HP Recovery without disks

I installed Adobe CS2 on my laptop and something went buggy. I uninstalled it and now Norton Internet Security will not work it just gives me an error message that it stopped working and shut down. I used the Norton Uninstall tool and all went well. Tried to reinstall it and it will not install. So I tried Avast and AVG instead because I know Norton is horrible anyway, both will not install! They just give an error message that they stopped working, I tried run as an admin and even tried installing in diagnostic mode through msconfig. A couple of other things went buggy also, I use frostwire for downloading and now I get an error message when I go to run the program " Frostwire was unable to load Java Runtime Environment. Please check version and reinstall" The problem is I reinstalled it 3 times and still no luck.

Too late for a long story short but, I never burned recovery disks. My question is I have 2 HD's with all my saved data on my second drive. If I use f11 to do a restore do I need to save the data elsewhere? Will it reformat the second drive also? I have never used f11 or did a recovery, any tips? Anything anyone wants to add if maybe this problem is easier to fix than doing a recovery.


My system specs:
HP Pavilion dv9500t customizable Notebook PC

* Upgrade to Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate (64-bit)
* Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz/4MB L2Cache)
* 17.0" WXGA+ Ultra BrightView Widescreen (1440x900)
* 4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
* 511MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS
* HP Imprint (Radiance) + Fingerprint Reader +Webcam
* Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Network w/Bluetooth
* 200GB 7200RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (100GB x 2)
* LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD+/-RW w/Double Layer
* High Capacity 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
* Norton Internet Security(TM) 2007 - 15 Months

 

You will lose your data if you do a recovery without backing up first.

 

I understand on the C drive I will lose all my data, the D drive was empty and that is where I saved my documents, music and such. It will reformat that drive also? I could just remove the drive then? Also how hard is the process of restoring using f11, and roughly how long does it take?

 

Well I just installed NOD32 and it worked so maybe I'll just stick with this. I will have to find an alternative to frostwire tho...

 

It will most likely NOT format the second drive, but it'd be a REALLY good idea to remove the disk anyway. The cost of removing it (2 minutes with a screwdriver) is much less than the risk of what you might lose.

After you do the recovery, if you do, you will then be able to burn the recovery disks, so do it!

 

What is the benefit of burning the recovery disks when I can just hit f11?

 

you have 2 completely different hard drives is that correct? or is it just 1 hd partitioned? if its 2 hard drives an easy way to make sure your data is safe simply unplug the drive with all your data on it then reformat c then plug the other drive back in. if its 1 drive partitioned i think it will wipe that out if you formatt

edit: sry orev already said this. didn't see it

 

If your hard drive gets corrupt/unusable, you are without recovery options.

 

Good point!