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You might want to Tarentino this one, my question is at the end and you could read backwards as information is needed.... I have never posted a thread but the one thing I know is that there are a lot of smart people out there who want to help, but there is never enough info. If you have some time to kill and you are looking for a bone to chew on, I would really appreciate some advice.
Preamble: I apologize because this is still going to be long winded but I'm going to try and sum it up as quickly as possible while still including all of the necessary and unecessary details. I can save some of you some typing by stating some facts right off the bat: 1- Yes. I am an idiot. 2- I definately read and purposefully do not follow instructions because to me a computer is nothing more than an expensive toy to play with. You can do what you please with yours. 3- Everything I know about computers is based off of a mixture of trial and error, and years and years of awesome threads. I know just barely enough to be dangerous.
I am actually on the asking end of a post for the first time because for once time is on my side and I am not in a panic stricken dash to save my sinking ship. I have been stretching my rope for some time now, and I think I have finally positioned myself right in the middle of a pretty snug knot.
The machine in question:
HP pavilion dv6000 (notebook)
AMD Turion 64x2 (2.00Ghz)
4GB RAM (3.75 usable)
((don't even get me started on that.... some other day. but keep that in mind cause who knows....))
150GB hard drive (~147GB) as follows:
C: Local Disk 130GB/111GB free
D: DoX (just documents and such) 998MB/103MB free
E: AMADOIR (random other storage) 7.02GB/1.08 GB free
F: HP_RECOVERY 10.7GB/1.01GB free
Ok so about a month and a half ago or so I was on a gaming tangent and decided I was going to see if I could go against the grain a little and try to squeeze some extra juice out of this notebook (obviously I was just spinning my wheels) but I did end up finding a new tangent which turned out to be way more time consuming than any game would have been anyways.
I was running the factory installed 32-bit windows VISTA with 3GB RAM, I decided that a slightly noticable performance increase would be worth a complete OS overhaul and I came across windows 7. I couldn't resist. So I swapped out the 1GB card with a 2GB card (now 2X2), burned the 64-bit image of build 7048, and set up my hard drive as it is above. My thinking at the time was that between the HP recovery partition and the backup partitions I had set up for my random odds and ends that I would be covered in a near worst case scenario. (I know better, but ***k it.)
I booted the disk and did a clean format/install on C: and despite the excitement and hype it went disappointingly smooth. No problems other then a random IE tab crash every once in a while which it actually fixes and restores the tab usually before I even noticed anything was going on. Pretty impressive for a beta. The only driver I had to putz with was a missing graphics driver which I was able to substitute with a Vista64 driver until windows recently sent me the new one. Somehow (and this is where it starts to get tricky) they even managed to package all of my program files and windows files into a nice compact 75GB folder which it must have used to string together any other missing drivers during the install. After everything was up and running smooth I shredded it and let it defrag.
Despite the fact that My Computer>Properties still claims that I have only 3.75 usable GB out of 4, I actually noticed a pretty significant increase in complete performance. Wether it was the smoother OS, the 64 bit upgrade, or the increase in memory remains to be seen, probably just a slight increase from each made a nice difference.
Fast Forward: After a month or so of extensive use the whole system was lagging and running like crap even though I was still only maxing out at 45% RAM and peaking 45-75% CPU. I attributed this to a huge variety of downloads with a crappy virus set up while I was waiting on McAfee to get around to it. Last week I found a working beta McAfee suite that set up and ran like a champ, but performance still sucked (I know McAfee is slow, what I mean is performance didn't change). Yesterday I had a couple cups of coffee in me and got to thinking that if the install and supposed "format" kept all that 75GB of windows junk through the install that it probably kept plenty of other junk as well and I decided that it wouldn't hurt to try and reformat/start over with a clean install and a nice virus suite.
This time when I got to the clean install option I clicked a box that said- format all by itself, before I clicked install and the action only took a few seconds at most. I didn't actually think it had done anything until I completed the install and found a bite size C: drive and a couple of "issues".
1- Windows can not find my internal microphone. I installed the factory drivers and it claims that there is no device to "apply" them to, so to speak. recording>properties tells me that I don't have a mic plugged in. Lots of threads on solving sound issues but havn't found near this particular issue. Least of my concerns.... just a clue.
