Complete PC Restore in OEM Vista

Does anyone know how do do a Complete PC Restore in an OEM version of Vista
Ultimate ? OEM licenses does not come with the Vista installations disk which
I understand is needed to Boot the PC and get to the Windows Recovery
Enviroment. The standard Recovery disk that is created with and OEM version
only allows booting up and restoring to a factory set. Is there any way that
I can create a bootable DVD that brings me to the Windows Recovery Enviroment
so I can do a Complete PC Restore.

Thanks
--
Gregory Sebastian

Hi Gregory--

I translate/extrapolate your phrase "complete PC restore" to mean you want
to fix a broken and possibly non-bootable Vista on a machine. You have less
tools to work with without a Vista DVD, because you don't have access to
MSFT's Win RE including tools like Startup Repair or Bootrec.exe command
switches.

I just commented about a situation like yours that we've seen thousands of
times since XP and Vista preload OEM sales have denied MSFT customers media
with their expensive PC purchases.

However, you do have access to tools at the F8 or Windows Advanced Options
menu.

You could purchase expensive fixing methods that cost nearly as much as
Vista but I wouldn't. I'd buy a Vista DVD instead if I were going this
route.

Perhaps if you tell us what the situation is that you need to fix we could
add more information. Are you getting a blue screen or blue screens? Can
you boot to Windows? What's going on that prompted you to ask? Meanwhile:

***SFC as a Remedy***:

SFC or System File Checker is a bit like the spare tire in your car or a
backup battery I suppose. In Vista of course, they have changed it somewhat
and come up with a new name--Redmond stands for name it something different
twice a year and now it's part of WRP or Windows Resource Protection. It
scans protected resources including thousands of files, libraries, critical
folders, and essential registry keys, and it replaces those that are
corrupted with intact ones. It fixes a lot of problems in Windows XP, OE,
Windows Vista, Win Mail, IE6, and on Vista or if it is installed on XP, IE7.
It protects these things from changes by any source including
administrators, by keeping a spare of most of them.


How to Run SFC:

Type "cmd" into the Search box above the Start Button>and when cmd comes up
at the top of the Start menu>right click cmd and click "run as Admin" and
when the cmd prompt comes up at the cmd prompt type "sfc /scannow" no quotes
and let it run. This may fix things quite a bit. It replaces corrupt files
with intact ones, if you're not familiar with it.

***Using the F8 Environment***

***Taking Full Advantage of the F8 Options (Windows Advanced Options Menu)
by starting the PC and tapping F8 once per second when the firmware screen
with the pc manufacturer's name shows a few seconds after restarting***:

The F8 options in Vista are the same as XP, and the link for Safe Mode Boot
options is labled XP by MSFT but they are the same for Vista (they haven't
updated to add Vista to the title as they have with several MSKBs that apply
to both).

Again, pressing F8 repeatedly when you seem the firmware screen may be is a
generic way to launch Windows RE on some OEM Vista computers.

You could also:

Think: I have 4 different ways to get back my XP at F8 and try 'em in order.
1) Safe Mode 2) Safe Mode with Cmd to Sys Restore which is simply a cmd
prompt in safe mode 3) Safe Mode with Neworking 4) LKG or Last Known Good
Configuration


Try to F8 to the Windows Adv Options Menu>try 3 safe modes there (I don't
use WGA) and Last Known Good>then I go to Win RE in Vista. That gives you a
choice of Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking,and Safe Mode with Command
Prompt.

These methods are outlined in

A description of the Safe Mode Boot options in Windows XP/and Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315222/

Frequently Asked Questions Regarding System Restore from MSFT:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../faqsrwxp.mspx

System Restore can be run from the Win RE recovery environment from the same
link as Startup Repair, and sometimes it will work from one F8 safe mode
location or from the Win Recovery Environment when it won't work from other
locations.

