problem Accessing HDD Recovery Vista Home Premium SP2

Hi

 

My 84 year old mum has a laptop running Vista Home Premium that really needs to be reset to factory settings so she has a clean (although not very good) laptop. The problem I'm having is that I can't access the HDD Recovery for some reason. I just don't get the option when pressing "0" or "F8" at start up. It's a Toshiba satellite Pro and doesn't seem to have the "My Toshiba" folder anymore. I can howeveer see the HDD recovery on the D (data) drive.

 

So I've been searching the web looking for possible fixes and came across an old thread from the daily-grind.net that seems to be a fix and I wonder if someone could just run their eye over it for me to see if it sounds legit.

 

The steps are as follows:

 

Boot up using the recovery disk (I don't need to do this I can boot into windows fine it's just very slow & cluttered)

 

Open an elevated Command Prompt.

 

Type DISKPART

 

Type LIST DISK

 

Select disk n (there is only one) in my case.

 

Type LIST PARTITION and make a note of the partition I need to make active. In my case I have three partitions showing. Partition 1 Type: OEM Size: 1500 MB Offset: 1024 KB. Partition 2 Type: Primary Size: 56 Gb Offset: 1501 MB. Partition 3 Type: Primary Size 55 Gb Offset: 57 Gb. Now when I look in "Computer" it shows the C drive as 55.7 Gb and the D drive (where the recovery is stored) as 54.5 Gb so I'm guessing its Partition 3 that I'm interested in?

 

Anyway the next instruction is to type SELECT PARTITION n which I think is 3 but please could somoene confirm.

 

The instructions then say change the partition to NTFS by typing SET ID=27 OVERRIDE and then make it active by typing ACTIVE.

 

From there it just says reboot from the hard drive and the recovery partition should start up.

 

So please could someone confirm or deny whether this will work.

 

Many thanks

 

Fritz

 

 

if you have another working computer you can just create a windows vista install USB,

 

boot the computer with that, which will wipe the drive and re-install vista,

 

having said that, i don't recommend using vista anymore,

 

what is the model number of the computer?

 

it might be able to handle windows 10,

 

you could also just run linux mint on it from a USB drive, or install linux mint

 

there are other options besides vista, which would be better

Hi

 

Thanks for the quick reply.

 

I've other computers that work but none that run Vista.

 

It's a Toshiba Satellite Pro L300-1AD and it's pretty awful. I think my phone has better specs.

 

I did suggest that my mum buys a new laptop but she's 84 & the idea of new tech scares the pants off her.

 

Anyway, your answers given me another idea.

 

I can boot into Vista on her laptop fine its just real slow once booted up so now I'm wondering if I create a recovery disk from the laptop then that might then allow me to access the  system recovery menu and then use the Toshiba HDD Recovery partition to re-install?

 

Fritz

If all your mom uses the computer for is basic email and browsing then I would put a light linux distro on it. Vista is no longer supported with security updates and once you do a clean install getting any updates to download is a chore. Doing any kind of banking or online purchases is a security risk. What is the model number of the Toshiba and how much RAM do you have?

 

In regards to you question. Making the partition 3 active may work but you need to make sure partition 1 or 2 is not marked active. You can find out by listing the partitions, select partition x, then detail partition. Partition 3 should already be formatted NTFS. 

 

diskpart

list disk

select disk x

list partition

select partition x

detail partition

 

Is this the procedure you used to get to the Recovery Partition at boot?

 

 •1) Hold down the power button for ten seconds to switch off your machine •Please note: Holding down the power button on the machine forces it to switch off. Any unsaved data will be lost.
•2) Press and hold the zero key and at the same time, tap the power button once to switch on your notebook
•3) When the machine starts beeping, release the zero key
•4) When prompted by the warning screen, select Yes to continue with the system recovery
•5) Select Recovery of Factory Default Software and click Next
•6) Select Recover to out-of-box state and Click Next again
•7) Click Next to Start the recovery

you would be a lot better off running Linux on it

Making the partition 3 active may work but you need to make sure partition 1 or 2 is not marked active.

 

He's impossible to do this wrong. Marking partition 3 will automatically unmark any other. Also it can be done much easier using disk management, and preparations need to be made to reverse it to the current system partition unless you're very confident the recovery environment will do this job. Leaving the action unreversed will cause Vista to not boot.

 

Regards, VZ

 

Making the partition 3 active may work but you need to make sure partition 1 or 2 is not marked active.

 

He's impossible to do this wrong. Marking partition 3 will automatically unmark any other. Also it can be done much easier using disk management, and preparations need to be made to reverse it to the current system partition unless you're very confident the recovery environment will do this job. Leaving the action unreversed will cause Vista to not boot.

 

Regards, VZ

 

Thanks. Would it not be possible to mark the system partition back to active using a bootable partition manager like Gparted? It allows you to manage the boot flag (active) on any partition outside of windows.

 

Edit: I still think putting a light linux distro on the computer is the way to go

Edited by JohnC_21, 21 September 2020 - 04:58 PM.

Would it not be possible to mark the system partition back to active using a bootable partition manager like Gparted?

 

Sure. 

Hello FritzCT,

If this Toshiba Satellite Pro L300-1AD has only 1 GB of RAM installed, then Vista would never run very well no matter what you do (and the same goes for Windows 7+). However, that might not be the case because memory is expandable (check System information on the laptop). In fact there might not be any real problem with her Vista installation. Have you tried running sfc /scannow from an elevated command prompt? Unless it finds corrupt files that cannot be fixed, a factory restore would be a great deal of trouble for nothing. I couldnt really recommend a factory restore in any case, now that Windows Update no longer works for Vista or XP. (XP would actually run better than Vista with 1 GB RAM, and software support is not significantly worse at this point.) That old factory image might very well be corrupt by now. Honestly, a Windows 10 laptop or a Chromebook would be my thoughts, but adding more RAM to the laptop (I would suggest 3 GB for 32-bit Vista, with 2 GB as the absolute minimum) might be worthwhile.

