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You know how large manufacturers like hp and toshiba, as well as others have a fast and simple recovery partition built in, that can reinstall windows and drivers, as well as built in software in 20 minutes or less? How can i do that on a build your own pc, that is not manufactured by a company? Does it need any extra software, and if so, which ones? This will be a great help, because reinstalling windows takes a while, and uploading drivers is a heck of a pain!! Examples of manufactured recovery software include recovery partitions from hp like recovery manager, etc. That is what i am looking for. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

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Dani AI

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Short expert note: as suggested, the core idea is an image-based restore — manufacturers ship a small bootable recovery environment plus a prebuilt image. For a DIY PC the reliable workflow is the same: prepare a clean "master" install, capture it as a single image, put that image on a hidden recovery partition, and create a WinPE-based recovery boot entry that runs an automated restore. With the image stored locally and an automated script, restores can be finished very quickly on modern hardware.

Practical workflow (high level):

  • Prepare the master image: install OS, updates, required drivers and the apps you want. Remove personal data and run Sysprep to remove hardware-specific identifiers before capture.
    sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown

    See Microsoft Sysprep docs for details.

  • Capture the image from WinPE or a live environment (capture to a WIM or VHD). Store it on a small hidden NTFS recovery partition (size to suit your compressed image).
  • Build a tiny WinPE recovery partition that contains an automated script to apply the image (DISM or imagex) and then run bcdboot to rebuild the boot files. Add a BCD boot menu entry so the machine can boot the recovery environment (the F11-style experience). See WinPE documentation for creating custom recovery media.
  • Test the full restore to a blank disk before trusting it.

Tips and cautions: sysprep changes system state and should be used only on master images; activation and OEM software behave differently after generalization, so confirm licensing. Keep an external copy of the image, update the image after major updates, and keep a USB rescue stick as a fallback. For a free alternative imaging path see Clonezilla; for custom WinPE builds see Microsoft WinPE docs.

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Member Avatar for Laser

You can create an image of your entire system with vista's Backup and Restore Center, which you can save to a hard drive or burn to one or more dvds.

There are also 3rd party solutions like Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image.

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can you do this an any vista version?

Member Avatar for Laser

Yes, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate.

Member Avatar for forumdude123

how?

Member Avatar for Laser

Oops ! My bad, Backup Entire System feature is NOT available in Vista Home Basic or Home Premium editions.

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that's what i thought!!

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