OEM - partition back to factory

hi guys, firstly yes I am aware I am on sevenforums.com quick Q though plz

I have a pc and recently it just kept throwing up BSOD with error "8E" after a factory reset with OEM partiton 30 seconds into loading windows and BSOD again. so I deleted vista and reinstalled 7 ultimate N. but left the OEM partition intact, which now runs smooth and all grand.

what I was seeing was how or can I now go back into the OEM partiton and load the original OS back to vista to see if it blue screens again. do I have to install vista off a CD and then 'repair' after I have reinstalled to get to the OEM boot menu .

when I loaded and put back to factory first time below 'command prompt' in "system recovery options" I had a Packard bell option to go to factory settings

When you installed win7 the mbr link to the vista oem partition would have broken so the packard bell factory settings option would no longer be there in system recovery options. You can take a peek into the oem partition and see what kind of files it has- normally there would be .wim files (single or many) or split wims (.swm). In that case it should be possible to restore the factory image using imagex.

Simpler way would be to recover vista using recovery disks provided you created them in the first place when you had vista.

You can also try viewing the oem partition in the windows disk management screen and try marking it active, then reboot to launch recovery.

Partition - Mark as Active

Your spec's state 8gb of ram, is your Vista x64?

theog said:

Your spec's state 8gb of ram, is your Vista x64?

its another PC of mine sorry.

thanks bill2! resolved issue

disabled 100mb boot partition in 7, enabled OEM 8gb partition.

very strange though the partition was simply what looked like a win vista install, no image or nothing. just doing the recovery now. part way through it did just crash and burn. with "image recovery failed"

but just rebooted and now i have the "Packard bell" recovery option in "system recovery options" just doing it again now.

thanks!

poop! just tried again, and same again

i will attach a picture.

Tough to say what exactly the problem may be- the oem image may be corrupted E.g. Also sometimes it requires the exact same partition structure that came preinstalled or a minimum of 2 or 3 partitions.

If your data is backed up, you could try deleting partitions other than the oem one, then try restoring the image. Another option is to junk the oem partition completely- you're not planning to reuse vista are you? Even if for insurance, you can clean install vista and activate with the sticker key.

Another thing you can try, boot from a win7 dvd or repair disk, then browse to the oem partition in the command prompt. Copy off whatever you find there to an external drive- should be wim/swm with maybe a catalog file. Then try manipulating with imagex.

I just did something similar with sony recovery partition.

After joining the split wims - applying was fine - but had to fix the drive letter for installation to conplete.

Yours seems to fail at applying the image ?

Try using imagex in case there is something wrong with the oem app.

hi guys, sorry i did reply, but the forum just didn't post my msg.

yes basically win 7 install on partition took over the recovery.

deleted all partitions apart from OEM, rebooted and it did it find. TY for help!

Strange that the installed o/s would have any effect.

Thanks for the update - glad you got it working.:)

Here is other Strange one. (Gateway,Acer,Packard bell) with eRecovery.
Had one in a few months ago.

1) Recover from Recovery Partition, error Applying image failed.
2) Recover from Recovery disks, with no format, error Applying image failed.
3) Recover from Recovery disks, with Clean All & Full Format, error Applying image failed.
4) Recover from Recovery disks using the same disks, with a Brand New Drive full Recovery.

The OEM specific OS reinstall disk coupled with the drivers/utilities disk of the past was the most user friendly option. With the recovery partition/disks business, maintaining an image has become necessary.