... I can boot into Vista on her laptop fine its just real slow once booted up so now. ..

Hi FritzCT:

Further to Abzyx's suggestion in post # 9 about adding RAM to this system, I'd also suggest you permanently disable automatic Windows Updates [Windows Update | Change settings | Important updates | Never check for updates (not recommended)] and re-boot to terminate any Windows Update sessions currently running in the background on your Mom's computer.  Windows Update has not delivered any security updates to Vista SP2 computers since extended support for this OS ended on 11-Apr-2017, but as far back as August 2015 many Vista SP2 users noticed a problem where Windows Update would hang on "Checking for updates..." and consume huge amounts of CPU (e.g., 100% CPU activity on a single core CPU, 50% CPU activity on a dual core CPU).  These "Checking for updates..." hangs became progressively worse and Windows Update would run for hours (or days) without running to completion, and Vista SP2 users who didn't realize that Windows Update was saturating an entire CPU core and take steps to fix the problem would see their browser response time and general system performance degrade over time.

Microsoft permanently deactivated the Windows Update servers for Win XP and Vista computers on 03-Aug-2020 (see the VistaForums FAQ What To Do if Windows Update Hangs or Throws an Error [UPDATED August 2020]) so you can't run a manual Windows Update now to see if your Mom's computer was affected by these "Checking for updates..." hangs, but that's just one more good reason to disable automatic Windows Updates on Vista SP2 machines so they aren't wasting system resources.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Malwarebytes Premium v3.5.1-1.0.365
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Hi Imacri:

I suppose the Vista system described at the bottom of your post is no longer in service? Windows Update does not hang anymore: It gives an error code within a matter of seconds (not that there is any good reason to have WU enabled, but it cannot be a major contributor to FritzCTs current issues). Also, your FAQ link to another forum has an image of a specific error code that has never actually been seen on Vista, and btw it also includes a suggestion that appears to violate Microsofts legal rights.

I shouldve asked FritzCT which legacy browser the laptops owner prefers to use?

your FAQ link to another forum has an image of a specific error code that has never actually been seen on Vista

 

That's a good point. MS themselves confuses folks at help article 4569557 by appending images of unrelated error codes and improper categorization of Windows 7 fixes to SHA-1 endpoint discontinuation.

Hi all

 

Many thanks for the replies, I'll try to address each query.

 

She uses the laptop for webmail only and it only has 1 Gb of RAM.

 

Yes, I used the hold down 0 method to try to access the recovery partition. 

 

Diasabling Updates didn't help but I ran sfc /scannow which detected errors and fixed them. I can't see what it repaired as I get Permission Denied when try to open the log BUT it seems way less laggy since doing this. It's still slow but that might just be because its slow anyway.

 

Chrome is my mum's preferred browser.

 

I'll give it a couple of days to see how she gets on but I can see a Linux distro going on or a new laptop on the horizon.

 

Thanks for the help, its very much appreciated.

 

Fritz 

I would add another 1GB of RAM.

 

https://itsfoss.com/lightweight-linux-beginners/

Hi Imacri:

I suppose the Vista system described at the bottom of your post is no longer in service? Windows Update does not hang anymore: It gives an error code within a matter of seconds (not that there is any good reason to have WU enabled, but it cannot be a major contributor to FritzCTs current issues).....

 

Hi Abzyx:

 

No, my 32-bit Vista SP2 test machine still runs well and I have no problems accessing the webmail sites for Windows Outlook.com or my ISP (Shaw Communications) with my Firefox ESR v52.9.0 browser with this machine.  However, I have a Win 10 laptop so my Vista SP2 machine only gets booted up when I'm helping other Vista users troubleshoot their problems or I want to test an application on a machine with a 32-bit OS.

I only mentioned the "Checking for updates..." hangs in case FritzCT's mom had noticed a gradual decrease in performance over time that has now reached a critical point and is causing problems with her webmail.  My Vista SP2 now throws an error code 80244019 (the third error shown in https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4569557/windows-update-sha-1-based-endpoints-discontinued) since Microsoft deactivated the Windows Update servers for Win XP and Vista in early August 2020 . I applied the fix to ensure my Vista SP2 machine was patched to end of extended support on 11-Apr-2017 and my "Checking for updates..." hangs stopped a long time ago so this error 80244019 pops up relatively quickly, but I have no idea how the latest Windows Update Agent wuaueng.dll v7.6.7600.256 for Vista SP2 behaves now (e.g., if it tries to check the updates in the local update catalog wsusscn2.cab before the connection to the backend Windows Update servers fails) or how long these Windows Update error codes take to appear for Vista SP2 users who have never fixed those old Windows Update hangs.  I believe you also fixed the "Checking for updates..." hangs on your Vista SP2 machine (and applied Win Server 2008 patches released after Vista SP2's end of support on 11-Apr-2017) so it's always possible our experience could be different from FritzCT's.

I didn't see any harm in mentioning past problems with Windows Updates since disabling automatic Windows Updates and re-booting is a very simple test that someone can try if they're having performance issues on their Vista SP2 machine.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Malwarebytes Premium v3.5.1-1.0.365
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Edited by lmacri, 23 September 2020 - 05:05 PM.