Solved is it possible to without disk?reformat

[SubbinBlazer]

Brothers laptop is acting up. it's a HP pavilion entertainment pc windows vista home premium oemact 64 bit. a how to would be great if possible. thanks

edit july 29, 2011:

ok, so my bro went aheady and purchased a replacement har drive from HP and he also purchased windows 7 home premium operating system disk from a local bestbuy and everything is smooth, but their is no sound. we tried inserting the driver disk that came with the set of recovery disks from when we tried to revoer the vista operating system and the disk didnt auto run. we're not sure if we should use the sound driver from that disk or any of the other drivers from the disk or which drivers to get since it was a windows vista home 64bit and now upgraded to windows 7 home 64bit... feedback would be great. thanks

 

[Faldo]

WHAT??

If you're asking if you can reformat the hard drive without the OS disc the the short answer is no. If you want to reload the operating system, then look for the recovery partition or recovery wizard. When the system goes through POST - it will show you which key to press.

 

[SubbinBlazer]

Yes, that is the question. The type of questions is the type a noob like my self would ask...

 

[Brink]

You're going to need to give us more details on exactly what you mean by "acting up" instead of just that. More details please.

 

[Britton30]

Faldo is correct. On a factory install many time you'll need to hit "F10" or some other key to go to the recovery option. This WILL wipe all your data and programs.

Before that, try to use CCleaner, which will clean out old, unneeded files. It also has a registry cleaning option which may be helpful if this hasn't been done. The CCleaner site aslo has a defragmenting program, Defraggler. These may get it back to speed.

Also have a look at Vista Forums.
Maybe Malwarebytes Free too, download, insatll, update do a full scan.

 

[t-4-2]

Brothers laptop is acting up. it's a HP pavilion entertainment pc windows vista home premium oemact 64 bit. a how to would be great if possible. thanks

How to use the HP recovery partition :
How to Boot an HP Recovery Partition | eHow.com

 

[SubbinBlazer]

Well, it's super slow and it decideds to play music out of the no where without me trying to do that. Than when i click on something another action happens like a icon from the desktop gets dragged. it's like if the laptop is Possessed . i've tried to clean it up with super antispyware, malware bytes and i have kaspersky internet sequrity. sometimes when on the laptop the bar on the bottom where the start info is and desktop icons disappear than they come back after a while.... i feel like it's jacked up big time so i thought some type of reformat can fix it, but now i come to find out that i cant reformat without the disk. so this recovery thing can help or?

 

[t-4-2]

You don't have the installation disc.
Using the recovery partition allows you to restore the HP to its original state.

Read more: How to Boot an HP Recovery Partition | eHow.com How to Boot an HP Recovery Partition | eHow.com

 

[SubbinBlazer]

No installation disk. i purchased the laptop from bestbuy and it didnt come with it... I'm backing up the music/pictures at the moment. So the recovery option doesnt do a wipe out? so it'd only set the setting to factory settings... so whould i look into getting the disk, cause if it's a must i'd rather upgrade to windows 7.

 

[t-4-2]

No installation disk. i purchased the laptop from bestbuy and it didnt come with it... I'm backing up the music/pictures at the moment. So the recovery option doesnt do a wipe out? so it'd only set the setting to factory settings... so whould i look into getting the disk, cause if it's a must i'd rather upgrade to windows 7.

>>> So the recovery option doesnt do a wipe out
Using the recovery partition is to wipe everything out.


>>>so it'd only set the setting to factory settings...
What do you mean " only " ?
Restoring to factory settings means the computer will be like it first came out from the factory. That is as far as you can go.

>>>so whould i look into getting the disk, cause if it's a must i'd rather upgrade to windows 7.
What do you mean " upgrade to windows 7 " ?
You are using Windows 7 Home Premium now. Aren't you ?

 

[SubbinBlazer]

oh ok, i am on my laptop and desktop, but this problem is on my bros laptop which is vista...

 

[t-4-2]

oh ok, i am on my laptop and desktop, but this problem is on my bros laptop which is vista...

Answers to #1 and #2 questions remain the same.

Question #3 :
As you can see, you can use the Recovery Partition when you don't have an installation disc.
So, having the disc is NOT a " must ".

As to whether you should upgrade to Winows 7 .... it's your call.
If that ( installation disc ) is the only reason, and that you can restore your Vista via Recovery Partition, then there is no need to upgrade to Win 7.

P.S. You can NOT obtain a Vista Installation DVD anymore from retail stores or from computer manufacturers. They only sell Windows 7 discs.
You might be able to get one via ebay or something. But beware of counterfeit.

 

[gregrocker]

Make your Vista Recovery Disks off the Recovery partition first before running Factory Recovery, so you have a backup in case it fails: HP Backup and Recovery Manager

Then backup all of your files and run Factory Recovery following the steps given in tutorial above.

If you can find a Vista installation DVD, you can also clean reinstall with the Product Key on the COA sticker following the steps which are the same as given here for Win7: Reinstalling Windows 7

 

[t-4-2]

oh ok, i am on my laptop and desktop, but this problem is on my bros laptop which is vista...

Adding to what I have already mentioned .....

Call your HP manufacturer > ask for a set of recovery discs. The cost is minimal.
It is alway safe to have a set of recovery discs on hand.

 

[SubbinBlazer]

Ok, so i tried recovering with the recovery partition on the laptop and it stated that it couldn't be found. Than i called up HP and requested the recovery cd's and it cost me 29 bucks . I received the disks on Tues. (ordered them on Sunday). So i inserted disk 1 and turned on and off my laptop 3 times so it can boot from cd and it made it like 58 % through the process and the laptop turns off... Is my hard drive bad? What could the problem be? The laptop was plugged in to the charger so i know the battery did die... feeddback would be great, thanks!!!

 

[seavixen32]

I'm afraid it does sound very much as though your hard drive may be the problem.

Do you hear any beeps from the BIOS when you boot up? HP and Compaq Desktop PCs - BIOS Beep Codes - bph07107 - HP Business Support Center

How long have you had the computer? Is there any warranty left on it?

 

[SubbinBlazer]

The laptop is 3 years old and it doesn't have warranty since i didn't purchase the extended warranty. as far as the beeping noise i think it did do it the first time, but i can't rally remember. i just inserted the cd and went on safe mode and tried to do the process again and it didn't beep. the first time i tried to the process it was on regular mode not safe mode...

 

[theog]

Try a full clean & full format in command prompt.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/91339-ssd-hdd-optimize-windows-reinstallation.html



Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
HD Diagnostic

 

[SubbinBlazer]

So to do "Try a full clean & full format in command prompt" i have to click on that first link and follow? sorry i'm new to this stuff n i dont want to miss a step.

 

[DeaconFrost]

Every HP home laptop I've used offers an app to burn recovery DVDs. It takes a while, but you'll have them.