making recovery discs after bloatware removal

i want to make two versions of recovery discs: one with factory stuff on there and the other after removing the bloatware. i know that for the factory stuff i can just use the recovery partition but how would i make a recovery disc after removing the bloatware. would i need another program? how many discs does it take for the recovery disc

 

First, dont rely on the partition especially if you plan on doing a clean install. Burn and keep the restore DVD in a safe palce. If you want to make an image after installing your software then you'll need something like Acronis true image or norton ghost. Windows Ultimate if you purchased that, has a built in back utility but I have no idea how well that works.

 

wait i am a little confused on what the recovery partition is for. i initially thought the computer used the recovery partition to make the recovery discs. also i don't really want to mess with a clean install and have to find all the correct drivers and such.

 

Yes, it does. but you still have 2 options for recovery - use the discs you burnt or use the partition.

 

if i decide i want to get 64bit later, will it work if i buy 64bit recovery discs off HP?

 

Just FYI, and I am no expert, but all the hp manuals and papers that come with the laptop warn that you will only be able to make one copy of the recovery disks only. Maybe there is a work around for it, but HP only wants to let you burn one copy. If you use CD-R it will take 17 disks. If you use DVD-R as I did, it will take 3 disks.

 

they do sell the recovery disc on their website but it seems to be free and only need to pay for shipping

 

If you really want to have a bloatware-free recovery disc, then you should definitely try a clean install. It's actually not that difficult. All the drivers you need are available at HP's site. I was even able to get my dv9700t working in XP - Vista drivers will be even easier to find. You don't need to go searching the internet for the drivers.

 

To add to what srunni said, be sure to backup the SWSetup folder as well. You'll never know when you might need some of the apps and/or drivers from it, because not everything could be posted on the HP site.......

 

Hi miner! may i ask what you mean by "use the partition"?

i understand that by burning the recovery discs, it will allow one to "return to factory state".

however, what did you mean by "use the partition" to recover?

thx again!

 

OK, I am not miner but:

- i understand that by burning the recovery discs, it will allow one to "return to factory state".
Correct, and the Recovery Discs are made from the data on the Recovery Partition. The discs are made as a backup in case the data on your Recovery Partition is deleted, corrupted, or damaged as in a harddrive crash.

- however, what did you mean by "use the partition" to recover?
As long as the Recovery Partition is still on your Harddrive (logical drive D)
i.e. you have not reformated your harddrive or done a clean install of an OS, you can press F11 during the bootup process and "return your computer to factory state" just as if you had used the "Recovery Discs" you made or purchased. The data from the Recovery Partition D: is read and used for the recovery process without the need to use the recovery discs you made.

 

hey guys i read somewhere that u can only one set of Recovery disc's on HP dv7t notebook's!! is it true???

or there is a another better way around it??

 

The software to create the Recovery Discs will only allow one set to be made. There is a way around this, but first, if you successfully have made a set of Recovery Discs you can burn copies of those Discs if you want backups.

I am not sure what you mean by "another better way around it". You can purchase Restore Discs from HP but it is better to make your own.

Now I did say there is a way around the software only allowing you to make one set of recovery discs. I copied the following from the notebookreview forum earlier in the year. I am not sure where or who wrote it.

● How can I make another set of Recovery Discs? For whatever
reason, you were not able to successfully create recovery discs for the
first time, or you lost the ones you made. Now the software won't let
you burn another set. To fix this, open an explorer window (my
computer, etc..) and go into folder options. Make sure "Hide protected
operating system files" is not checked, and also make sure "Show
hidden files and folders" is enabled. Then do a search for the file "hpcd.sys"
on all local disk drives. Delete all of the ones that you find or rename them for example to HPCD.bak.
My additional notes:
Do what is indicated in the above paragraph.
Search may not find the HPCD.SYS file(s). In case it doesn’t, one instance of hpcd.sys is located in the root of the D:\HP_RECOVERY partition and second in C:\Windows\SMINST\. It's necessary to rename/delete them both!

 

juy wanna know.. if u make a set of recovery disc's then will the recovery present on the Hard drive gets deleted.. means then can't we use recovery by hitting the key at the boot??

THX

 

No, the partition does not get deleted when you burn the discs. The partition will stay there as long as you leave it alone. The F11 boot recovery works with the stock Vista installation, does not work if you do a clean install. As I have already mentioned when you get the laptop burn the recovery discs. If you have a working copy of the discs, then you can do whatever you want with the HDD(delete partition, install linux etc) it is capable of putting the system back to factory state. The partition on the other hand is more fragile, installing a clean version of the OS or altering the partitions messes up the ability to boot into it.

Also, another way to make multiple copies of the restore DVD's is to extract the image from the DVD's and then burn another copy using an image burner to burn to another set of DVD's.

 

recovering using the discs or the recovery partition should leave the recovery partition intact right?

 

Yeah, the discs are capable of restoring everything back to factory state including the partition.

with the restore DVD's:
You can restore the OS as well as the partition.

with the partition:
you can restore the OS back to factory state. If the partition is damaged then its pretty much useless. if the mbr was changed or the partitions were altered, you could probably still restore the OS but its not going to be easy for the avreage joe.