Just Purchased HP Pavilion DV6-3052NR - Wanting to Upgrade the HD

The last HP I bought was from their business line (my current HP2730p TabletPC), and it did come with restore discs. Looks like the consumer models do not. The new laptop is on its way from newegg, and I'd like to order a 1TB drive right away for immediate install and setup.

Looks like the best work-around is to do the first boot of the HP, immediately create recovery discs, yank the 500GB HD, install the 1TB drive, and then run the recovery DVDs from boot.

Does anyone know if HP offers recovery DVDs for sale? I ordered one from Toshiba for my netbook when I nuked the recovery partition on that one. Does anyone know if the recovery program will refuse to install if it sees a different HD other than the one from the factory image? Has anyone used to recovery DVDs on a very recent HP to install the image to a new, larger HD? Thanks for any feedback you can provide.
- Vr/Zeuxidamas.

I am also wondering if anyone has this model or a similar one, and has installed a drive with a 12.5mm height and knows for certain that it will fit. Thanks.

Update: Dug around some more. First, I did not realize that this is a SKU in the "Select" (?) product line. I am hoping I have that right. I did then find the maintenance manual PDF on the HP site, and one of the configurations the line will take is a 12.5mm height 1TB hard drive, so I assume an after-market one will work as well.

I was also able to find the means to order a recovery DVD, which it looks like I cannot do until the laptop arrives since I need the serial number (unless I can get newegg to provide it early). No idea if the Recovery will work to any had drive, though, so, again, if someone has already crossed this bridge and has some lessons learned, I would appreciate it. I'll also check the dv6 Select forum no that I better understand exactly what product line this model exists in. Thanks.
- Vr/Zeuxidamas..>>

 

The HP recovery DVDs are like universal in versatility.

I've changed my hard drive out a few times for upgrade purposes and utilized the $19 recovery DVDs that came with my HP notebook.

There weren't any problems and the DVD formats the drive to factory installation with all drivers inclusive. It just takes a little time for the DVD installation.

I wouldn't sweat it.

- Infamous

P.S. You could also look up the various ghosting software to archive a full backup of your existing drive. In doing that, you wouldn't lose data and you can transfer the existing drive over to the new drive. I believe the most commonly used program is Norton Ghost. Grab the free trial...should be enough.

 

Doing a clean install on the new drive is your friend.

 

...unless he doesn't have friends? What would happen then? DUN DUN DUN

 

Then he would have a friend in the clean install, and an acquaintance in the original should he ever need it?

 

You are very funny. My friendship list is currently full, but when Obama leaves office, you can be added to my list. Deal?

 

Sure thing

 

I always do clean installs when feasible. The plan now is to just wait. I travel frequently, and if I could have pulled all of the material together this week (including the HP restore DVD), I would have performed the upgrade. As it stands, the laptop will arrive tomorrow or Wednesday, I will spend a day or two configuring it, then I am on travel for the weekend. Not sure if I am going with this new laptop or my Asus G73.

Either way, I do not want to have to wait for the recovery DVD to set this laptop up, or leave it sitting in the box until I get back next week. I'll use it for a year or so with the 500GB drive, and then consider an HD upgrade next year when I might want to do a clean install anyway.

The MacBook Pro this will be replacing has a 500GB HD and I was not cresting the need to go larger before I pulled the trigger on the new HP.

All should be well for quite some time. But the research and the posts here at least convinced me that the drive will fit in the drive-bay, and that the Recovery DVD will not exit out if it sees hardware that is not exactly its original cfg. Thanks.
- Vr/Z.>>