How to start the System Restore tool at a command prompt in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;304449

Good luck,

CH




"Gregory Sebastian" <> wrote in
message news:915C7CC0-045A-4D20-A9BA-...
> Does anyone know how do do a Complete PC Restore in an OEM version of
> Vista
> Ultimate ? OEM licenses does not come with the Vista installations disk
> which
> I understand is needed to Boot the PC and get to the Windows Recovery
> Enviroment. The standard Recovery disk that is created with and OEM
> version
> only allows booting up and restoring to a factory set. Is there any way
> that
> I can create a bootable DVD that brings me to the Windows Recovery
> Enviroment
> so I can do a Complete PC Restore.
>
> Thanks
> --
> Gregory Sebastian

Hi Chad,
My laptop (HP with OEM Vista Ultimate) hard disk failed last week. The HD
was replace and a factory installation of Vista Ulimate was restored. Its is
working fine now but in Oct., I did a complete PC Backup to an external Hard
disk. I now want to do a "Complete PC Restore" from my ext. HD. Vista help
documentation says that I should tap F8 at boot up which brings be to the
Windows Recovery Enviroment. Tried this and it works fine to a particular
point. My Backup set was detected in an "F" drive. But I can't proceed with
the Retore. Vista message is that I booted from a hard disk but that hard
disk needs to be reformatted. Vista then ask me to boot from a CD/ DVD and
try again. In and OEM installation, I have no means to boot up with a DVD and
get to the Windows Recovery Enviroment since I do not have the Windows
Installation disk.

Thanks
--
Gregory Sebastian

Hi Gregory--

What you need to do is to borrow a Vista DVD (Ultimate, Enterprise, or
Business) from someone in order to do the Complete PC Restore from the Win
RE environment, i.e. from the Recovery Options Menu from the Recovery link
of the Vista DVD:

http://www.windowsvista.windowsreins...rtup/part1.htm

A Guide to Vista Backup Technologies/Complete PC Restore

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tec...007/09/Backup/


That's the only way you're going to do a Complete PC Restore. You won't
need to use a Product Key to do this.

CH

..


"Gregory Sebastian" <> wrote in
message news:A7E1BE5E-D37C-4806-B7DB-...
> Hi Chad,
> My laptop (HP with OEM Vista Ultimate) hard disk failed last week. The HD
> was replace and a factory installation of Vista Ulimate was restored. Its
> is
> working fine now but in Oct., I did a complete PC Backup to an external
> Hard
> disk. I now want to do a "Complete PC Restore" from my ext. HD. Vista help
> documentation says that I should tap F8 at boot up which brings be to the
> Windows Recovery Enviroment. Tried this and it works fine to a particular
> point. My Backup set was detected in an "F" drive. But I can't proceed
> with
> the Retore. Vista message is that I booted from a hard disk but that hard
> disk needs to be reformatted. Vista then ask me to boot from a CD/ DVD and
> try again. In and OEM installation, I have no means to boot up with a DVD
> and
> get to the Windows Recovery Enviroment since I do not have the Windows
> Installation disk.
>
> Thanks
> --
> Gregory Sebastian
>
>

Thanks Chad,
I paid quite a bit to get this laptop with Vista Ultimate preinstalled. I
would have thought that I should get all the tools necessary to recover in
the event of a disaster. This was the reason I purchased Ultimate in the
first place.

I couldn't get my hands on a Vista Ultimate disk so I had to order a disk
replacement set from Microsoft. I already lost 1 week when my HD crashed .
Now I need to wait another 5 days to have the disk shipped over. Huge
dissapointment .

Sorry for the rant. Thanks again to the tips and resources.

Regards




--
Gregory Sebastian


"Chad Harris" wrote:

> Hi Gregory--
>
> What you need to do is to borrow a Vista DVD (Ultimate, Enterprise, or
> Business) from someone in order to do the Complete PC Restore from the Win
> RE environment, i.e. from the Recovery Options Menu from the Recovery link
> of the Vista DVD:
>
> http://www.windowsvista.windowsreins...rtup/part1.htm
>
> A Guide to Vista Backup Technologies/Complete PC Restore
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tec...007/09/Backup/
>
>
> That's the only way you're going to do a Complete PC Restore. You won't
> need to use a Product Key to do this.
>
> CH
>
> ..
>
>
> "Gregory Sebastian" <> wrote in
> message news:A7E1BE5E-D37C-4806-B7DB-...
> > Hi Chad,
> > My laptop (HP with OEM Vista Ultimate) hard disk failed last week. The HD
> > was replace and a factory installation of Vista Ulimate was restored. Its
> > is
> > working fine now but in Oct., I did a complete PC Backup to an external
> > Hard
> > disk. I now want to do a "Complete PC Restore" from my ext. HD. Vista help
> > documentation says that I should tap F8 at boot up which brings be to the
> > Windows Recovery Enviroment. Tried this and it works fine to a particular
> > point. My Backup set was detected in an "F" drive. But I can't proceed
> > with
> > the Retore. Vista message is that I booted from a hard disk but that hard
> > disk needs to be reformatted. Vista then ask me to boot from a CD/ DVD and
> > try again. In and OEM installation, I have no means to boot up with a DVD
> > and
> > get to the Windows Recovery Enviroment since I do not have the Windows
> > Installation disk.
> >
> > Thanks
> > --
> > Gregory Sebastian
> >
> >
>
>

