[Grav!ty]

This is a great feature, particularly for those folk with Windows 7 pre-installed and who DO NOT have a Windows 7 installation DVD.

Windows 7 when installed as the only operating system to it's own hard drive creates a small separate System partition. On this partition it places the boot system files and access to a complete set of recovery tools, including Startup Repair, System Restore, Complete PC Restore and the Command Prompt. These and more recovery options are available WITHOUT having to insert and boot to a Windows 7 installation DVD.

In the past with Windows Vista, folk without an installation DVD either had to borrow one from a friend, download and burn one, or restore their systems to state in which they received them, losing all settings and independently installed programs in the process. This also makes providing online support to these folks a cinch!


Select the Ramdisk Options to access the Recovery Options



The file loading process is the same as when booting to installation DVD






Select a keyboard layout



Log on with your administrator password



Full access to all the recovery options

[kd1966]

That's pretty awesome... Kind of along the same lines as the OEM's creating the "System Restore" partition, but the Win7 version will actually be USEFUL instead of just wiping out the HDD's and reinstalling a basic image......... I always hated those things....

[Grav!ty]

Yeah that will be very useful. I don't know yet if it is available in a dual boot or multi-boot when Windows 7 is installed AFTER the other operating systems and does not create the small System partition.

[imnuts]

I wonder if they set this up due to the number of OEMs that are no longer shipping disks with computers? I'm sure they've gotten thousands of calls where just having installation media available to repair the system would have saved a lot of trouble. The only problem is, will OEMs actually keep the setup partition there or will they remove it in favor of their own restore partition?