Member Avatar for NUKEM@LL

first off hello all great site been a great help for the silly things i find go wrong with the software on my computers .
ok here we go .......
vista (hate it)
but a young friend of my daughters has asked me to sort out her computer for her . said i would then found out it is running vista .
right , vista stopped booting just a black screen , went through all the things i know (my brains run xp lol) i can under stand that .
tried the vista start up recovery but it locked at (start up repair) and ran for 2 days . ok i forgot it was running
tried most things but could not get to the command promt when i asked the unit to repair my computer it went strate to the start up repair screen again . so was left with what i thought was the only answer F11 .
but NO pressed this and just got a black screen and the hdd stopped .
2 days reading google posts and it seemed that if i got the computer to boot from a vista disk and repair it should be ok .
but no got a working copy of vista pro that needs to be activated .
but i can still not start the unit from F11 to recover the packard bell os .
can any one help
i can now get to the command prompt and checked the drives .
drives on the computer .
c: main hdd
d: recovery hdd
x: vista start disk
how the hell can i get the recovery drive to start .
or if i get the code for the fujitsu vista pro disk (off a unit from work) will this activate pro ????
any help will be great .
thanks

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Brief, practical add-on for this thread (for situations where Windows won’t start and the Packard Bell F11 recovery key won’t launch): do not run a factory restore until you have copied any personal files off the disk. As correctly pointed out, the Packard Bell Recovery Management tool runs from inside Windows — if you can only reach a command prompt, force-booting the hidden recovery partition is usually the next step.

If you have a command prompt from WinRE (or a Vista DVD), use DiskPart to make the recovery partition active so the machine will try to boot it. Replace the partition number below with the small OEM partition number shown by DiskPart:

diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
list partition
select partition N    # N = the recovery partition number
active
exit

Before rebooting, back up user files to an external USB drive. Example (substitute drive letters you see in WinRE):

diskpart
list volume          # note the USB drive letter
exit
xcopy C:\Users\*.* E:\Backup\ /E /H /K

If marking the recovery partition active does not start the recovery, the recovery boot code may be damaged. From WinRE try repairing the boot area (this targets Windows boot issues — run these from the recovery command prompt):

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /scanos
bootrec /rebuildbcd

If those fail or the recovery partition is corrupt, you will need recovery media. OEM recovery discs from another manufacturer (for example, a Fujitsu OEM disk) often won’t behave correctly on a Packard Bell system and may not activate; the safest routes are (a) use a retail Vista DVD of the same edition with the COA key on the Packard Bell, or (b) request official Packard Bell recovery media/support. After any factory restore, restore the original OS partition as active and rerun the bootrec commands so Windows boots normally.

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Member Avatar for 110108

first off hello all great site been a great help for the silly things i find go wrong with the software on my computers .
ok here we go .......
vista (hate it)
but a young friend of my daughters has asked me to sort out her computer for her . said i would then found out it is running vista .
right , vista stopped booting just a black screen , went through all the things i know (my brains run xp lol) i can under stand that .
tried the vista start up recovery but it locked at (start up repair) and ran for 2 days . ok i forgot it was running
tried most things but could not get to the command promt when i asked the unit to repair my computer it went strate to the start up repair screen again . so was left with what i thought was the only answer F11 .
but NO pressed this and just got a black screen and the hdd stopped .
2 days reading google posts and it seemed that if i got the computer to boot from a vista disk and repair it should be ok .
but no got a working copy of vista pro that needs to be activated .
but i can still not start the unit from F11 to recover the packard bell os .
can any one help
i can now get to the command prompt and checked the drives .
drives on the computer .
c: main hdd
d: recovery hdd
x: vista start disk
how the hell can i get the recovery drive to start .
or if i get the code for the fujitsu vista pro disk (off a unit from work) will this activate pro ????
any help will be great .
thanks

To reinstall Windows Vista and all pre-installed software and drivers:

1. Click Start, All Programs, Packard Bell, then click Packard Bell Recovery Management. Packard Bell Recovery Management opens.
2. Click the Restore tab, then click Restore system to factory default. The Confirm Restoration dialogue box opens.
3. Click Yes, then click Start. A dialogue box displays information about the hard drive that the operating system will be recovered to.

Caution: Continuing the process will erase all files on your hard drive.

4. Click OK. The recovery process begins by restarting your computer, then continues by copying files to your hard drive. This process may take a while, but a Packard Bell Recovery Management screen shows you its progress. When the recovery has finished, a dialogue box prompts you to restart your computer.
5. Click OK. Your computer restarts.
6. Follow the on-screen prompts for first-time system setup.

Member Avatar for NUKEM@LL

To reinstall Windows Vista and all pre-installed software and drivers:

1. Click Start, All Programs, Packard Bell, then click Packard Bell Recovery Management. Packard Bell Recovery Management opens.
2. Click the Restore tab, then click Restore system to factory default. The Confirm Restoration dialogue box opens.
3. Click Yes, then click Start. A dialogue box displays information about the hard drive that the operating system will be recovered to.

Caution: Continuing the process will erase all files on your hard drive.

4. Click OK. The recovery process begins by restarting your computer, then continues by copying files to your hard drive. This process may take a while, but a Packard Bell Recovery Management screen shows you its progress. When the recovery has finished, a dialogue box prompts you to restart your computer.
5. Click OK. Your computer restarts.
6. Follow the on-screen prompts for first-time system setup.

thanks but
No can do
as i have said the original os is not on the computer .
i need to start the recovery from the hdd recovery partition the main os is now a copy from work vista pro .
but the recovery partition is still there but F11 does not work

Edited by NUKEM@LL because: n/a
Member Avatar for dvleut

but what if my notebook doesn~t start up at all ? where can i get (accept at packard bell) the recoverie cd`s or a link? thanks

Member Avatar for jingda

Are you trying to recover Vista?

Member Avatar for Lubuyi

I can not switch on my computer

Member Avatar for caperjack

I can not switch on my computer

hi, hard to say why with such little info from you to go on, but i will say 2 thing broken off/on button ,or bad power source

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