Unfortunately that is typical for OEM and one of the many reasons you
paid less for OEM.
The recovery tools will not necessarily be different for the more
expensive versions of Windows.

Generally the best options are included with the retail versions.

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org


"Gregory Sebastian" <> wrote
in message news:419A398D-C435-4104-B22C-...
> Thanks Chad,
> I paid quite a bit to get this laptop with Vista Ultimate
> preinstalled. I
> would have thought that I should get all the tools necessary to
> recover in
> the event of a disaster. This was the reason I purchased Ultimate in
> the
> first place.
>
> I couldn't get my hands on a Vista Ultimate disk so I had to order a
> disk
> replacement set from Microsoft. I already lost 1 week when my HD
> crashed .
> Now I need to wait another 5 days to have the disk shipped over.
> Huge
> dissapointment .
>
> Sorry for the rant. Thanks again to the tips and resources.
>
> Regards
>
>
>
>
> --
> Gregory Sebastian

Hi Jupiter,
> The recovery tools will not necessarily be different for the more
> expensive versions of Windows.
According the to the Vista product literature "Complete PC Backup and
Recovery" is only available in Business, Ultimate and Enterprices. It is not
available in Home Premium or Home Basic, here its just file backup only.
Thats why I chose Ultimate.

I am just finding out (at the time I need it most) that when you have an OEM
version of Ultimate, I only have the tools to do the Complete PC Backup. I do
not have the tools to do the Complete PC Restore. For that I need to borrow a
retail DVD set from a friend or to order a replacement disk. This is the part
I cannot understand. Other 3rd party disk image backup and restore utilities
normally allow us to create our own bootable repair cd/dvd.

> Generally the best options are included with the retail versions
Agreed. I don't find this a problem in desktops PC. But when you buy a
laptop, most of them come with with a preinstalled (OEM) license of Windows.
Maybe I didn't specfically look but I didn't find any coming with retail
copies of Vista.

Regards
--
Gregory Sebastian

Could you try contacting the OEM to see if they will ship you an OEM disk at
a minimal cost of shipping and handling? Dell did it for my friend.
--
Andre
Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
My Vista Quickstart Guide:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog...3DB!9709.entry
"Gregory Sebastian" <> wrote in
message news:A54E9CE8-A4C9-4D63-993F-...
> Hi Jupiter,
>> The recovery tools will not necessarily be different for the more
>> expensive versions of Windows.
> According the to the Vista product literature "Complete PC Backup and
> Recovery" is only available in Business, Ultimate and Enterprices. It is
> not
> available in Home Premium or Home Basic, here its just file backup only.
> Thats why I chose Ultimate.
>
> I am just finding out (at the time I need it most) that when you have an
> OEM
> version of Ultimate, I only have the tools to do the Complete PC Backup. I
> do
> not have the tools to do the Complete PC Restore. For that I need to
> borrow a
> retail DVD set from a friend or to order a replacement disk. This is the
> part
> I cannot understand. Other 3rd party disk image backup and restore
> utilities
> normally allow us to create our own bootable repair cd/dvd.
>
>> Generally the best options are included with the retail versions
> Agreed. I don't find this a problem in desktops PC. But when you buy a
> laptop, most of them come with with a preinstalled (OEM) license of
> Windows.
> Maybe I didn't specfically look but I didn't find any coming with retail
> copies of Vista.
>
> Regards
> --
> Gregory Sebastian
>
>