2- I now have a missing driver for an SM Bus Controller and a Coprocessor whichwere not flagged on the previous install and have no useful information, and can not fix themselves.
Individually I could probably fix these issues but I am concerned that I have done some more damage than I planned. After the clean install, performance is sticky and piss poor even with RAM sitting still at 25% and CPU peaking under 40%.
After careful consideration I came up with the evil geneous plan which I though would solve all my problems at once. I got another cup of coffee and decided I was going to hit up the recovery partition and head back to Vista32, clean out all the garbage, and then drop a new clean 7 over that, in theory bringing me back to where I was a month ago, but wiser.
No such luck. F11 is no longer a functioning button at the BIOS screen (still listed during the momentary pause in startup, but not operational) if I hold it down the system waits for me to let go and then loads 7. The closest I have gotten is into the windows recovery center, and then into a command prompt where I was able to change to the desired directory, but I really didn't know what to do when I got there and the only folder on the F: drive was empty. Back into windows My Computer still shows 9.6GB of something on the drive but there is nothing hidden and again, one folder (RECOVERY). Empty.
I have found some good idea's but I think my best move at this point is to look for some advice.
-HP recovery disks (lame and brings about feelings of giving up...)
- Link Removed - Invalid URLtalks about manually writing the image over windows and kinda working backwards which I am open to, but this plan is flawed for my situation... empty folders.
-Someone mentioned installing a certain version of Linux which would add the recovery partition back into the MBR, but I know nothing about Linux and that seems like the same situation that got me into this in the first place.
My fear (worst case scenario) is that my original 64-bit w7 install did not format anything or somehow the switch from 32 to 64 was flawed in some way possibly doing damage to the processor causing a slow decay in performance. (maybe the "3.75 usable RAM" is indicating 32-bit parameters ?) no idea if that makes sense.
OR
My most recent install somehow affected the recovery partition and may have wiped it clean in the process.
My question is, is there a way to bypass w7 or build my own boot image which would direct the system to boot from the recovery partition or am I fighting a losing battle?
Thank you if you are still reading this, and I would appreciate any guidance/suggestions you might have to throw out there.
Preamble: I apologize because this is still going to be long winded but I'm going to try and sum it up as quickly as possible while still including all of the necessary and unecessary details. I can save some of you some typing by stating some facts right off the bat: 1- Yes. I am an idiot. 2- I definately read and purposefully do not follow instructions because to me a computer is nothing more than an expensive toy to play with. You can do what you please with yours. 3- Everything I know about computers is based off of a mixture of trial and error, and years and years of awesome threads. I know just barely enough to be dangerous.
I am actually on the asking end of a post for the first time because for once time is on my side and I am not in a panic stricken dash to save my sinking ship. I have been stretching my rope for some time now, and I think I have finally positioned myself right in the middle of a pretty snug knot.
The machine in question:
HP pavilion dv6000 (notebook)
AMD Turion 64x2 (2.00Ghz)
4GB RAM (3.75 usable)
((don't even get me started on that.... some other day. but keep that in mind cause who knows....))
150GB hard drive (~147GB) as follows:
C: Local Disk 130GB/111GB free
D: DoX (just documents and such) 998MB/103MB free
E: AMADOIR (random other storage) 7.02GB/1.08 GB free
F: HP_RECOVERY 10.7GB/1.01GB free
Ok so about a month and a half ago or so I was on a gaming tangent and decided I was going to see if I could go against the grain a little and try to squeeze some extra juice out of this notebook (obviously I was just spinning my wheels) but I did end up finding a new tangent which turned out to be way more time consuming than any game would have been anyways.
I was running the factory installed 32-bit windows VISTA with 3GB RAM, I decided that a slightly noticable performance increase would be worth a complete OS overhaul and I came across windows 7. I couldn't resist. So I swapped out the 1GB card with a 2GB card (now 2X2), burned the 64-bit image of build 7048, and set up my hard drive as it is above. My thinking at the time was that between the HP recovery partition and the backup partitions I had set up for my random odds and ends that I would be covered in a near worst case scenario. (I know better, but ***k it.)
