# Easiest way to create a hidden recovery partition?



## Nic2k83 (Jul 6, 2008)

Ok, here's what I want to do.

If I was to build a new pc from scratch and install windows 7 home premium, how would I go about creating a bootable hidden recovery partition on the hard drive, so I could reformat it back to these settings at any point if needed? 

(like the proper manufacturers do themselves, normally loaded by pressing one of the F keys)

Thanks for your help.


----------



## Jay_JWLH (Apr 30, 2008)

Ah yes, my motherboard in particular lets you create one of those. Quite a useful feature, that I don't really use.

What you can do is store a partition containing a backup, and restore from that when the time is right, even though you will need a optical disk to begin the restore process using the backup program. You won't be able to get something like one of the F keys when your computer starts up like most manufacturers do, but you might be able to give it the option when choosing between boot choices when your computer starts.

How to create custom recovery partition - MSFN Forum



> You won't be able to get it to start by hitting F keys, but you can modify your boot loader to boot into a hidden recovery partition.
> 
> I've used grub for this in the past. Have a "System Recovery" option in the list and set the timer to 1 or 2 seconds. "System Recovery" boots into a scripted DOS or WINPE partition which has at least a couple of prompts to back out (incase you boot into it by accident) and eventually restores the system partition back to the original image.
> 
> ...


http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/763147


----------



## Squashman (Apr 14, 2005)

Just in case you didn't Google Search.
Recovery Partition - Create - Windows 7 Forums
‪How to Create a Recovery Partition in Windows 7.avi‬‏ - YouTube
‪Creating a Windows 7 Setup Recovery Partition with a Clean Install‬‏ - YouTube
Upgrade to windows 7--- Make a Recovery Partition yourself - EASEUS Data Backup, Data Recovery, Partition Manager Blog
Windows 7: Create a recovery partition


----------

