Issue with HP Pavillion DV6 recovery disk

[johnshields]

Hello,
I hae an HP Pavillion DV6 with Windows Home Vista. I created the only recovery disk I am allowed.
I installed Ubuntu and the systems have been co-existing for a couple of years. Recently, though, the Windows side has gotten sick.
When I try to use the D: recovery Partition or the recvery disk I created from same shortly after purchase, I get the same scenario. It formats the windows partition, loads s/w does a restart does setting up windows and then dies.

 

[phil22]

Possibly faulty hardware, but to start with I would test the hard drive if only to eliminate that as the culprit. You can't test it with any Windows-based diagnostic utility so you'll need to test it with a diagnostic utility that loads from a bootable CD.

Try SeaTools for DOS: http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/

or Hitach Drive Fitness Test (CD Image): http://www.hgst.com/support/index-files/simpletech-legacy-downloads

Both downloads are ISO files from which you can make a CD using IMGBurn on a working PC: http://www.filehippo.com/download_imgburn/

When you've made the CD, boot your DV6 from it and the testing software will shortly load.
(You may have to bring up the Boot Menu on your PC & select CD/DVD Drive as the boot device, or go into BIOS Setup and change the first boot device to CD/DVD Drive).

 

[johnshields]

Best answer selected by johnshields.