zaplzaplza Posted March 15, 2009 Share Posted March 15, 2009 I have a Compaq laptop pre-installed with Vista, Since Vista eats so much of memory and I don't like it at all, I formatted the hard drive (not the partition for Vista recovery), and installed XP. Now for some reason, I want to get Vista back, can I use the recovery partition on my hard drive? How? Thanks a lot. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/157764-how-to-recover-vista-after-formatting-the-hard-drive/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Souldrainer2021 Posted March 16, 2009 Share Posted March 16, 2009 i think you have to use a data recovery program. unless your xp has written over vista. if you want boot into the recovery partition (if it exists...) and install vista over xp. make sure to backup your documents. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/157764-how-to-recover-vista-after-formatting-the-hard-drive/#findComment-1107978 Share on other sites More sharing options...
DisBoiYouEnvy Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 hello, Well im new here but i have downgraded many comps from vista to xp. what ive found out is that its very helpful to make a backup disk the first time you turn your comp on after purchase. but idk if it will work but when you boot your comp and as soon as the first screen pops up with the compaq logo they have options at the bottom such as press F1 for this and stuff there should be a option to system restore but im not sure cause i have a HP laptop dv9000 series. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/157764-how-to-recover-vista-after-formatting-the-hard-drive/#findComment-1115047 Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoot1691 Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 well if anything like my dell inspiron 1525 then before you can do the system recovery you need vista already installed on the partition. i upgraded vista to windows 7 a while back but then when i tried recovery to get vista back it wouldn't work and kept failing. so you will probably have to format the partition with xp currently on, do a clean install of vista from disc and then do the recovery...that is presuming that it works the same way as my one did... scott Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/157764-how-to-recover-vista-after-formatting-the-hard-drive/#findComment-1131009 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts