HDD woes - Vista does not boot

[b_man]

Hey All,

Sorry if this is a bit long but i need your help recovering my HDD and i feel all this is imp info.

I recently got an HP laptop from the US that came pre-installed with Vista. The thing is that although i have a valid license for Vista, the CD/DVD itself was not part of the package. Instead, my vista was given to me in a recovery partition on the HDD itself.

Didn't think about it much at that time, until the inevitable happened. My cousin gave the laptop a rude shock, and windows stopped booting. I can't even get it to boot into safe mode. I know the HDD must have been damaged and would have developed some bad sectors but i think it is still functional cause i was able to use a data recovery software to boot without windows, and was able to xfer all my files to my Desktop PC.

However, i want to try and see if i can recover the HDD to at least a bootable level so that i can format the C: drive (partition) and reinstall Vista from the D: drive (recovery partition).

For this, i downloaded the Windows recovery CD from a website so that i can boot from the CD and try to perform some sort of recovery.

Although my data recovery software was able to boot from the CD, my computer refuses to boot from the recovery CD. The same CD is being recognized by my Desktop PC. Same is the case with a Vista DVD bought from the gray market (what can i say, i am desperate at this point!)

Is there some other software/tool i can try that recovers the boot functionality of my laptop somehow? Please help! Even something that helps me boot from the pen drive.

Thnx a million! Cheers!

[hellgate]

press F11 after powering on the lappy (on BIOS screen).this launches the recovery manager.
if recovery manager doesnt work then remove the hdd from the lappy and reinsert it.else connect it to ur pc using the normal sata cable.

[Krazy_About_Technology]

Actually the problem with Vista setup is, it copies some files to hdd even when booting from cd. Try booting using a winxp cd into recovery console and then do a chkdsk /p /r on every partition. That may help, and you may have to repeat it more than once, according to my prev exp. sometimes chkdsk stops in the middle and one has to start it again. If that fails, try booting a linux live, preferably a latest version. These mount partitions at startup and sometime repair them. I am not sure about it, but it helped me once. My hdd was inaccessible like your. I booted into lin live twice and my problem was gone. First time, even lin live hanged. But second time it booted and then i was able to start windows vista setup. Try it if it works for u, although i cant give you a theory about how this could be possible.

Also, you can give a try to Windows Vista live dvd, the one that is created using the tool given by MS itself (i think). I dont remember the name, try asking Vishal Gupta or any other MVP about it. Vishal can be contacted via his website's contact link. his website BTW is www.askvg.com.

[iMav]

might sound funny but just chk whether the cd/dvd is set as ur first boot device

[hellgate]

^^^ even i've set cd/dvd as 1st boot option for both my pc and lappy but their aint any probs with that.if no bootable media is found in the drive then it boots from the hdd.

@b_man hav u created the recovery dvd for ur lappy using the HP Recovery Manager?

[b_man]

Thanks to all for your inputs....

@hellgate...nope, i haven't...never thought would need it...but lesson learnt ...if i am able to repair whatever is preventing windows from booting that's the first thing i am gonna do

@Krazy...am downloading a couple of Live CDs now....let's see what happens...the Live Vista disk u r referring to is the 120MB recovery disk that is available for download from certain websites (legit ones). I have tried booting with that but for some reason it doesn't work...let's see where linux takes me

[b_man]

Just to being this thread to a logical conclusion.

I got my hands on HDD Regenerator. It is an awesome tool that creates its own Boot CD / Floppy, and then checks your entire HDD, independant of OS or HDD make or anything else. It not only identifies the bad sectors but also recovers them.

Anyway, I was able to repair my HDD using this, after which i was able to boot into the recovery manager and restore my lappy to its factory setting.

I have now created the recovery DVD, and am enjoying a fully functional lappy again. And this time i am using Acronis to create regular images of my HDD so that the next time something like this happens, i am not scrambling all over the place desperately looking for a solution.

Thanks to all for their inputs!