formatting recovery partition on HD

i just got a HP dv3t and since i was not able to burn the recovery DVD, HP is sending one to me. do i still need to keep the recovery partition on the HD if i already have the DVD? i want to wipe the HD clean and install win7 to avoid any of the bloatware crap that comes with it. will there be any problems if i delete this partition?

also, if i used acronis to image the HD, i'm assuming i still can't put back the recovery partition after it's gone since the MBR will be different than HP's factory settings right?

 

It depends. How comfortable are you with your laptop in performing maintenance on it? The recovery partition contains all your drivers, the OS, pretty much everything you need to get your laptop back up and running if something were to happen to your C: drive.

And we just aren't talking chipset, videocard, sound drivers either. We're talking all the little things too such as the fingerprint reader driver and touch sensitive media buttons (if applicable). Upgrading to a new OS without driver support for them could render some of these inoperable (obviously).

If you're comfortable with doing laptop software/OS/driver installs, then no. As long as you have some way to back this partition up (which you should do anyway out of habit) then you shouldn't have any problems. My only concern would be tracking down drivers for your laptop that are compatible with Windows 7...

If you perform a full backup (sector by sector) of the hard drive, including the partition, you should be able to image that backup directly back to the HDD in the event that something goes wrong. Regardless, the disc that HP is sending you should have all your drivers, OS, programs etc. that initially shipped with your laptop.

 

Garetjax, much thanks for the detailed answers. this actually is not for me, its for a girl friend of mine. i know fully well how to build, maintain, upgrade, and tweak desktops and notebooks, but the problem is that she is almost computer illiterate. she won't be able to recover to factory condition or put back the recovery partition if i delete it. i actually made an image (not sector by sector though) on the first boot up so recovery shouldn't matter, but i'd hate to just go through the steps to instruct her on recovering by the HD image i made.

my real question is if the recovery DVD is needed in conjunction with the HD recovery partition. if it's not, then no point in keeping the partition on there. anyways, thanks a lot, i'm about to format it in an hour, so if i'm wrong on this, please anyone let me know asap before i start it