no recovery partition

[historian]

My hp is acting up very badly and i know it desperately needs a format. However, i have used Acronis Home for back up purposes. If i format then i have to go into the bios and setup the booting sequence. When i press f11 (as the menu says) it simply bypasses and goes straight to windows. If i format the hard drive then restart it with my external drive with the back up connected, will the computer go straight there? I know it will search for an hd but since there isnt one ready for use would it by default search for something else? thanks

[CK_John]

1. Couple of question. Is this a laptop or pc? Why not clone with acronis?

Why format vs defrag? Why is bios envolved? HP uses F10 to get the restore partition.

[historian]

2. its a laptop

and i defrag, clean, delete prefetch, temp internet files and cache religiously once a week. I used to format my old computer every 6 moonths and it worked a lot better for a long time. since mine is becoming temperamental i think i should format. However, by pressing f11 (which the menu says to press although ill try f10 and see what happens it simply bypasses and goes to windows!

[CK_John]

3. Warning F10 sets your machine back as it came from the store, only an Emergency option.

You can use Acronis and boot the cd (if you have a reader) and then restore the backup from your secondary disc.

Note: Acronsis 9 will handle WinXP ok but you will need version 10 for Win Vista or 7.

[canetoad]

4. Go into your bios set up first

by whatever method your computer uses (try tapping the delete key as it boots if all else fails) and check that you have support to boot from USB. On my computer (Award Bios) this is found in the boot sequence list, Advanced Bios Features. Yours may be different.