HP Recovery Disc question!

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Aesrin

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Hi, first time on these forums

Now that that is out of the way, i was wondering if there is any way that i can use my HP Recovery discs to restore my OS, drivers etc. WITHOUT deleting all my files. I understand all my programs will be uninstalled, but that`s no biggie. I have many files dear to me which i have no means of backing up (about 100gb worth).

Any help would be appreciated!
 
wondering, here, too, why you are wanting to do this. Perhaps there is a better way to resolve the issue with which you are dealing.
 
I apologize, it seems my post was lacking detail

I recently installed vista, and i hate it! Driver problems up the ying-yang, plus i cannot load certain programs for they were created for xp

I am trying to get my XP back without losing all my files, and i was told the only way to do this was to use my recovery disc(s). I was also told that the recovery discs restore the computer back to factory settings, deleting all files

My computer was bought at clearance, and so i have no XP discs, only the hp recovery discs
 
Did you perform an UPGRADE to VISTA, or install it on a seperate partition of the hard drive? Was this a PURCHASED version, or pirated?
 
This was a purchased version, NOT an upgrade (a full version). I did a clean install, formatting my hard drive and all that good stuff. I did not install it on a separate partition.
 
If you did a clean install, and formated the hard drive, any files that WERE there, would have been wiped out at that point.... Did you have a seperate drive or disc's that the files were stored on prior to your formatting the HDD and installing Vista?
 
I have another hard drive that i cannot seem to successfully hook up to my computer. It is an ata 100 drive. I backed up all my files onto this hard drive using a hard drive enclosure (the ata is internal) which i borrowed from a friend of mine. My friend lost his hard drive enclosure (so he says) and so i cannot retrieve my files this time. If there is no other way to get XP back without losing all my files, i will buy an enclosure for my old ata drive.

But i would really rather not have to go out and spent 50$ on something when it is not necessary !
 
Re:

Hello,

HP / Compaq offer a recovery mode known as 'non-destructive recovery'. A non-destructive recovery replaces the system files with the original OS files, leaving your personal data files (like files in my documents) intact. It's the same as Windows XP Repair.

However, it is not possible to perform a non-destructive recovery using the HP recovery discs because you currently have Windows Vista installed, not the original OEM operating system which the recovery CDs have written on them (Windows XP).

The same goes with Windows XP Repair. If you have Windows Vista installed, you can't use the repair function of a Windows XP Home Edition disc to install Windows XP onto the PC, because there is a different OS installed.

The only solution I can think of is backing up your data on a seperate medium, then re-installing Windows XP using the HP recovery discs.

I was going to suggest creating a new partition on the drive, shifting all the files you want salvaging onto that partition, then installing the OS using the HP recovery discs. But unfortunately this wouldn't work because HP recovery would format the drive entirely, then create two partitions (a recovery partition, and the OS partition), meaning that the partition you created with all your backed up data files would be lost.
 
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