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    HP 6730b Vista Recovery disks

    Discussion in 'HP' started by stelphi, Nov 10, 2008.

  1. stelphi

    stelphi Newbie

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    Hi all,

    Last week I have obtained one HP 6730b with Vista Business preinstalled. Inside the box I found only Windows HP recovery disk, no Vista DVD's were present. I have searched over the internet how to obtain the Vista DVD's, but the only solution was to burn them again with the HP Recovery manager or buy them from HP.

    The problem is that the HP Recovery manager is not installed and I can not make a duplicate of the Vista recovery partition. As well I don't want to buy these DVD's from HP again. It wont be fair to pay twice for the same thing.

    Does anybody has similar problems? Thanks in advance.

    Best regards
     
    stelphi, Nov 10, 2008
    #1
  2. Johnny T

    Johnny T Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Weird, I'd call up HP business support and see what they have to say. It is also weird because if it HP Recovery manager was supposed to be on your computer, it should also be on the HP driver support site, which it is not as I have just checked.

    Worst comes to worst, submit a case at HP ITRC and see what they can do for you. :)
     
    Johnny T, Nov 10, 2008
    #2
  3. stelphi

    stelphi Newbie

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    Hi Johnny T,

    Thank you for the help. I have also tried to download the software from the HP's site, but the Recovery manager was missing.

    Unfortunately I'm unable to field a case in HP ITRC Support Case Manager, because I need to assign a valid support agreement to my account. As you may gues I dont have one.

    Anyway, I have posted a new thread in the HP forum, but the response ratio there is not high.

    Best regards
     
    stelphi, Nov 10, 2008
    #3
  4. bAsem

    bAsem Notebook Consultant

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    am sorry but i don't see where the problem is .. if u say u have the recovery dvds then ur fine !!! the recovery dvds have vista on them along with the drivers and other hp software .. so if u have those u can't ask for anything else from hp .. u r even more lucky than me co i had to make the recovery dvds myself

    correct me if i got this wrong :)
     
    bAsem, Nov 10, 2008
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  5. stelphi

    stelphi Newbie

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    I have recovery disk for Windows XP. HP 6730b comes with Vista preinstalled and has downgrade option to XP.

    I need the Vista recovery DVD's and I can not burn them because the HP Recovery manager is missing. Inside the box are only the Windows XP recovery disks.

    Regards
     
    stelphi, Nov 11, 2008
    #5
  6. bAsem

    bAsem Notebook Consultant

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    my advice to you is to use any backup utillity like clonezilla(open source) or acronis true image(not free) .. and do a backup of the vista y have now with your programs and your updates and sp1 .. coz the recovery partition doesn't have sp1 in it .. that's what i did anyways :)

    hope this helps

    http://clonezilla.org/
     
    bAsem, Nov 11, 2008
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  7. stelphi

    stelphi Newbie

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    This sounds like a solution. Nevertheless I prefer to create by myself the Vista Recovery DVD.
    Later this evening I will try to install HP Recovery Manager from HP 6710b. If this doesn't work I will make a backup copy with Acronics True Image.

    By the way - the recovery partition contains Vista Business with SP1 integrated.

    Thanks for the help.
     
    stelphi, Nov 11, 2008
    #7
  8. chrixx

    chrixx Product Specialist NBR Reviewer

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    It's odd that you have the recovery partition, but not the HP Recovery utility to burn the DVDs. All standard notebook images are preloaded with this software during production.
     
    chrixx, Nov 11, 2008
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  9. sjordi

    sjordi Notebook Geek NBR Reviewer

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    As far as I know, you can't reconstruct the recovery disks.
    Your only option is to Ghost the two additional partitions.

    Previous HP laptops came with a utility to
    1- burn recovery discs (Vista preinstallation tool) and drivers
    2- reclaim the partition once the dics were burnt

    This is not the case with the 6730b and this is a big mistake (I think).

    Also the documentation clearly states that if you want Vista, you need to buy it on the market! Believe it or not, HP pretends that the only solution is too keep those recovery partition on your hard disk.
    Now if you crash that disk, or update that disk, you lose everything.
    No more Vista, no more drivers.
    Vista should be bought, the drivers downloaded.

    You do have a Vista serial number though, don't you? Maybe you can download a set of Bista Business Demo 60 day trial version and then register it with your serial number.
     
    sjordi, Nov 11, 2008
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  10. Johnny T

    Johnny T Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Yeah the serial works for both XP and Vista in this case.
     
    Johnny T, Nov 11, 2008
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  11. deeastman

    deeastman Notebook Deity

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    deeastman, Nov 11, 2008
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  12. stelphi

    stelphi Newbie

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    Yesterday I downloaded the HP Recovery Manager 4.0.31 (16 May 2008) (sorry, I still can't put a link in my text because I don't have 15 posts).

    The installation was without problems, but when I started the process for creating recovery DVD, I received the following message: The recovery partition could not be found. My recovery partition is in healthy condition and I even restored again the drive C: to fix all the mess caused by the experiments.

    I have spend enough time to fight with this problem, so I will make a backup copy of all partitions with Acronics True Image. I'm HP fan since last century, but I must admit that HP are a big disappoint this time.

    Thanks to everybody for the help.

    Best regards
     
    stelphi, Nov 12, 2008
    #12
  13. sjordi

    sjordi Notebook Geek NBR Reviewer

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    sjordi, Nov 12, 2008
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  14. stelphi

    stelphi Newbie

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    Well, at least we have official proof that I can not burn by myself the Vista Recovery DVD. I will contact my local HP representative to elaborate solution.

    Best regards
     
    stelphi, Nov 12, 2008
    #14
  15. sjordi

    sjordi Notebook Geek NBR Reviewer

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    Me too.
    But I really do think this is ridiculous anyway. A business machine should come fully "equiped" with recovery DVDs or a way to create them.
    Oh well.
    Anyway, I have decided to "UP"grade to XP for performance issues. Won't need Vista anymore.
    Maybe HP had that in mind when deciding not delivering Vista DVDs?
    :)
     
    sjordi, Nov 13, 2008
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  16. BigRicky

    BigRicky Newbie

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    I am in a slightly different boat here.

    After finally losing patience with another vendor we've moved wholesale to HP and for the execs we've bought 6730b's with all the trimmings. As HP can't system build ones unless you order over 250 units we opted to upgrade the disks ourselves.

    Anyway we successfully created the HP Recovery Disks (4 x 4.7Gb DVD-R's) but we cannot get the machine with a fresh clean HD in it to boot. Not sure if this is an HP or MS Vista problem.

    I've spoken to tech support and once they understood about their technote saying it wasn't possible agreed to send me the recovery disks, but they come from Poland so I can expect a week to 10 days delay :(

    Any suggestions on how to get these disks to boot the system gratefully received.
     
    BigRicky, Nov 18, 2008
    #16
  17. sjordi

    sjordi Notebook Geek NBR Reviewer

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    BigRicky,
    by default, the 6730b comes with a SATA mode different than IDE, called AHCI. Maybe that's the reason you cannot boot.

    Turn the laptop on, and press F10 in order to enter into the BIOS.
    I don't have it handy but you have a section, I guess the Device section, and then you can set the SATA mode for the hard disk.

    YOU MAY LOSE THE DISK INFORMATION IF YOU DO THIS. So be sure to first entirely backup your machine (Ghost or TrueImage if possible).

    Switch it to IDE and save the changes, reboot.
    Does this help?
     
    sjordi, Nov 19, 2008
    #17