Create F10 Recovery Partition

[i3one21]

I have a computer with the F10 option when I first turn on the computer. The hard drive failed so I have replaced it and installed windows 7. I am wondering if I can create a recovery partition when I turn on the computer and use the F10 option to restore back to when I first installed windows 7?

 

[housry23]

I don't think you can create a partition that will do that by pressing f10, but you can create a system image of your system that is activated and will restore your PC to exactly the way it is when you create the image. You can burn it to DVD, a separate partition or a USB stick. This would be my suggestion to you. Get your computer exactly the way you want it with all your basic and primary apps installed and everything activated. Then make a system recovery image and a recovery disk. To do this go to Control Panel>System and Recovery>Backup and Restore and look on the left hand side of the Windows and you will see both options. Click create a system image and tell Windows where to save your image and it will make an exact copy of your partition. Then it will ask you to make a recovery disk. Follow the instructions on doing that and you will have a backup of your system at it's bare minimum.

 

[Ztruker]

If you buy and use Acronis True Image 2010, you can tell it to setup the Startup Recovery Manager which will give a "Press F11 to start Acronis recovery". When you do that you have access to the full Acronis recovery functions.

 

[Dinesh]

No you cannot create a recovery partition. On my laptop, its F11 to enter recovery partition. But that's only available when you get a new PC as the manufacturer installs a recovery partition. Once you change the HDD or reinstall OS, its gone forever. The option of F11 in BIOS will still remain.

 

[Mark Phelps]

An alternative to ATI Home is Macrium Reflect. The commercial version comes with the option of installing WinPE to the hard drive. That way, should Win7 ever fail, you can boot into WinPE and use that to do a restore from a saved partition image -- either located on the hard drive, on a network drive, or on DVDs.

 

[gregrocker]

With the Recovery Disks for your model which should have been made when you first got computer, or can be ordered from maker.

 

[i3one21]

I don't want to restore the computer to the factory settings. I want to know if I can use the F10 at the beginning to do a restore that I create and have partitioned on the "D" drive.

I believe the F10 function is built into the BIOS. So can I point it to my new recovery that I create after I install windows 7 on a brand new hard drive?

 

[Barman58]

The F10 is normally a part of the initial boot code for the OS that is called after the BIOS

Paragon is another that provides what they call the capsule that can restore an image at boot - their version is the most similar to the setups used by OEMs, that I have seen

 

[dex3985]

No you cannot create a recovery partition. On my laptop, its F11 to enter recovery partition. But that's only available when you get a new PC as the manufacturer installs a recovery partition. Once you change the HDD or reinstall OS, its gone forever. The option of F11 in BIOS will still remain.

Reinstalling the OS does not remove the recovery partition unless you tell it to. It is very possible to reinstall the os, leaving the recovery partition in tact and functional.

You most certainly can. Look at it this way, if the manufacturer can create it, why can't you? It's just a matter of the right bootloader, to function how you want it to, and a little know how in command line operations. It can be done, no one has taken the time to do it, and put the progress out there is the problem....until me. I searched forever for this very thing, and was very unsuccessful finding the solution, so I created it.

Here's a link to the forum with the bootloader that i used, and in there is a post by me (dex3985), with DETAILED instructions on the steps I took to create my own fully automatic restore partition, that stays completely hidden until you press a pre defined key combination at boot up.

[Dell with MediaDirect] XOSL Bootloader, Hardware dual boot made easy

There is email info in that thread, should you have any questions, the guide is pretty self explanitory though, if you have some know how with computers. If you don't, I probably wouldn't attempt it.

Cheers

 

[dex3985]

That bootloader was in a Dell forum, however, the manufacturer of the system does not matter at all.

 

[gregrocker]

Many modern Recovery Partitions are placed on WinRE menu on F8 Advanced Boot Options , which is lost when Win7 in wiped from the HD and not recreated with a reinstall even if it includes the 100mb System Reserved partition which placed WinRE on F8. At that point you can try to restore the hotlink or mount the image file in the partition to restore. Many choose to make the Disks and recover the Recov Partition's disk space.

