I recently tried to restore windows vista to original factory settings from the Recovery partition that came with my computer. However, I mistakenly made the recovery partition active because I thought that was part of the process.
Now the computer is trying to boot from the wrong partition and thus saying things like "BOOTMGR missing press alt ctr del to restart"
I do not have a recovery disk or the original installation. I have a recovery disk from another computer that I thought was going to work but when it showed me the recovery options it said it was incompatible with this machine.
Is there some way I can access a command prompt so I can reset the correct partition through diskpart or something similar?
and here is a link to download a recovery CD: Windows Vista Recovery Disc Download — The NeoSmart Files It is completely legal, does not contain Install.win, so it is small and cannot install an operating system, but it is a torrent, so if you have any trouble, just ask. You will need to download it onto another computer, and then make a CD of it, so any questions, just ask.
1 x 640Gb (SATA 300)
Western Digital: WDC WD6400AAKS-75A7B0
1 x 1Tb (SATA 600)
Western Digital: Caviar Black, SATA 6GB/S, 64Mb cache, 8ms
Western Digital: WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 ATA Device
PSU
Stock PSU - 375W
Case
Dell XPS 420
Cooling
Stock Fan
Mouse
Advent Optical ADE-WG01 (colour change light up)
Keyboard
Dell Bluetooth
Internet Speed
120 kb/s
Other Info
ASUS USB 3.0 5Gbps/SATA 6Gbps - PCI-Express Combo Controller Card (U3S6)
Great! Thank you. That sounds like exactly what I need. Although, I'm guessing I will still have to fix the partition problem somehow...but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I'm going to give this a shot and then I'll be back if there are any problems!
I regret to report back that this isn't going to work. I'm afraid that I need to get to a command prompt somehow to change the active partition first. My computer thinks that the C drive or partition 0 is the recovery partition and this isn't right. The operating system is on the other partition and I need to make this active. A boot CD won't help until I can get to a command prompt or somehow change the partition order.
Do you think I should remove the hard drive and connect it to another working computer and set it as a logical drive and then change the active partition that way?
but there is only one option listed and it's not the operating system partition it's the recovery partition so when I hit next it gives me an incompatible message.
What I can do, and maybe this is wrong, is click "Load Drivers" and then it brings up "My Computer" and lists all my drives and partitions there. If I knew where the drivers were on the image I could direct it there.
Does anyone know the path to the drivers? I have full access to the image but it's looking for some boot driver I'm guessing and i don't know where exactly it is.
Either that or some way to get to a command prompt to tell the computer that I want the other partition. :S I tried right clicking each drive and it doesn't let you change it there.
It worked! thanks for the help. These boot disks are amazing. I thought the partition would trip it up but it detected which one had the OS and fixed everything.
It worked! thanks for the help. These boot disks are amazing. I thought the partition would trip it up but it detected which one had the OS and fixed everything.
1 x 640Gb (SATA 300)
Western Digital: WDC WD6400AAKS-75A7B0
1 x 1Tb (SATA 600)
Western Digital: Caviar Black, SATA 6GB/S, 64Mb cache, 8ms
Western Digital: WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 ATA Device
PSU
Stock PSU - 375W
Case
Dell XPS 420
Cooling
Stock Fan
Mouse
Advent Optical ADE-WG01 (colour change light up)
Keyboard
Dell Bluetooth
Internet Speed
120 kb/s
Other Info
ASUS USB 3.0 5Gbps/SATA 6Gbps - PCI-Express Combo Controller Card (U3S6)
or the original installation. I have a recovery disk from another computer that I thought was going to work but when it showed me the recovery options it said it was incompatible with this machine. 