Chad Harris wrote:
> Hi Gregory--
>
> What you need to do is to borrow a Vista DVD (Ultimate, Enterprise, or
> Business) from someone in order to do the Complete PC Restore from the
> Win RE environment, i.e. from the Recovery Options Menu from the
> Recovery link of the Vista DVD:
>
> http://www.windowsvista.windowsreins...rtup/part1.htm
>
>
> A Guide to Vista Backup Technologies/Complete PC Restore
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tec...007/09/Backup/
>
>
> That's the only way you're going to do a Complete PC Restore. You won't
> need to use a Product Key to do this.
>
> CH
>
>

Chad:

What if you want to repair a Vista install that has some minor problems
and you don't have a backup? Can you automatically reinstall original
VISTA files to replace "damaged" files, using the DVD?

Gregory--

I'm sorry for all the production time wasted, and truly sorry for the hassle
you've been through. Many of us who are this into computers can empathize.
I'm replacing a failing hard drive as we speak, hoping to setup a Raid
1+Raid 0 array when I get my 3rd hard drive, but fortunately I was able to
recover using the three bootrec.exe switches (and the magnetism or a long
list of microscopic whatevers returned to my HD long enough for me to
manually drag and drop to my external in addition to backing up with Vista
and Acronis to the external and to DVD.

You might keep in mind that if you have a Vista no boot situation, even
though you have Ultimate, often the files that you are trying to fix and
replace with a Repair Install may be present on another edition of
Vista--you can't predict but odds are strongly that the damaged files might
be files in other editions of Vista as well that you may be able to borrow.

I know that MSFT is working on a number of interesting additional repair
tools for Windows that will be offered by them in the future.

Good luck,

CH


"Gregory Sebastian" <> wrote in
message news:419A398D-C435-4104-B22C-...
> Thanks Chad,
> I paid quite a bit to get this laptop with Vista Ultimate preinstalled. I
> would have thought that I should get all the tools necessary to recover in
> the event of a disaster. This was the reason I purchased Ultimate in the
> first place.
>
> I couldn't get my hands on a Vista Ultimate disk so I had to order a disk
> replacement set from Microsoft. I already lost 1 week when my HD crashed .
> Now I need to wait another 5 days to have the disk shipped over. Huge
> dissapointment .
>
> Sorry for the rant. Thanks again to the tips and resources.
>
> Regards
>
>
>
>
> --
> Gregory Sebastian
>
>
> "Chad Harris" wrote:
>
>> Hi Gregory--
>>
>> What you need to do is to borrow a Vista DVD (Ultimate, Enterprise, or
>> Business) from someone in order to do the Complete PC Restore from the
>> Win
>> RE environment, i.e. from the Recovery Options Menu from the Recovery
>> link
>> of the Vista DVD:
>>
>> http://www.windowsvista.windowsreins...rtup/part1.htm
>>
>> A Guide to Vista Backup Technologies/Complete PC Restore
>>
>> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tec...007/09/Backup/
>>
>>
>> That's the only way you're going to do a Complete PC Restore. You won't
>> need to use a Product Key to do this.
>>
>> CH
>>
>> ..
>>
>>
>> "Gregory Sebastian" <> wrote in
>> message news:A7E1BE5E-D37C-4806-B7DB-...
>> > Hi Chad,
>> > My laptop (HP with OEM Vista Ultimate) hard disk failed last week. The
>> > HD
>> > was replace and a factory installation of Vista Ulimate was restored.
>> > Its
>> > is
>> > working fine now but in Oct., I did a complete PC Backup to an external
>> > Hard
>> > disk. I now want to do a "Complete PC Restore" from my ext. HD. Vista
>> > help
>> > documentation says that I should tap F8 at boot up which brings be to
>> > the
>> > Windows Recovery Enviroment. Tried this and it works fine to a
>> > particular
>> > point. My Backup set was detected in an "F" drive. But I can't proceed
>> > with
>> > the Retore. Vista message is that I booted from a hard disk but that
>> > hard
>> > disk needs to be reformatted. Vista then ask me to boot from a CD/ DVD
>> > and
>> > try again. In and OEM installation, I have no means to boot up with a
>> > DVD
>> > and
>> > get to the Windows Recovery Enviroment since I do not have the Windows
>> > Installation disk.
>> >
>> > Thanks
>> > --
>> > Gregory Sebastian
>> >
>> >
>>
>>