Computer Image

The Vista recovery drive is essentially an image of the operating system that the manufacturer puts on all new machines. One image can be used to transfer to hundreds if not thousands of hard drives that get installed on new computers. However, if the image is corrupt in any way, it cannot be used to restore the computer.

Location

The location of the recovery drive is on the same hard-disk drive that has the installed copy of the operating system. The recovery drive is a virtual drive because it is a partition of the physical hard drive. The disk will appear within My Computer as Recovery (D:). It is important to not remove or delete any data from this virtual drive.

Operating-System Files

The recovery disk contains all the files that are needed for the operating system. When a restore or reinstall is done, the Vista setup program runs from the recovery drive. This will reformat the hard-disk (C:) partition and then install all new system files.

Hardware Drivers

The Vista recovery disk contains drivers for the current hardware installed on the system. This would include hardware such as a sound card and video card, as well as a TV tuner card. These drivers may not be the most current, but they are the original drivers for the hardware components that are installed on the system.

Third-Party Applications

Applications or other software products that have been installed from the manufacturer will also be included on the Vista recovery disk. This can include pre-installed software products from HP as well as Dell. Types of software can include programs such as PowerDVD as well as imaging programs such as Photosmart.