Database Users

Is it possible to free the Vista recovery partition?

As title!
Is is possible to delete the Vista recovery partition from hardisk and free the space?

Hi
Have a look at this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=378890
Should be possible. Remember it looks like it is difficult to get full functionality from an alternative Vista installation so you may not want to destroy this partition unless you have a backup and/or HTC release full downloadable drivers.

Recovery partition
I have used BartPE to boot off an external USB DVD Writer.
From within BartPE you can then use Ghost to capture the ENTIRE drive.
The ***Hidden*** restore partition cannot be see by anything, not ghost, not partition magic, not acronis, it simply is not there.
My belief is that this is due to a BIOS restriction and the FN+F3 boot that does allow the restore is either.....
1. A special mode where the bios can see the hidden partition
2. The actual recovery image is on a separate flash area that we can't see.
Either way having the ghost will recover the hard drive.
I have installed both XP and Linux on the Shift and still been able to reboot, press FN+F3 and do a vista re-installation.
This makes me believe the image is on a separate flash device that only the BIOS section can see.
Hope this helps.
Blitz

blitzspear said:
I have used BartPE to boot off an external USB DVD Writer.
From within BartPE you can then use Ghost to capture the ENTIRE drive.
The ***Hidden*** restore partition cannot be see by anything, not ghost, not partition magic, not acronis, it simply is not there.
My belief is that this is due to a BIOS restriction and the FN+F3 boot that does allow the restore is either.....
1. A special mode where the bios can see the hidden partition
2. The actual recovery image is on a separate flash area that we can't see.
Either way having the ghost will recover the hard drive.
I have installed both XP and Linux on the Shift and still been able to reboot, press FN+F3 and do a vista re-installation.
This makes me believe the image is on a separate flash device that only the BIOS section can see.
Hope this helps.
Blitz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude my findings are the same, How did you get XP working did you use the vista drivers? did they work? if not where did you get the drivers from? Please tell as I really could do with a dual boot PC

XP.....
Hi there...
I basically tried installing XP SP2 and then XP Tablet Edition.
Both work great, minus a load of drivers.
You have approximately 800MB RAM free and it flies but you lose all the ability to do touch stuff.
There are drivers i've found out there for the sound/graphics/thumbpad and usb network but others i couldn't find.
As to installing XP it's simple, boot off a USB DVD with XP and just install it, format the entire drive (don't worry it won't see or kill the recovery vista partition if it is a partition, still think it's a separate flash card) and install.
As to the dual booting this is not possible.
I halved the drive using Acronis Disk Suite and whilst it would install, i created two PRIMARY partitions and made the second one bootable.
On restarting i installed XP but then i couldn't get VISTA to boot once i made partition one bootable.
Basically to dual boot XP/VISTA you must install XP first, then install VISTA.
However having investigated this I can find most of the additional software / drivers but the VISTA that is restored is a very optimised installation and just installing VISTA Ultimate or even normal Business may not provide the same experience.
Until we can get access to the RESTORE AREA and get at the image (whatever it may be) I think killing the drive completely to reload VISTA won't be possible.
Our only real hope I think is to get HTC to release XP Drivers (I'm still at a loss to explain why they chose VISTA over XP Tablet Edition). The performance increase with XP over VISTA is quite staggering but the loss of functionality makes it pointless at the moment.
Blitz
Whilst it does provide a much faster overall experience at this time without the driver support it's pointless.
Again Linux is the same, I haven't yet tried installing OSX on it, but that would be even more problematic as Apple don't do drivers for most of the hardware out here that XP / VISTA will detect.
I have resorted to going back to VISTA and removing Origami and a few other bits and pieces and updating to SP1.
I find the whole shift now is much better after installing SP1 and without Origami 2.0 on it.
Hope that helps.
Blitz

installing Windows XP alongside Vista
I've used the method described in this link to install XP on my U810 as a dual-boot alongside the pre-installed Vista.
http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/about88231.html
blitzspear, what devices were not working in XP besides the touchscreen?

