[urgent] Formatting laptop, need help

I'm planning to reinstall windows and format my hard drive on my DV6 6121tx.
I have a few questions.

1) I have created the 3 recovery discs, do I need a separate windows disc to install windows or is it possible with the recovery DVDs?

2) Should I format only the C: drive or also the D recovery) drive?

3) Can I simply partition my C: drive while installing windows or are there some complications?

4) Will the recovery discs contain drivers etc. too?

 

1) Typically, The recovery DVDs include the Windows installation files. Just pop one in and see if it starts trying to install. That'll tell you if it is an install DVD.

2) Only format the C drive. That is where Windows is installed. The D drive is your Recovery partition. But you could format th D drive if you feel that the DVDs will last you for the life of the computer.

3) Yes. It's pretty simple.

4) Typically, yes.

 

I tried booting from the recovery DVD, but it just launches HP's system recovery tool. It has a few interesting options like 'Factory Reset', 'System Recovery' and 'Minimized System Recovery'. HPs website says all of these would install HP 'essential software'

I want to erase my harddisk (except the recovery partition) and install fresh Windows 7 without any HP crapware. And also want to create another partition in the process.

Should I skip the crap and simply install windows from a Windows 7 iso downloaded from Microsoft? (Since I can't seem to find a way to do it via the recovery CDs)

EDIT: There isn't any risk of losing warranty is there?

EDIT2: Also, I just noticed my HD Space is shown as 596.17GB. My model was supposed to have 650gigs. Where's the rest?

 

Hi,

The HP disc set will install your windows, and setup a new recovery, system, and tools partition on your drive, in effect wiping everything from your harddrive if the factory reset option is used. If your still under warranty, I'd go this route, then uninstall all the bloatware.

Optionally, you can simply install from a windows setup disc. To match your windows license, make sure you use an OEM setup disc of the same windows version. This souldn't effect your warranty, but if you need warranty service, they probably won't support any software issues.

Your harddrive space is easy to explain. Literally, a "k" byte is 1000 Bytes, but the windows operating system uses 1024 instead of 1000 (2 to the 10th power).

This means 1gigabyte is equal to 1024x1024x1024 Bytes (1,073,741,824 bytes)

Harddrive manufactures measure capacity in K=1000 byes, not K=1024. This is proper to do so because "K" literally means 1000, not 1024, but since it's easier for a computer to use 1024, all microsoft operating systems have done it this way.

Your 650GB drive should have approx 650 billion bytes, but calculated by windows operating system it will show less.

 

^^All of what he said I concur with.

 

Yes, using the Recovery Disc will reinstall everything back like when you first got the laptop including a recovery partition and this includes the 'crap' wares too. I use Revo Uninstaller to delete unwanted programs. If you really want to clean install you can use the serial number under the laptop but might have to call the call center to activate Windows.