HP Pavilion G7 - cannot access system recovery

[Hksand]

Ok, I am trying to do a system restore rather than a factory reset for my laptop. I cannot access the system recovery tool as it is greyed out, and after reading some other blog posts here and trying their solutions, none of that is working either.

I have a recovery partition on the d: drive, plus a memory stick as well; When I run recovery media creation, all it does is take me back to the recovery screen where restore is greyed out.

I've tried doing the f11 boot trick, and all I get is an option to start windows normally: it does NOT give an option to do a recovery or reset.

For the love of christ, can someone tell me how to un**bleep** this thing so I can get this done? And I dont want guesses, I want a REAL solution.

[WAWood]

Hookersandblow

Hello;

Allow me to welcome you to the HP forums!

System Restore does NOT do what most folks think it does.  Most folks thing it sends the PC back in time to the restore date -- but that is NOT what is does.  When you do a Windows Update, a copy of all the system files that are being overwritten is saved.  When you do a System Restore to that date, all it does is overwrite the current system files with the copy that was saved. 

If that is what you want done, you do NOT have to use HP Recovery Manager to do that; instead, that is an MS function you can invoke yourself.

If this is not what you want done, please provide some details on what you want to accomplish.

We can proceed when you provide the information.

Thanks

[Hksand]

I'm trying to do a system recovery as per http://support.hp.com/ee-en/document/c02638587

"The System Recovery option does the following:

• Reformats the system drive. The system drive is the hard drive where the current operating is installed (such as the C: drive).
• Re-installs the original operating system on the system drive.
• Re-installs all original hardware drivers.
• Re-installs all original trial software.
• Does not remove or disrupt any customer-created partitions."

The problem is that the HP software to do this is disabled, as can be seen in the picture from the 1st posting in this thread

[WAWood]

OK, thanks for the clarification.

From your description, it sounds like the recovery information is corrupted, somehow; otherwise, pressing F11 would get you the system recovery you want.

You said you tried creating new recovery media, but that would not work, right?

In that case, your only recourse is something known as HP Recovery Media.

HP Recovery Media is a set of DVDs and a CD, or USB stick, that will erase the hard drive (removing all data, settings, and applications, reinstall the original OS, drivers, and some HP Utilities. In some cases, you may be able to order a USB stick instead of disks. You have to order these from HP; they can not be downloaded.

You can look online for Recovery Media starting with the linked paged: http://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers

Once there, input your Product name or number. On your Software and Drivers Download page, select your Operating System and and Version. Click "Update". If HP Recovery Media is available for your machine, down near the bottom of the page, you will see an entry for Order Recovery Media-CD/DVD/USB. Click the "+" symbol to expand that entry and click on Order Media for details.

Or, if you prefer, you can do the same by contacting HP Customer Service:

If you live in the US or Canada, contact information is on this page: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/phone-assist.html#section1

If you live elsewhere, contact information is on this page: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/ww-contact-us.html

NOTE: After you get through, stay on the line until you are finally able to talk to some one -- it can take a while!

If you have trouble finding a phone number, then try: 1 (800) 474-6836

If HP no longer provides Recovery Media for your model, a couple of other sites you can check are: http://www.computersurgeons.com/ and http://www.restoredisks.com/

Good Luck

[pcpunk]

Are you sure of what you want, because what you were saying is you want a System Restore, but are suggesting doing a Factory Reset from Recovery Partition.

"Ok, I am trying to do a system restore rather than a factory reset for my laptop."  

Factory Reset from Recovery Partition will Erase all your Personal Data, is that what you want?  If so you can go into Partition Manger, Right Click on Recovery Partition, and Select Mark as Active, and re-boot into Recovery.  

Warning, this will erase all your Personal information as I understand it, and will set your pc back to factory specs, and probably fix the Recovery Manager also.

pc