Missing drivers
Everything was missing,
had to download VGA driver from intel. but you lose some of the resolutions.
There is a sound driver and a USB Network device available and the mousepad worked.
There's a PCI device missing and no SD/wifi and chipset.
So basically not a lot works.
Regards
Blitz

IIRC the Raon Digital Everun has the same SDIO Wifi component. Maybe you could try its driver?
http://www.raondigital.com/data/WLAN Driver_1_1.zip

WiFI driver for VISTA
Hi, dont You have WiFi SD8686 driver for VISTA, please ?
I reinstaled my Shift to localized Vista and this driver I still miss.
more:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=376600

error on dual boot vista xp

i've reduced the vista partition and want to install xp....but after the first reboot , there are a black screen with "error to load operative system". someone have tested a dual boot vista xp???
thx

problem solved....
after winxp 1° phase installation reinsert vista cd,repair your computer->command prompt->
Bootrec.exe /fixMBR
Bootrec.exe /fixBoot
restart vista
install EasyBCD at http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1
add bootloader entry for xp.
restart and select new winxp entry on bootloader,
continue xp installation!!!

yep, i'm doing dual boot since i've got the shift from day 1.
here's some tips:
never install both operating systems on the same partition. It will most likely crash both of them (more possibly the xp one).
When dualbooting you need the following things.
a windows installation disk and an external usb dvd driver.
a windows vista instalation disk.
a shift.
some 3-4 spare hours.
First you should have a working vista instalation (this will be one of the 2 os's you wanna put). All your settings and files will be unaffected.
you will need to partition the drive by whatever means in order to make an empty 4-5 gb partition, separated from the other one(s).
Next install windows xp using the external cd drive just as you would install it normally. Install it to that empty partition.
After you finish you will see that only the xp OS boots, no sign of vista.
Next boot the vista cd when you start the shift, then select "repair your computer", or stuff like that from the first menu that appears when installing vista (after the language and keyboard stuff). You should fix the bootloader, there should be an option related to that, maybe troubleshoot vista startup (or something similar). Next remove the cd after the repair is done and reboot from hard-disk.
Now only vista boots up. Boot to vista then download a program called easybcd. You may find it on google it's free. With this program you can acces the vista bootloader. You need to add an entry for your xp instalation in order to have it displayed at bootup. Find the "add entry" option (or similar) select windows xp, 2000, etc from one of the pull down menus, and you'll see that the drive letter containing the instalation will be greyed out (the selected drive is C. That's ok, altrough xp installed on another partition, it's bootloader and some files are still located on the C: drive. now tweak whatever you like with the easybcd program then save changes and restart.
You should have dual booting now.
err.. one more tip, when you shut down vista, just before you want to boot from cd and install xp (the begining of the procedure) use the shag controll and activate bluetooth, wlan and modem. This way when you install xp, it will detect them (at least bluetooth, wlan doesn't seem to work however), otherwise - naah.

aa, didn't saw your post. I was writting mine
Glad to see the problem solved.

Has anyone had any success with making a bootable USB stick with Vista on it?

[Q] Disaster - need help...

I got a copy of Android - I think its 1.6 - running on my laptop - and it seemed to work ok and be stable so I wanted to put it onto the machine permanantly.
Trouble is its decided that nothing else on the machine exists and I can't get back into vista whatever I try
It boots into something called grub loader and the only two options are the normal boot and a sort of safe mode - that lists drivers much like the old one for Windows 95/98 where you could y/n each one...
I really need help to get vista back again since there is stuff I really need like internet banking that I don't think I can do any other way (to be fair I have yet to try)
Thanks in advance
Jemma

Please tell me you partitioned off your hard drive before doing this?
If not then its a reinstall I guess, which isn't to bad as it allows you to install a decent copy of windows such as XP

That quite simply isn't an option - I was told that there is a way of solving it by using a windows CD or boot disk to reload the MBR - I was also told that the file running GRUB can be edited to find windows.
The problem is I don't have another machine and I am on state benefits - I need this computer up and running and I need access to my documents.
I can't seem to mount anything in android - and as the only option is 'format sd card' I don't really want to take it..
Does anyone else have any suggestions?

Jemmauk said:
That quite simply isn't an option - I was told that there is a way of solving it by using a windows CD or boot disk to reload the MBR - I was also told that the file running GRUB can be edited to find windows.
The problem is I don't have another machine and I am on state benefits - I need this computer up and running and I need access to my documents.
I can't seem to mount anything in android - and as the only option is 'format sd card' I don't really want to take it..
Does anyone else have any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well thanks for the sob story but what does being on benefits have to do with anything?
Anyway simply set your pc bios to boot from cd first, insert disk and boot up. From there you will be asked do you want to install or repair. Choose repair.
I'm unsure of the next step because I don't use Vista *spits* but if you can get to recovery console then you can run fixmbr from the prompt and also there is a boot manager that can fix your boot sector.
Alternatively you could from a dos prompt delete the 1.6 folders and rewrite the msconfig to open windows only.
There is also the root of trying the f8 safe mode boot into admin account and rewrite the msconfig from with windows if accessible from f8 safe.
But hell I ain't anyone else but I guess my 24 years in the business of building custom machine and my extensive knowledge of windows xp and below means nowt? Maybe try being a little less dismissive next time hey?
Add me on gmail - [email protected] if you want me to help you sort it out faster than we can here

Did you create partitions before installing android? if not then windows doesnt exist anymore, which is why grub didnt automatically add it to the list of things to boot (mine always listed everything, but sometimes it doesnt do that automatically)

this happend to me to. I had to use I linux live cd to delete the linux partition. and fix the mbr.
Sent from my Liberty using XDA App

help ! how to remove dual boot

hello guys i had windows 7 installed and i installed windows 8 on my other partition and after some days i did a format on win7 partition but the dual boot menu is still there any solution to remove that ?

