Preinstalled recovery options

[PaNdA]

I read that Vista Recovery options can be started from the bootable vista
dvd or, if computer manifacturer has provided recovery solution, can be
launched directoly by pressing F8 during boot and then selceting System
Restore.
My pc (Dell) has a recovery partition and vista recovery options starts by
pressing F8.
In this case there are standard options like: system repair, system
restore... command prompt and another option called Dell system restore,
that restore the pc at the same state when i received at home.
If i install another version of vista i will lose the preinstalled system
recovery options, how can i reinstall it in order to be accessible from F8
key and have the dell recovery option yet?
Remind that i have a separate partition on disk with Dell recovery files.

[peter]

if you do not touch that seperate recovery partition you will not lose the
option.............it will recover to the original OS.
So it really depends on how you wish to install that "other"
version.........upgrade what you have now..the recovery will put the old
back.
Create a 2nd partition and install that other version there.....the recovery
will revert it back.
Install a 2nd HD and install that "other: Vista there....the recovery
process will not touch it.
There are other options for recovery one of them is to Image/Clone the HD to
another HD and put that drive away in a safe place.

[PaNdA]

Now i have vista home premium 32bit on a single partition (raid 0); new OS
will be Vista 64bit and i will format that partition and install on it.
Obviously the recovery partition will never be touch, but i think that i
will not be able to run System recovery by hitting F8 during boot anymore.
What do you think about?

[Paul Randall]

I think that the F8 option is something provided in the master boot record.
I have no idea whether that will be screwed up by your formatting and
installing 64bit Vista. Maybe someone with actual experience will give us
some clues.

[PaNdA]

ok, but HOW the pc manifacturer install it on MBR (if is it) for the first
time?
it must be a way to install system recovery in order to run with F8, i'm
looking for that.

[Cal Bear '66]

Yes, from experience, a format will remove the F8 recovery option. However, if
Recovery DVDs are made from the Recovery partition, you can still reinstall the
factory setup (and, at least with HP, there must be only ONE hard disk in the
machine for a successful recovery from the DVDs, although it doesn't have to be
the original hd. The recovery process from DVDs will repartition, format, and
recreate the Recovery partition). This is my experience with the HP recovery
process.

[Paul Randall]

Do you think that if the person saved the MBR to a file with something like
MBRWiz, formatted the non-recovery partition, and then restored the MBR,
would the F8 option be displayed and it would work?

[Cal Bear '66]

I don't know.