How can you tell if your computer has a system restore partition?

Question

A friend has WinXP netbook (by HP), and we're trying to figure out if it has a system restore (factory) partition on it. How can you tell? Does it show up as a disk on the "My Computer" window? Or is it only visible by other means?

Update: The model # is HP mini 1030NR. It's not looking promising: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01613138&cc=uk&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3832488

Answer 1

Try running diskmgmt.msc. If there's a (hidden) restore partition, you should find some partition that has no drive letter assigned.

Answer 2

The partition may not have a drive letter assigned to it. To see if the partition exists, right-click on My Computer and choose "Manage." In the left-hand pane, under Storage, click on Disk Management. All physical disks in the system and any partitions will be displayed in the right pane. If no partition is shown, it probably doesn't exist.

Answer 3

If it's the HP Mini:

To use System Restore follow these steps:

1. Turn on or restart the device, and then press the esc key repeatedly while the “F10 = BIOS Setup Options” message is displayed in the lower-left corner of the screen. The “System Restore” page opens.
2. Use the arrow keys to select System Restore, and then press enter.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to restore the system.

Answer 4

I have an HP Pavilion Elite e9262f, and it came with:

SYSTEM => WinRE + HP restore code (not mounted by default)

HP => Windows 7

FACTORY_IMAGE => HP factory image, copied to C:\ on restore. ('protected' by a shell extension)

It's pretty obvious just from My Computer, seeing that the FACTORY_IMAGE partition is typically mounted by default. If you're not sure, just open up Disk Management and check if it's there.