Go to msconfig boot tab.delete windows 8. If that doesnt work,try to go to disk management and delete the partition for windows 7 or change the drive letter.
Hit thanks if i helped you

Deleting the partition won't do anything useful. If you are unable to remove the second boot item using the graphical tools, you will need to use bcdedit. This program is command-line and requires Admin, but isn't really that hard to use. It has a lot of built-in help info, plus you can find lots of info and examples online.
By the way, this isn't really a Win8 problem. BCDEdit has been around since Vista. Don't worry if you find instructions for Vista or Win7; they'll probably still apply on Win8.

Can't install Windows 10 Technical Preview

I can't install Windows 10 Technical Preview on my Samsung RV509 laptop (Core i5 and 6Gigs of RAM). I tried doing a clean install, and once I boot from the flash stick It gets stuck on the Windows logo and the loading dots doesn't appear, so I tried to do an upgrade from Windows 7 and once it restarts it gets stuck on the windows logo and doesn't load after that (I tried both 32 and 64bit versions) then i get the error 0xC1900101-0x20017. So I tried to install it inside a virtual machine and i tried another machine,and it did install just fine. I tried everything I can from trying to launch the setup from the command prompt but still once it restarts it gets stuck on the windows logo. I'm not sure what do I need to do to get it to install and boot. I've tried with every single build since the insider program started till 9926.
I would really appreciate any help in this matter. Thank you.

I think you didn't really tried a clean install, since you wrote that you've tried to upgrade later. Clean install means you erase all traces of previous system installation. Also, it's good to delete all partitions. Maybe you're hard disk is MBR formatted and Windows 10 requires GPT (just a suggestion, I'm not sure about that).
Secondly, are you trying an UEFI install? I've had Win10 for a couple of months now but I remember having problems with starting UEFI installation from USB stick. To do this, you have to change partition layout on usb stick to GPT, then make new primary partition, format it to FAT32 and copy all files from install iso to usb stick. Then you can start your install in UEFI mode and I think this will help you. Just remember to delete all partitions and let Windows create new partition layout for you, this way it will create EFI partition.
If the installer says it can't create partitions in UEFI mode, you will have to change partition layout to GPT by yourselft. You can put your hdd in a PC and use a Windows based tool (search google) or maybe some Linux LiveCD will let you do that without removing your hdd.

All I did was just use demon tools and install over my w7. It installed as Uefi. Don't like it and w10 gave me an option on restart to roll back my system. I did and went back to w7.

You shouldn't use Daemon Tools to install Windows from an ISO. If Windows needs to reference a file inside the Install.wim folder on the disc for any reason, that copy will fail as the disc it's using is not a physical disc, but a virtual one that the new installation has no knowledge of. The best way to install Windows from an ISO is to copy the ISO to a flash drive or to the local hard disk and run setup that way, or use Rufus to create a bootable USB media for installing. That could be related to your error codes.

Thank you sanshinron for your reply. I always do a clean install for windows, the only reason that i tried to upgrade is that the setup didn't even load when booting from a USB stick (stuck on the windows logo). The USB stick was created using Microsoft's "Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool". The same stick loads fine on other PCs. I will try to do what you suggested with the USB stick and give it another try.
sanshinron said:
I think you didn't really tried a clean install, since you wrote that you've tried to upgrade later. Clean install means you erase all traces of previous system installation. Also, it's good to delete all partitions. Maybe you're hard disk is MBR formatted and Windows 10 requires GPT (just a suggestion, I'm not sure about that).
Secondly, are you trying an UEFI install? I've had Win10 for a couple of months now but I remember having problems with starting UEFI installation from USB stick. To do this, you have to change partition layout on usb stick to GPT, then make new primary partition, format it to FAT32 and copy all files from install iso to usb stick. Then you can start your install in UEFI mode and I think this will help you. Just remember to delete all partitions and let Windows create new partition layout for you, this way it will create EFI partition.
If the installer says it can't create partitions in UEFI mode, you will have to change partition layout to GPT by yourselft. You can put your hdd in a PC and use a Windows based tool (search google) or maybe some Linux LiveCD will let you do that without removing your hdd.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

try https://rufus.akeo.ie/ for the usb install

onebyside said:
try https://rufus.akeo.ie/ for the usb install
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried both Rufus and ISO2Disk to make the USB stick GPT, but still i'm having the same issue with the setup not loading.

toulan said:
I tried both Rufus and ISO2Disk to make the USB stick GPT, but still i'm having the same issue with the setup not loading.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I installed UEFI without a problem, is there a reason your set on GPT?

