HELP!!! I need to repair Windows Vista Home Basic

[kameleonmax]

I need help repairing my friends laptop Windows Vista Home Basic, but there
is no recovery disk. Where can I get a copy of the OS? Any help will be
appreciated. Thank You.

 

[Frank Holman]

I need help repairing my friends laptop Windows Vista Home Basic, but there
is no recovery disk. Where can I get a copy of the OS? Any help will be
appreciated. Thank You.

Look for a message during bootup (before Windows tries to load) that
indicates how to enter and use the hidden recovery partition.

HOPEFULLY there is such a partition. If there isn't, then you will
have to borrow a disc from someone and use the key that is on the
bottom of the laptop.

 

[Gordon]

I need help repairing my friends laptop Windows Vista Home Basic, but
there
is no recovery disk. Where can I get a copy of the OS? Any help will be
appreciated. Thank You.

You can't do a "repair" with a recovery disk anyway - only a return to
Factory settings.
The Vendor that your friend purchased the laptop from MUST supply a method
of returning the laptop to factory settings.
See the laptop documentation or contact the supplier for details. (If
there's no disk then it's highly likely that there is a hidden restore
partition)

See this for more info:
http://vistasupport.mvps.org/windows_vista_repair_options.htm

 

[Chad Harris]

I need help repairing my friends laptop Windows Vista Home Basic, but
there
is no recovery disk. Where can I get a copy of the OS? Any help will be
appreciated. Thank You.

Hi kameleonmax--

I'd do this:

Download Vista Repair Disk
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

1) First try 3 options from Startup Repair. If you have a Vista DVD then
restart with it in the drive>press any key to boot from it and run Startup
Repair. From Startup Repair you have 3 good tools with an excellent chance
of fixing your system. If you don't have a Vista DVD from which to boot to
Startup Repair, no problem, Download the .iso from the link below and
burn it, and you'll have the Microsoft Vista Repair Disk with Startup
Repair.

Download Vista Repair Disk
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/windows-vista-recovery-disc-download/

How to Use Startup Repair from the Vista DVD or the Repair Disk you make:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial142.html

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/5c59f8c1-b0d1-4f1a-af55-74f3922f3f351033.mspx

2) If Startup Repair does not get your Vista back, then use the 3 bootrec
commands from the command prompt available on the Statup Repair Menu:

The menu I refer to is in this set of directions with a grey background.

http://vistahomepremium.windowsreinstall.com/repairstartup/repairstartup.htm

Those are:

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuild BCD

3) If my second option doesn't work, then try System restore from the
Startup Repair list.

4) If by rare chance you have an actual Vista DVD, you can put it in, boot
from it>choose the Upgrade Option>choose your current broken Vista Drive and
try to do a repair install with the Vista DVD.

How To Perform a Repair Installation For Vista
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/88236-repair-install-vista.html

5) If the above 3 tools don't work, then use the 4 tools available by
restarting your pc and tapping F8 once per second to get to the Windows
Advanced Options Menu.

From this menu click on 3 Safe Mode links to use System Restore. Make sure
you try all 3 if one doesn't work, because just one of them may work.
Tap F8 to Reach Windows Advanced Options Menu Pictured Below:

http://media.photobucket.com/image/...ank/techbliss/Vista-Advanced-Boot-Options.jpg

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command: At the prompt you would type the command to use
for system restore at the safe mode cmd prompt is:

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

If these 3 tools don't work, you have one more you can try which is Last
Known Good Configuration.

Good luck,

CH