Do HP OEM Vista Restore Discs function after installing Windows 7 RC?

MustaphaMond · ‎06-01-2009

The post title pretty much says it all. I'd like to test drive the Windows 7 RC, but I'd also like to be able to go back to Vista at some point. It seemed like the restore discs didn't do a complete reinstall last time (it reset windows pretty quickly). If I load Windows 7 RC, will I be able to use my HP Restore discs to put Vista back on my system later?

Thanks,

Pete

Daniel_Potyrala · ‎06-01-2009

Hi,

Vista backup. How to do it all informations here.

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SWY · ‎06-01-2009

Whether your specific set of restore discs work really depends upon whether they were created successfully; however, a working set of restore discs certainly should work. At least with my Pavillion DV-4-1287CL, Recovery Manager also continued to work after an upgrade to Windows 7 and then a reinstall via clean install without formatting. In the first instance, it works with no additional steps, in the second, I just needed to copy the app over from c:windows.old\program files(x86)\sminst. Unless you have reason to do so, while a clean install is the best route, I wouldn't recommend doing a format with a clean install since all of your drivers are preserved under the Windows.old folder and (model dependent) the swsetup folder. Windows 7 might not find drivers for all devices (five in my case) but on my machine all of the Vista drivers worked fine - just needed to point the manual driver update function to the appropriate folde runder windows.old or swsetup. BTW, while the Vista drivers that shipped with my laptop work under Windows 7, the same is not true of some of the recent updates on the website.

Oh, one last thing would be to do any bios upgrades before installing Windows 7 since the Flash bios installer is not yet certified for Windows 7 (no surprise since it is still a developmental OS)....

Stephen

Message Edited by SWY on 06-01-2009 05:45 PM

MustaphaMond · ‎06-02-2009

Thank you both Daniel and Stephen!

I had a hunch that was it, but just wanted to be sure.

Stephen, I'd never thought about the bios certification. I would be able to perform future bios upgrades once I roll back to Vista, correct?

Thanks,

Pete