Hp recovery

Question

i have a hp dv 9500 and i did not get any recovery dvds with it however i do have a recovery partition on it.here is the problelem: i can not access that partition with the F11 function when i start up the machine. this i since i installed another vista on the machine and i tried the dv9400 recovery partition on it and it did not work.i need your help please because have of the drivers are not installed and it is driving me up the wall