I booted the disk and did a clean format/install on C: and despite the excitement and hype it went disappointingly smooth. No problems other then a random IE tab crash every once in a while which it actually fixes and restores the tab usually before I even noticed anything was going on. Pretty impressive for a beta. The only driver I had to putz with was a missing graphics driver which I was able to substitute with a Vista64 driver until windows recently sent me the new one. Somehow (and this is where it starts to get tricky) they even managed to package all of my program files and windows files into a nice compact 75GB folder which it must have used to string together any other missing drivers during the install. After everything was up and running smooth I shredded it and let it defrag.
Despite the fact that My Computer>Properties still claims that I have only 3.75 usable GB out of 4, I actually noticed a pretty significant increase in complete performance. Wether it was the smoother OS, the 64 bit upgrade, or the increase in memory remains to be seen, probably just a slight increase from each made a nice difference.
Fast Forward: After a month or so of extensive use the whole system was lagging and running like crap even though I was still only maxing out at 45% RAM and peaking 45-75% CPU. I attributed this to a huge variety of downloads with a crappy virus set up while I was waiting on McAfee to get around to it. Last week I found a working beta McAfee suite that set up and ran like a champ, but performance still sucked (I know McAfee is slow, what I mean is performance didn't change). Yesterday I had a couple cups of coffee in me and got to thinking that if the install and supposed "format" kept all that 75GB of windows junk through the install that it probably kept plenty of other junk as well and I decided that it wouldn't hurt to try and reformat/start over with a clean install and a nice virus suite.
This time when I got to the clean install option I clicked a box that said- format all by itself, before I clicked install and the action only took a few seconds at most. I didn't actually think it had done anything until I completed the install and found a bite size C: drive and a couple of "issues".
1- Windows can not find my internal microphone. I installed the factory drivers and it claims that there is no device to "apply" them to, so to speak. recording>properties tells me that I don't have a mic plugged in. Lots of threads on solving sound issues but havn't found near this particular issue. Least of my concerns.... just a clue.
2- I now have a missing driver for an SM Bus Controller and a Coprocessor whichwere not flagged on the previous install and have no useful information, and can not fix themselves.
Individually I could probably fix these issues but I am concerned that I have done some more damage than I planned. After the clean install, performance is sticky and piss poor even with RAM sitting still at 25% and CPU peaking under 40%.
After careful consideration I came up with the evil geneous plan which I though would solve all my problems at once. I got another cup of coffee and decided I was going to hit up the recovery partition and head back to Vista32, clean out all the garbage, and then drop a new clean 7 over that, in theory bringing me back to where I was a month ago, but wiser.
No such luck. F11 is no longer a functioning button at the BIOS screen (still listed during the momentary pause in startup, but not operational) if I hold it down the system waits for me to let go and then loads 7. The closest I have gotten is into the windows recovery center, and then into a command prompt where I was able to change to the desired directory, but I really didn't know what to do when I got there and the only folder on the F: drive was empty. Back into windows My Computer still shows 9.6GB of something on the drive but there is nothing hidden and again, one folder (RECOVERY). Empty.
I have found some good idea's but I think my best move at this point is to look for some advice.
-HP recovery disks (lame and brings about feelings of giving up...)
- Link Removed - Invalid URLtalks about manually writing the image over windows and kinda working backwards which I am open to, but this plan is flawed for my situation... empty folders.
-Someone mentioned installing a certain version of Linux which would add the recovery partition back into the MBR, but I know nothing about Linux and that seems like the same situation that got me into this in the first place.
My fear (worst case scenario) is that my original 64-bit w7 install did not format anything or somehow the switch from 32 to 64 was flawed in some way possibly doing damage to the processor causing a slow decay in performance. (maybe the "3.75 usable RAM" is indicating 32-bit parameters ?) no idea if that makes sense.
OR
My most recent install somehow affected the recovery partition and may have wiped it clean in the process.
My question is, is there a way to bypass w7 or build my own boot image which would direct the system to boot from the recovery partition or am I fighting a losing battle?
Thank you if you are still reading this, and I would appreciate any guidance/suggestions you might have to throw out there.
