Recovery drive and partition question

myr707 · 10-21-2009, 03:14 PM

Is the recovery drive meant to be a substitute for reinstallling vista or just a repair? If I reinstall would a recovery drive be created automatically or do i have to create one? When reinstalling should i make two partitions besides a recovery? One for the OS and one for music etc? Is that vital? How about if i want to dual boot with ubuntu? Should i be making four partitions ? Any advice or links to check out are appreciated. Thanks

Osiris · 10-21-2009, 04:04 PM

Manufacutures usually install a recovery drive on a separate partition should you need to reinstall Windows. They usually have their own software that initiates the process.

myr707 · 10-21-2009, 04:11 PM

Where would i find this software? In the recovery drive? So i can use that instead of reinstalling?
How about my other questions. Thanks

Mak213 · 10-21-2009, 07:58 PM

You would find this software somewhere on the PC. Each PC is different so we cant give any details without knowing anything about the PC. All of this is well documented in the owners manuals. Not only online but with the PC as well.

The Recovery Drive IS for reinstalling. It takes it back to Factory settings. All of your personal data and installed apps are gone.

myr707 · 10-21-2009, 08:47 PM

So i would boot from the recovery drive? How about my questions about the partitions? Thanks

Lexluethar · 10-22-2009, 12:48 AM

Usually you have to press a series of keys to boot in to the recovery partition. And it isn't a boot like with windows. You will probably be propted 'are you sure you want to continue with hard drive restore' and that is about it aside from you seeing it reinstalling the operating system.

Repair, reinstallation and using the recovery partition are three separate things:
-Repair is used for windows XP. It repairs just the OS files and leaves your personal files and software intact
-Reinstallation is taking a DVD / CD and installing the OS from scrath. This requires reformatting the hard drive / partition and installing the OS on the formatted drive / partition
-Recovery partition is a separate part of the hard drive (or DVD) that is created by most manufactureres of laptops and desktops (HP, Dell, etc). These are accessed by pressing certain keys at startup (before windows even loads) which will begin the process or recovery. This recovery will restore your drive to how it exactly was 'out of the box'. This includes software and the OS that came with the device. All personal files and programs installed after you bought the computer will be erased.

You have two partitions right now (more than likely). One is the recovery partition that has all of the install files needed for your recovery software to reinstall the OS on your other partition. So one holds the recovery information and the other holds the actual OS and system files / programs / ect.

If you use the software recovery you won't have an option of creating any more partitions. It will just reinstall the OS / software on the other partition - you can't get around that unless you use another DVD to install the OS.

If you use another DVD to install the OS you will have the option of created multiple partitions on the same drive, at that time you can create one drive for the OS and programs, and anotehr one for your music files and what not. Realize in doing this there is no going back because you will more than likely need to erase the recovery partition to accomplish this.

Dual booting with Ubuntu is easy, you literally install Ubuntu on the partition with Vista / XP. Then you use the partition utility that is already present in the software to allocate disk space between Vista / Xp and Ubuntu (essentailly saying hey i want this much space for microsoft and this much for Ubuntu). After that the boot loader program will give you the choice every time you boot up from that point forward of booting into Linux or Windows.

myr707 · 10-25-2009, 12:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lexluethar

After that the boot loader program will give you the choice every time you boot up from that point forward of booting into Linux or Windows.

Do I need to install a seperate boot loader?
I read something about modifying the Master Boot Record, does this happen when I install Ubuntu or do I have to do this myself? Is that what EasyBcd does? Also You mentioned something about installing Ubuntu directly from windows, don't I have to download the iso and boot from it?
Also is there any reason to keep music etc on a different partition other than making life ease if I have to reformat?
Thanks

Lexluethar · 10-25-2009, 01:47 AM

You don't need a separate boot loader, Ubuntu will use its own boot loader called GRUB that will give you the option between the Ubuntu install and your XP install.

You don't have to edit the MBR yourself, Ubuntu seriously does all of the foot work for you.

When I said install from windows, i meant you will install ubuntu on the same drive / partition as windows. When you do that with the .ISO CD that you booted from you will get a GUI and the option to install. Ubuntu will recognize the drive is in use and will ask you how much space you want to allocate to each OS install.

That is about the only reason I can think of to keep music files on a separate partition, so that if you need to reinstall the OS you don't have to backup your personal files / folders.

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