[HELP] Vista machine crashed...what recovery options do i have?

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raksrules

raksrules

Pilgrim
My toshiba laptop has Vista Home premium OS and has crashed due to viruses and all.
It refuses to start in safe mode too.
It does have a recovery partition and while starting the machine it does give me option of doing a system repair but on the system recover option screen it should ideally list the OS (which it does not) and below it is written that if OS is not displayed then load the drivers for hard disk.
So there is this button to LOAD DRIVERS which when i click it asks me the select media where it will get the drivers. I have no clue what to give it here :S

Now i have had already created a 2 DVD recover disks using which i tried the system repair, but it says that it will delete all the data and my machine will be like factory reset which i dont want as i dont have any backup :(

What options do i have in this case ?
Any way i can download a copy of vista, make a bootable USB and use that to repair the OS ?

Or any alternate way to backup my all data and then go with full system recovery with factory reset ?

Need help with this. Please suggest a solution.
 
I think that there is a way. Since you mentioned that it is not even detecting the OS when booting into recovery mode via Vista installation DVD, you should check whether the system partition is active or not. Which is a way of saying that Windows doesn't know where to look for boot files.

So, go to recovery console and select the command prompt (forgot the exact option, it's the last one there).

Type diskpart and make the windows partition, for e.g. C drive active.

1. At a command prompt, type: Diskpart.exe

2. At the DISKPART prompt, type: List disk

3. At the DISKPART prompt, type: Select Disk 1(should be the disk with the OS in it)

4. At the DISKPART prompt, type: List partition (If the partition is active, there will be a * in front of it)

5. At the DISKPART prompt, type: Select Partition 1 (should be the partition with the OS in it)

6. At the DISKPART prompt, type: Active
Click to expand...

Now reboot and again go into recovery console. Now, Vista should be able to pick up the OS partition and let it resolve issues on it's own.

Try this first and if it doesn't work, we can try commands like fixboot and fixmbr.
 
Ok so i backed up all my data from the machine, it took painful 10 Hrs + to copy just 80GB of data :O

But then i used to my recovery discs to restore the machine. It deleted all my data and also tried restoring it but at the end of second disc it gave me an error. I searched on net and many people have got the same error but worst part is there is no solution.

So as of now i have my C: with 141 GB of space completely formatted, one 600 MB OEM partition (not sure what it is) and one 6GB like partition of Toshiba recovery i guess.

Now i am not sure what this 6GB partition holds and when my windows used to run fine i never was able to access this partition. But if this does hold a out of box image of the OS then how, without the recovery discs do i reinstate the OS ?

Also another option is install a fresh copy of Vista Home premium (that came originally with this laptop) by borrowing some installation disc from someone but use my own CD key. But in that case what all versions am i authorized to install, vista home premium or below ?
 
So yesterday night i tried to install XP on my machine and something weird happened. It was a hit and miss situation actually. I used a pen drive to load the OS (used win2flash to transfer OS setup to pen drive) and it did boot once but later on the computer either started to restart abruptly or would just turn off, i mean even the charging and battery lights on laptop panel would go off :O and would come in a couple of seconds, like some temporary blackout. Is the pendrive at fault (like it is dying or so) ?

On a side note when i was trying to install the OS (not XP) it showed me three partitions as mentioned before and third partition is named

Toshiba HDD Recovery 6GB space, 600 MB free :huh:

Now can anyone say what this 5.5GB holds and is there any way i can leverage this to my use ?

Any leads on a successful OS install will be appreciated. I have still not tried Vista (which was there before) and will try when i get its disc. I have my own Vista home premium CD key written behind the laptop, so which all flavors of Vista can i install using this legitimate CD key ?
 
raksrules said:
So yesterday night i tried to install XP on my machine and something weird happened. It was a hit and miss situation actually. I used a pen drive to load the OS (used win2flash to transfer OS setup to pen drive) and it did boot once but later on the computer either started to restart abruptly or would just turn off, i mean even the charging and battery lights on laptop panel would go off :O and would come in a couple of seconds, like some temporary blackout. Is the pendrive at fault (like it is dying or so) ?

On a side note when i was trying to install the OS (not XP) it showed me three partitions as mentioned before and third partition is named

Toshiba HDD Recovery 6GB space, 600 MB free :huh:

Now can anyone say what this 5.5GB holds and is there any way i can leverage this to my use ?

Any leads on a successful OS install will be appreciated. I have still not tried Vista (which was there before) and will try when i get its disc. I have my own Vista home premium CD key written behind the laptop, so which all flavors of Vista can i install using this legitimate CD key ?
Click to expand...
You can Install Windows Vista Home Premium because you have a legitimate CD Key.

you can install either x86 or x64 which ever you like.

If you want an untouched image without OEM crap then let me know.

or search for this

For x86(32 Bit)

en_windows_vista_with_sp2_x86_dvd_342266

For x64(64 Bit)

en_windows_vista_sp2_x64_dvd_342267

OR

do a google search with the name prathaprabhu

you will find a Piratebay links for untouched images from the above user.
 
Finally after 10+ excruciating attempts to install various operating systems like vista, xp and 7, i have finally managed to install vista ultimate lite version, not sure if i am missing anything in this lite version but most important was to get my machine started.
 
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