hp dv5t recovery manager problem

i tried to burn recovery disks on the new laptop (dv5t) but it keeps giving me an error. i've tried three different dvd's but it keeps giving error during the verification step and it won't burn the rest of the disks.

my questions:

1. will HP give me recovery disks for free if i can't burn them?

2. the clean install guide for vista says not to use the HP recovery disks and to burn your own. is that really a problem or can i use HP disks?

 

First, it is easiest to successfully burn Recovery Disks if you use good quality DVD+R disks such as Sony, TDK, Vertatim, HP.

If you absolutely cannot burn the recovery disks you can explain your problem to HP support and you may get free disks. Some people have and some have had to purchase them.

In general you cannot use HP recovery disks to perform a clean install since the recovery disks contain the bloatware and there is not straight forward way to install only the OS.

I think what you are reading when the guide instructs to burn your own, is to make sure you burn recovery disks before performing a clean install so if you make a mess of things you can at least recover your laptop to the pre-clean install condition.

 

It took me about 5 attempts to burn the recovery disks, but it DID work in the end. The quality of the DVD is hugely important, as the poster above noted not only for it to burn properly, but for it to properly recover your system.

It's a jolly good thing I made those disks, because my clean install attempt was an epic fail. (mainly becuase I tried to perform it on a pre SP1 commercial retail disk)

 

i have another question: i already have a vista sp1 dvd that is separate from my hp laptop.

can i use that dvd to install vista using the HP laptop license? if so, how do i find out what my license key is?