Is recovery backup important?

Hey all, I just read the out of the box guide in anticipation of getting my E14 in a few hours (or weeks at the rate fedex is going by now) and I'm wondering why exactly the recovery backup is an important step? I am a reasonably advanced user and I just don't see what the recovery schtuff could possibly do that a clean install of win7 + the drivers that the guide has you backup couldn't do?

 

You don't need to make the recovery discs but since it is a one time process and takes less than an hour, I feel it is worthwhile. You can put your laptop back to the out of the box software state in that same time should you want to. For the price of three DVD's and an hours time, I would just do it. Better safe than sorry.

If your laptop ever develops a problem (which you may deem warranty related) you may want to restore your laptop back to factory to make sure the problem is not with your current software or drivers. I once was asked by HP customer support to do so. I refused, I knew it was not the problem and they relented and just sent me the return box.

Sometimes not all drivers (or versions) that come with a laptop are readily available and although you may not want any of the software that came installed, some of it may not be available to download from the website should you change your mind.

The above of course are just my opinions.

 

Okay, seems like that's a good call then, but...it takes DVDs? >< I just used my last one the other night. What happens if I just don't delete the recovery partition and do a fresh install of W7?

 

I typically do not keep mine on my systems. However, I do back up the factory image before recovering the partition space and fresh install. It is nice to have it in case you encounter an "OMG, everything is messed up!" moment. ;-)

 

It probably won't work after you do that cause it messes with the partition tables and the F11 recovery option will never work again. Since it's the first thing they tell you to do before you send it in (for whatever reason you might come across), you have a way to do that.

 

If you do a clean install don't worry about it. The uses of recovery discs = that of a windows disc. And I've never had HP ask me to do a recovery before getting service, but I only contact them with hardware issues

 

I've never needed to do it


backup/restore usually fixes issues, I have no problem doing a clean install and just reinstalling drivers/programs if it ever comes to it in those rare cases of disaster

 

But then there are stories of peeps calling HP for a problem and they inadvertently admit to not having created the restore discs, but doing a clean install and HP denying them warranty service.

That's why it's recommended that one make the discs. You can make them at anytime before doing a clean install.

The odds of having to use them if you are proficient at computing is very low. You can even make an image using disc imagining software like Acronis or Ghost.

 

I created the recovery discs with DVDs the next night after receiving my laptop (a dv6t-se with and SSD). I'd already done some stuff to it (installed Firefox and uninstalled the Norton antivirus trialware, then installed Avast). It took 5 DVDs and really took a long time--more than 2 hours--I was surprised by how long it took. Maybe it's because it had to grab and uncompress stuff that was on the recovery partition (which of course I'm now free to delete).

 

Is it possible to create one large .iso image instead of burning physical discs? What would be the best way to do that?

 

lagitup: Tip of the day - just do it.

Look what happened to me when I tried doing a reinstall with a standard W7 DVD and drivers from HP.com: no WLAN.
I'm absolutely sure that it could have been fixed, but now it's a week since I posted it and I still don't have an answer for it.
I'm not saying that this will happen to anyone who tries this.

The HP recovery discs for the Mini I'm talking about had a nice option to install the bare minimum,
which is basically W7 + drivers + few utilities like HP wireless assistant + swsetup folder = 13 GB.
Delete swsetup and you're down at 9 GB, which is pretty good. No driver downloading or installing, everything works.
I think you can do this directly from the recovery partition too.

Trust me, it's worth doing just to get that option. This is coming from me who ALWAYS does clean installs.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-.../499596-mini-210-no-wlan-after-reinstall.html

 

Using drive imagine software like Acronis, Ghost, or Macrium reflect. Though it wouldn't be an iso file. But if you have external storage you can store the image file there. Much faster than making recovery media.

 

Yes, that sounds like a great solution, in this case, just to clarify, I would be simply imaging all the partitions and using that as a backup, so that if I needed to go back to factory conditions, I would have to clone the backed up partitions back to the drive and then use Recovery Manager to restore to factory settings, correct?

Or should I only image the recovery and HP tools partitions, since I believe those are all that's needed to restore to factory conditions?

 

Image all partitions and when and if the time comes, you can restore all partitions and you will be back to factory... everything.

 

Creating an image of your entire HD makes an excellent backup and I do it for all my computers monthly and store the image and a copy on two different external drives. Remember, if your external storage device dies your image is gone forever.

I can’t understand why making recovery discs is deemed such a headache even if it takes 2 hours. Total operator intervention time is a couple minutes at most changing discs and labeling them, the rest of the time you can watch TV or ?:

1. Making recovery discs for a new computer is a one time process.
2. Doesn’t take all that long.
3. DVD storage media is for the most part indestructable and cheap.
4. Better safe than sorry. I bet I could come up with a 100 posts on this forum alone from people sorry they didn’t make their recovery discs.
5. If you ever sell your computer you will have the original software to hand over to the new purchaser in a nice neat package.

Pesonally I have and would do both. Recovery discs and create an image. Whatever imaging program you use remember to make sure you can restore that image if you need to. Don’t forget to make the bootable rescue disc.

 

hey guys sorry to butt in but im just wondering what to do with regards to recovery disc. what happened was i was in the middle of doing mine, doing4th out of 5 disc then i acciddently closed the program as im really noob at using laptop and window 7. is there a way to continue the process? i have tried doing it immediately after but it seem i needed to redo all the steps inlcuding doing the image and prepping it for burning.
my 2nd question is, as a result of it ive decided to continue with updating drivers and installing programs ill need and removing some bloatware, if i do do the recovery disc do i need to restore system to before the updates? thanks

please don't wprry about my question just finished making the disc.