How to know if the recovery hidden partition is compromised or not? Maybe I have to do a factory recovery of my pc (HP) and I need of DVDs for the recovery. But if I'm sure that the hidden partition isn't compromised, I can do the recovery without DVDs. So, how do I know if the partition is good or not?
At POST time it may say something like "Press F8 to enter setup, Press F12 to enter recovery"... Try recovery. Many modern computers (Even Mac's now) give you a recovery partition. If it is compromised, it isn't the end of the world. Contact HP parts department and they can get you some restore disks. I enjoy working on computers and have had to get disks from HP, Toshiba, and Sony. I don't remember the price, but I do remember Sony wanted a lot of money to overnight me disks. It sucks that PC manufacturers (and now even Apple) don't always give you the disks. Many allow you to create your own. My HP allowed me to make a recovery flash drive. I don't know the prices, but you can call parts department. HP wasn't the most pleasant when I was trying to buy a new CPU fan and keyboard for one laptop, and a new battery for another (I at times buy broken laptops or computers on eBay and fix them for toys)... I ended up just going online and buying non-OEM parts that worked fine.... but you will need OEM restore disks. Although at times I've just used MSDN disks and installed Windows on computers and just entered the serial number on the COA sticker, so its a nice legal install, and just install drivers and software myself.
HP disks cost 48 euro. The problem isn't the cost, but the fact that I have to buy them on internet with a Visa card. And I don't have a Visa. I can't do the disks by myself becausethe computer isn't new anymore and it isn't make sense. If the partition isn't compromised, why I have to do the disks? However, if I try the recovery and I find the partition compromised, what happens? How can I restart the computer normally?
Windows applications don't see the recovery partition. Malware on the computer are also programs, always remember that. They are limited as much as any other programs in your computer is limited. If the User Account Control of Windows is enabled, you are running as a standard user and not an admin most of the time. Programs you run (and don't run, but run automatically like viruses) inherit whatever user capabilities you have, they cannot touch a hidden partition.
Your recovery drive MAY OR MAY NOT be directly visible by Windows Explorer. It depends how everything was set up. Regardless, try using the recovery partition first. If it fails, then order a set of disks. Most systems I've repaired.... there are ways to access the volume within Windows, although some try to mask/hide them.... If you know what you're doing, you can mess them up. As far as 48 Euro's, I don't know what that is into USD conversion. And I do understand about it being a new computer. The HP computers I've dealt with recently only let me make one set of recovery disks, which is upsetting, as I keep such disks in binders... and I'd prefer to have one set for a binder that I keep, then give the other set to someone I may be doing tech work for.... There are ways around that, but regardless... Get yourself back up, recovery disks aren't a bad thing to have. Especially if you encounter something like hard drive failure, and you're installing the new one yourself. Good luck.
Really? :icon_bigg I got 5 viruses but they were removed successfully by Avast!2014 I did some scans with some programs found on the microsoft website and the results are all negative. They were found only 346 damaged files, all removed. So, if I understood well, a virus cannot go to the hidden partition? If so, then when an hidden partition could be "compromised"? Only, for example, computer fall down?
I already understood that but my question was another one. -> How can I try to use the partition? Do you mean that I have to try the recovery? In Start -> Computer I see both (C and (D and this one is called RECOVERY and occupies 14 GB.
When the computer comes on and you get your BIOS "splash screen", where it says HP or somewhat... You should see something like, "Press ESC for more options", or a "Press F<something> to enter setup" and a "Press F<Something> for recovery". Something like that.
