This is going to be a copy/paste of the report that I gave to the client with some info added/removed. The summary is at the end.

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PROBLEM
Machine is HP G6. Client is unable to boot into Windows. Checks show that drive is crashed and requires replacement. Tests were done with tools on the UBCD including manufacturers' tools.

PROCEDURE
Booting with utilities show that the primary partition is non-existent. Data recovery software was used to recover the partition and recover files from this primary partition. Software that I've purchased that is. I push some of these products when I do some posts, but not getting into much details now - just know that some free utilities sometimes work better/faster than the paid ones.

Checks with hard drive utilities show that SMART has been tripped and the drive will need a replacement. Based on the errors it would seem that bad sectors are at the beginning area of the drive and somewhere within the first 1GB of the drive - in a place where it will affect the data area of the drive where either Windows files are or the clients data. Access to the recovery partition was fine from what I saw.

While the drive is defective, some areas of the drive are still readable and the recovery partition was copied immediately to the new drive and recovery attempted. This failed regardless of the process used. The HP recovery manager would not "see" the recovery files even though the F11 recovery boot was done.

A full copy of the original OS partition was done using recovery software which took excess of 12 hours due to bad sectors on the drive (the drive is defective) and repairs to the file system were done on the new drive to allow Windows to boot.

Once the drive booted into Windows using the clients existing profile a check was done on the availability of the recovery environment. This would not load and constantly crashed when Windows booted normally. Booting in SAFE MODE allowed the application to run but certain services are not available in SAFE MODE and the recovery application couldn't read the power or battery state of the laptop - this would prevent the recovery discs from being created.

A restore of the WIM file available on the recovery partition was done and it appeared as though the installation would complete, however immediately after the update and reboot the system wouldn't load Windows. Checking again with utilities showed that the script deleted all partitions from the drive - this means that the recovery information may have been corrupted due to the bad sectors on the drive when a recovery was attempted inadvertently by the client earlier.

Multiple attempts at restoring the WIM failed. It should also be noted that restoring the WIM directly showed Windows 7 Starter and not Home Premium for which there is a COA underneath the laptop.

Technician then attempted to run a setup of Windows directly and use the COA to do the install. This was successful. Downloading the recovery media builder from HP was unsuccessful as an error message kept being displayed that the recovery software could not be setup on the computer.

Technician then attempted to restore the original (corrupted & virus infected) image and clean it up to get the recovery working. Virus and spyware was removed and files modified and edited to attempt proper pointing to the recovery environment but this failed. Attempts to restore sections of the WIM to the already installed and working OS also failed with either reboot loops or wiping of one or all partitions on the drive.

The technician then attempted to load Windows using the COA and extract individual files from the WIM to locate the base installation files for the recovery environment. This was successfully done and the technician is now burning the recovery discs which was used to restore the system to factory settings. A backup of the customer data was already done to external media and the files were copied back to the drive to allow the client use of their system with minimal disruptions.

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So to make it short - if you find that you can't get the recovery working then go through the extracted files of the WIM and find the SWSETUP folder - look for the recovery manager setup in there and use it. That will actually install on the system unlike the one you download from HP - which seems to just update the existing one..........very silly.

Bear in mind that none of this would work if the drive was so far gone that it would have to be taken to TredLabs. She was fortunate. Very. Any other tech would have just formatted and left it at that - especially when the drive kept on wiping the partitions due to some errors in the installation script. Total time it took me was 3 days.