Dell Recovery Disks):
Go into your Bios/Setup, or Boot Menu, at startup, and change the Boot Order to make the DVD/CD drive 1st in the Boot Order, then reboot with the
disk in the Drive.
At startup/power on you should see at the bottom of the screen either F2 or DELETE, to go into Bios/Setup, or F12 for the Boot Menu