We have seen plenty of cases here where Recov Partition functionality is lost due to reinstall of OS. It can and does happen.

 

[SIW2]

LOL.

There is no disagreement here.

You are all correct.

It is usually possible to acces the mfr recov partition even after reinstall.

There are a number of ways to do that.

Sometimes you can reinstate the Fkey as well.

Alternatively , there are a number of ways to create your own recovery type partition.

One of the latter was outlined by dex.

It is not that uncommon.

no one has taken the time to do it, and put the progress out there is the problem....until me

I think you will find lots of people have created their own recovery partitions over the years.

Good of him to share his own particular method for doing it.

 

[dex3985]

LOL.

There is no disagreement here.

You are all correct.

It is usually possible to acces the mfr recov partition even after reinstall.

There are a number of ways to do that.

Sometimes you can reinstate the Fkey as well.

Alternatively , there are a number of ways to create your own recovery type partition.

One of the latter was outlined by dex.

It is not that uncommon.

no one has taken the time to do it, and put the progress out there is the problem....until me

I think you will find lots of people have created their own recovery partitions over the years.

Good of him to share his own particular method for doing it.

I couldn't find any fully automated recovery partition success stories at all. Not to say it hasn't been done, i'm sure it has. The biggest problem i'm sure, was I was looking for windows 7 only.

as far as losing functionality, with a restore partition, it's USUALLY successful, to delete all partitions except the restore partition, via a bootable partition manager, and mark the restore partition as active, forcing the system to boot to that partition. That, in most cases, will still do the factory restore, restoring all F key shortcuts. With dell, you can't delete the first partition that contains the system diagnostics, as those usually are not part of the image for some reason.

 

[SIW2]

There is a tutorial on this site to create a windows 7 recovery partition ( sort of ).

You went for a better method - and I would do it differently as well - however, the tutorial is a simple way that most people could manage.

It is a straightforward idea that is well known and has been around quite a while.

Severed took the trouble to write it up here

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/58455-recovery-partition-create.html

I understand why you hadn't come across anything - that kind of thing is not so common on "general" windows forums, or laptop forums.

However, those of us who are interested in creating portable windows, building winpe images , installing to usb drives , etc - hang around more specialist forums. There are plenty of methods in these places. Some people have even written apps. to do it for you. They are not particularly simple, though.

it's USUALLY successful ..mark the restore partition as active, forcing the system to boot to that partition.

Yes that often works.

 

[letmeknow]

No you cannot create a recovery partition. On my laptop, its F11 to enter recovery partition. But that's only available when you get a new PC as the manufacturer installs a recovery partition. Once you change the HDD or reinstall OS, its gone forever. The option of F11 in BIOS will still remain.

thats so sad. oh man thats cruel factory

 

[letmeknow]

There is a tutorial on this site to create a windows 7 recovery partition ( sort of )....

...Severed took the trouble to write it up here

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/58455-recovery-partition-create.html

.....

hi there, is this link you gave can be done after installed new windows(reinstall i mean)?
and can i put there after finished install whatever programs like games & apps than i make a shrink volume about 10 to 20GB for recovery partition? so, when my laptop got attacked by virus i just hit F11 to recover it when boot and dont need to install driver or whatever make it long time to finish lol.

 

[gregrocker]

Having an onboard Recovery partition is a poor choice if you're doing it yourself since it would be lost in the case of the HD failing, defeating the purpose of having a backup to reimage a replacement HD in minutes.

For this reason it's best to save a backup image to external or another internal HD.
Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup
System Image Recovery
Macrium - Image your system

 

[letmeknow]

Having an onboard Recovery partition is a poor choice if you're doing it yourself since it would be lost in the case of the HD failing, defeating the purpose of having a backup to reimage a replacement HD in minutes.

For this reason it's best to save a backup image to external or another internal HD.
Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup
System Image Recovery
Macrium - Image your system

that i can say true answer from expert guy.. thank you for helping me out from soon trouble..