How to get into RECOVERY hidden partition?

lokkers · 15 Jan 2006 at 13:17

My girlfriends laptop is getting very sluggish, and I am considering going for a fresh reinstall of the OS (XP Home).

However, the machine didnt come with any CD media, and I guess this is on a hidden partition called RECOVERY (see screenie). This doesnt show as a partition, so cannot be accessed via My Computer or the run prompt. Also a right-click in Disk Management only gives me a Help option, so I cant change the drive letter to something more accessable.

Question is, does anyone know how I can get access to this partition to get hold of the XP Home installation files which I guess are in there?

Caged · 15 Jan 2006 at 13:27

What PC is it? Try pressing F10 when its booting.

lokkers · 15 Jan 2006 at 13:38

ITs an Advent laptop, about 15 months old. I'll give F10 a shot

EDIT: Yep that took me into Advents own recovery app, giving me various options including a reinstall. But any idea how to actually browse this drive? I am old-school and i like doing it the proper way

Caged · 15 Jan 2006 at 14:10

How do you mean the proper way?

roughlad · 15 Jan 2006 at 14:35

youl probally find that you cant browes through all the files as a lot will be zipped or in a ghost format as it has been desigend so you cant just play with it.

lokkers · 15 Jan 2006 at 15:49

Caged said:
How do you mean the proper way?

Installation CD so i can control what is installed and where.

Caged · 15 Jan 2006 at 16:28

That's not gonna happen. It will likely as said above be a Ghost image. You won't be able to pull an XP disc off of that rcovery partition.