Grrr.... Vista Factory Image Recovery

[Schadenfreude]

I have an HP Compaq Presario C700 with a Vista recovery partition on x:. Right now, the startup/repair option comes back with, among other things, "Baddisk". When I do a chkdsk /r, the error it comes back with is cannot do Chkdsk, File Format is RAW.

So I am doing a factory image recovery (presumably from the Vista recovery partition) and I have checked the box that says "Reformatting the Windows partition of your hard disk drive".

1 hour later, 0% Progress and the disk light flashes at a regular interval.

How long does one wait before shutting down, buying a new hard disk, and re-installing. And would someone please explain where these Vista files are in partition X? I am assuming they are just another partition of the hard disk that is being reformatted, but I don't know for sure. If I do buy a new disk, I am assuming I need to get a set of recovery disks from HP as I didn't make a set before this happened. This is just the kid's laptop, they surf and they game but don't create data of any importance so I am not worried about the data loss from this last debacle.

Why do they have to make this such a bloody mystery? Asshelmets.

[kenth]

It may be just some bad blocks in the main partition. Since the recovery partition is booting, it doesn't sound like the entire drive is shot. One  thing you could do is download the drive manufacturer diagnostics. The laptop should be able to boot from cd. The long run diags usually will repair the drive by moving bad blocks to a good area of the drive. If there's just too much damage, it will let you know that too.

[Schadenfreude]

It may be just some bad blocks in the main partition. Since the recovery partition is booting, it doesn't sound like the entire drive is shot. One  thing you could do is download the drive manufacturer diagnostics. The laptop should be able to boot from cd. The long run diags usually will repair the drive by moving bad blocks to a good area of the drive. If there's just too much damage, it will let you know that too.

Thanks kenth, I am just wondering if I should halt this process that is now reformatting the windows partition? It is still at 0%. There are no options to Cancel, I would need to do a hard shutdown.

[kenth]

I probably would by now. It's trying to get past bad blocks and the os format can't fix them.

[Chris]

Run the hard disk test from the BIOS menu.  You should get a specific error message.