I tried everything with the USB drive and it just installs fine on other pcs. I guess this could be because of hardware not supported yet by Microsoft in the current windows 10 builds. I found many people having the same issue. I just hoped there could be a fix to get the installer to start

I encountered same boot-hang problem when clean installing Win 8.1, and Win 10 shouldn't be different. My solutions:
Post-install boot-hang: The hang at logo boot happens when I don't format the install-to partitition with Win 8.1 installer (I normally partition/format using another tool, to skip the redundant WinRE partition that Win creates). Formatting with the installer allows the boot to complete (you can still keep the original partitioning).
Pre-install boot-hang: Some PCs are idiosyncratic with USB boot; likewise, some USB sticks are "different" from others. I found that using DiskPart to partition & format the USB stick (like a HDD) works when Rufus & straight formatting wouldn't. This, admittedly from a small sample set of one particular problematic combo. Simpler is just try to use different USB sticks.

toulan said:
then i get the error 0xC1900101-0x20017
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This error indicates an update issue.
Try this:
- Ingersoll mini tool partition wizard
- check your disk type
If it's GPT,
- download minitool portable ISO and burn on USB with UUI.
- boot to the application and convert GPT to MBR
- Format the C: partition or wherever the previous windows was installed
- then overwrite it with win10
If it's UEFI change it from the bios. Turn off secure boot and everything.
Try and let me know.

Is there Windows 10 for Nokia Lumia 625?

Tiash420 said:
This error indicates an update issue.
Try this:
- Ingersoll mini tool partition wizard
- check your disk type
If it's GPT,
- download minitool portable ISO and burn on USB with UUI.
- boot to the application and convert GPT to MBR
- Format the C: partition or wherever the previous windows was installed
- then overwrite it with win10
If it's UEFI change it from the bios. Turn off secure boot and everything.
Try and let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After using the minitool partition wizard i found out that it was already MBR.

feherneoh said:
Does that pc have Win8.1 installed with UEFI?
If so, connect installer drive, go to shutdown menu, hold shift, press restart
Then select Use device => UEFI USB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried it, but still the same issue.

Then turn off safe boot and try format the whole disk and start Windows installation from scratch?
Only if you want Windows 10 badly and are ready to sacrifice your data.
Caution: This 'might' work. No guarantees.

Tiash420 said:
Then turn off safe boot and try format the whole disk and start Windows installation from scratch?
Only if you want Windows 10 badly and are ready to sacrifice your data.
Caution: This 'might' work. No guarantees.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried it, but it didn't work. I think this could be an issue with a hardware that is not supported yet by the preview. I guess i'll have to wait for that to change in next builds.

toulan said:
Tried it, but it didn't work. I think this could be an issue with a hardware that is not supported yet by the preview. I guess i'll have to wait for that to change in next builds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That might be it cause it's a preview and they sure are known for this kinda issue

Tried build 10041 and still same issue.

toulan said:
Tried build 10041 and still same issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Laptop is SAMSUNG RV509 but with intel core i3 1st Generation and 2 GB of RAM inside
And I have the same problem with you when trying to install Windows 10 Technical Preview even with it's latest version just like you, get stuck at begin of instalation process, Windows logo appear without any waiting animation (circle of dots), and nothing happen after that.
Just like you, I'm trying install it so many time and so many way such as update latest version of BIOS, but nothing change.
So, if you have a solution for our laptop, please take your time to guide me.
"Sorry if any inconvenience come to your attention with my English writing skill"

shinstar123 said:
My Laptop is SAMSUNG RV509 but with intel core i3 1st Generation and 2 GB of RAM inside
And I have the same problem with you when trying to install Windows 10 Technical Preview even with it's latest version just like you, get stuck at begin of instalation process, Windows logo appear without any waiting animation (circle of dots), and nothing happen after that.
Just like you, I'm trying install it so many time and so many way such as update latest version of BIOS, but nothing change.
So, if you have a solution for our laptop, please take your time to guide me.
"Sorry if any inconvenience come to your attention with my English writing skill"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course, once i find a solution i will post it here, so far no luck.