Vista repair disc.

[Broni]

CD Creator.exe may be a hidden file. Make sure, that in Windows Explorer>Tools>Folder Options>View, you have view of hidden files enabled.

[patio]

It's been there all along...and yes it's a hidden file.

[Broni]

It's been there all along

Before SP1?

[patio]

Yep.

[SuperDave]

SP1 installed and still no recovery under maintenance. I still can't find C:\Windows\sminst\CD creator.exe. Is this the correct path?

[Broni]

Stupid me....
CD creator.exe is simply this:

My HP Recovery CD maker.

So we're back to square one:

SP1 installed and still no recovery under maintenance.

I don't have it, either.
patio?

[patio]

Long Zhen's site that you referred to says it all....but it doesn't neccessarily require SP1 to do it.

[Broni]

Aha. I found out:
http://www.istartedsomething.com/20080324/recover-create-a-recovery-disc-vista-sp1-rtm/

For unknown reasons, the functionality was then pulled out of the final release of SP1. If you look inside your system files, you can still find recdisc.exe which is the utility’s executable, but clicking on it does not launch anything. The shortcut in the Start Menu was also removed, indicating it was removed on purpose.

However, as described in the above article, it can be restored.
I'm gonna give it a shot. I'll post back.

[Broni]

It worked nicely.
You have to take full ownership of the old file, as described in the above article.

[SuperDave]

Fortunately, my laptop came with a Toshiba create recovery disk program which I've already used to create my recovery disks.

[Broni]

I have them too, but those disks are different species. They will return your computer to its day one status: Vista + all OEM crap.