How Can I Make A Recovery DVD/CD for 4265.

I just bought a 4265 and its a lot of computer for the money but I have one major problem with the product. It doesn't come with a recovery DVD or CD and with the included software there is no way to create one.

What if the hard drive needs to be replaced? I have no way to reload the machine to its factory state (or better yet, its last known state). I then would be left with an unusable computer. This lack of a recovery DVD/CD and the lack of ability to create one seems to me to be a MAJOR FLAW.

Is there anyway to obtain or create a recovery DVD/CD for my 4265?

 

u can copy all drivers to the CD. In the future if u need to reboot your HD you can simply install normal WinXP (or whatever you want) to your new HD, then put in the driver CD to your NB and install all drivers from there. I did this way and reboot my new Averatec 4225 HD to get the max HD space. I personal suggest you doing this way if you so worry about the replaced HD problem.

 

What about using Norton Ghost? Is that a viable solution?

 

umm........I already format my HD so I don't know if there are Norton Ghost installation files in the partition HD. My case is different than you I guess, I installed Chinese WinXP and I have all softwares include McAfee, offices.....so I don't really care whether or not there's a recovery CD.
Averatec made 4225 very cheap for not supporting recovery CD and paper manual. However, consider the money you pay and the features you get, recovery CD and manual is nothing for me. I don't think I would like to spend 300 USD more to get a SONY S360 or similar model b/c they do have recovery CD and paper manual.

 

With that model it comes with Phoenix firstware
the pro version is a trial version and unless you upgrade to the pro version you will not be able to make recovery cd's

 

adidasman5482,

Do you work for Phoenix or Averatec? Is that why you keep harping upon the inadequate Phoenix firstware product supplied with the 4265?

The title of this thread and the issue being discussed is "How can I make a recovery DVD/CD for the 4265. Unfortunately, while the 4265 is a lot of computer for the money, Averatec foolishly cut one too many corners in not supplying a recovery disk or a way to create one.

Why would I want to purchase the Phoenix software, a relatively unknown product and a product that others on this bulletin board have reported problmes with? If Norton Ghost will allow me to create a recovery disk, would't obtaining this product be a much better solution. Norton Ghost is much more widely distributed and used than the obscure Phoenix product and therefore has been much more extensively tested and debugged.

One can buy Norton Systemworks Premier for $46 - $30 rebate. It includes Norton Ghost, will extend my Norton Antivirus subscription for 1 year and includes a number of useful system utilities. For $16, I can get all of this. Why would I want to spend $40 to upgrade to Phoenix Recovery Pro 2004 (Yes, 2004 is the most recent edition of this software), for a more expensive product that is less time tested and includes much less functionality?

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by hmb

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by hmb

 

adidasman,

Yes Phoenix is well known for their bios, but their product Recovery Pro is a different issue altogether. It certainly is not a well known product nor one that is cost efficient for the end user because there exist other well know products (such as Norton Systemworks Premier that includes Norton Ghost) that perform many more functions (antivirus, system integrity maintenence, etc.) that are much less expensive ($16 after rebate vs. $40).

Now, the Phoenix product well be more cost effective for the computer manufacturer. I quote from the Phoenix web site regarding their Recovery Pro product: "Maximize profits and reduce costly RMAs
with built-in disaster recovery" and "Reduce warranty costs, replace recovery CDs; Minimize reprovisioning costs." But my concern here is me and other end users, not the manufacturer.

In my research on this problem of no recovery disk shipped with the 4264, I found that Averatec is not the only company that has tried this penny pinching approach. Following quote from www.chat11.com "Hewlett-Packard scrapped recovery disks for its latest range of Pavilion PCs, but didn't anticipate the furious customer response. The result: HP was forced to retreat. The company began sending out standard backup CDs to customers, but only to those who complained. What prompted the customer outrage was HP's decision to favor installation of Windows XP recovery files on a partition on the hard drive, instead of the backup CDs." Sound familiar?

You state regarding the Phoenix product: "with out the upgrade NO you cant make recovery disks." YOUR STATEMENT IS FALSE. I've spent some time researching Norton Ghost and reading its online manual. Norton Ghost wll allow one to make image as well as incremental backups of the hard disk drive and restore the image to a replaced hard drive using a recovery disk.

I believe I've found the best solution to my original question "How can I make a recovery DVD/CD for the 4265?" Get Norton System Works Premier. This will allow me to make recovery disks, extend my antivirus subscription for one year, provide a number of additional system utilities and costs far less than the Phoenix product.

Do anyone know of any other products/solutions that would allow me to make a recovery CD/DVD for the 4265?

 

Hi,
I purchased Norton Ghost 9.0 from newegg and I love it!
Not only did I make images of my laptop, but all the other
PC's in my house.

It will burn an image (quickly I might add) to any formatted media,
HD, CD, DVD etc. It also has browser capabilities to restore single files. The boot/recovery media is a bit slow but user friendly.
I made my images on HD and just copied them down to DVD using
CDBurnerXP Pro 3.0.116 (free sw and does the best job of copying data to cd/dvd media).

I tested a recovery of WinXP w/SP2 and all my apps, took just over 20min.

Need more details, or help let me know. [ ]
av.

 

HMB, another good product that many, including myself, prefer over Ghost, is Acronis True Image.

 

Thanks to both of you, AV6130 and Chutsman.

Av, its great to hear that someone has actually used Norton Ghost and found it works well for system recovery disk purposes. I'll probably go with Systemworks Premier (w/Ghost) as my solution because it includes antivirus and other utilities I want.

Chutsman, I'll check out your recommendation, Acronis True Image, before I drop the bucks for Norton.

Thanks again.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by hmb

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by hmb

 

Tom's Hardware Web site www.tomshardware.com has a very positive review of Phoenix Recovery Pro 2004.

Of course, the Averatec doesn't come with the Pro Version and the limited OEM version doen't let you make a recovery disk.