HP Recovery discs

[MadMike]

First off, I have to get this off my chest. I HATE these stupid "restore partitions" that they're putting on computers these days, in place of supplying actual discs which probably cost the company all of 10 cents to make. And I'd just love to find the genius that came up with this loathesome idea, and kick him right square in the

(Takes a deep breath.)

There, I feel better now...

OK, now that that's out of the way...

The hard drive in my friend's HP system seems to be dying, so I ordered a new one, along with some additional memory to give it a boost. I networked her computer and copied her entire hard drive, including the restore partition, to my computer so that I can easily copy back her documents, pics, etc.

I decided that it might be a good idea to create the restore discs, just in case. Unfortunately, the last time I worked on it, I apparently couldn't figure out the restore partition, so I just wiped the C drive and reinstalled using my own copy (which is perfectly OK, as long as I used her product key to activate it, which I did.) The restore partition is still intact, but the restore software isn't available under Windows anymore.

I started browsing around the restore partition, and I found the restore software under tools/windows/creator/toolscdlauncher.exe. Unfortunately, when I tried to run it, it wouldn't detect the CD burner.

"Unable to find a supported cd-writer device. You need a CD writer to create the recover tools CD."

It does have a burner. Two, actually -- the CD burner that came with it, and the DVD burner I installed for her a couple years ago. But for some reason, that message still comes up.

I checked the site, and surpisingly, even though her computer is a few years old, I can still order a set of discs. But it costs $15, unless I want them to Fed-Ex it, which would then make it roughly twice as much. Plus, the parts are supposed to arrive today, and I don't want to have to wait for the discs. I guess it's no huge deal not to have the recovery discs, but it would be nice to have.

If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it. Oh, and did I mention how much I hate those recovery partitions?

[DevilBoy]

First off, I have to get this off my chest. I HATE these stupid "restore partitions" that they're putting on computers these days, in place of supplying actual discs which probably cost the company all of 10 cents to make. And I'd just love to find the genius that came up with this loathesome idea, and kick him right square in the

If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it. Oh, and did I mention how much I hate those recovery partitions?

At the risk of sounding like a pretentious Apple fanboy (which I am not, I have been using Macs for almost 23 years, but I never drank the kool-aid and became blinded by Steve Jobs's RDF... I fucking HATE fanboys of any type)... this is one thing I like about Apple. They still include full restore disc sets with each computer they sell.

As far as your situation is concerned, my opinion is that you are better off just ordering the new discs if you can.
The $15 is money well spent and worth the wait if it will prevent the hassle of trying to read the recovery partition on your old drive.

[Chromatix]

You could also download a Linux distribution and install that. They come as CD or DVD images, usually, so you should be able to make them before the drive gives out.

[MadMike]

Thanks, but I don't think my friend would be comfortable having to learn a whole new operating system, even if Linux is becoming more user-friendly lately.

If I remember correctly, there really wasn't anything special on the restore partition. If I can't figure it out, I'll just install a regular copy of XP like I did before. She has a product key sticker, so as long as I enter that at setup, it's not like I'm pirating anything.

[Mr. Rude]

MM, just hit HP's site & snag the drivers for the rig, burn 'em to a disc for safe keeping
I never rely on restore discs. Half the time the seem to botch the job anyways.

[MadMike]

Well, the new hard drive arrived DOA. I love the savings of ordering online, but in the rare cases where something like this happens, this is definitely the downside. By the time I send this one back and get the replacement, I guess I have plenty of time to order the restore discs if I want.

[MrSmiley]

In my last experience with an HP recovery partition I was able to access the partition on system bootup (my memory tells me it was one of the F# keys along the top... probably F10, F11 or F12) before windows loaded and had the option of burning them from there. You might be able to use a boot manager to access it... I wouldn't be surprised if regular hard drive operations would wipe the bit telling it there's more than 1 bootable partition. Windows doesn't like to share.

Failing that, I'd probably use one of my bootable linux discs to access partitions/file systems that windows doesn't do (e.g. most of them) and copy it from there. That's bootable as in "you don't have to install it to get it to work". You could also use a partition manager of some kind to copy the data block without accessing it to another drive or over the network... but that's getting a wee bit complicated.

First off, I have to get this off my chest. I HATE these stupid "restore partitions" that they're putting on computers these days, in place of supplying actual discs which probably cost the company all of 10 cents to make. And I'd just love to find the genius that came up with this loathesome idea, and kick him right square in the

I hate to tell you this, but it's nothing new, they were doing it before CD-ROMs were around... I remember some computers had a "restore partition" rather than 5 floppy diskettes required to install MS-DOS 6. And let's not even get into Compaq's (which is now part of HP) BIOS data partitions, back in 1993 or so. That's right. no BIOS battery or chip... just the first section of the hard drive storing settings.

But I agree with you, every PC should come with the necessary cds and whatnot. Many don't.

[MadMike]

I can get at the data just fine. I've already copied the entire partition, as well as the entire C drive to my computer (mine is 250 GB, hers is only 30 GB.)

It's just a matter of knowing what to do with it. I have no idea.

BTW, it says F10 is for recovery, but it doesn't seem to do anything.

[MrSmiley]

I can get at the data just fine. I've already copied the entire partition, as well as the entire C drive to my computer (mine is 250 GB, hers is only 30 GB.)

It's just a matter of knowing what to do with it. I have no idea.

BTW, it says F10 is for recovery, but it doesn't seem to do anything.

Well the recovery partition is supposed to be bootable... so it sounds to me like something (usually windows) had changed the boot record that lets the computer know what drives/partitions it can boot from. Any boot manager (I used to have a good one that fit on a floppy... I'll see if I can find it) should let you select WHAT you want to boot from... this would be the manual version of that F10 recovery, if that isn't working.

Likewise I think you can copy the partition's data onto a cd and make it bootable for the same effect. I dunno. It's always preferable to use the system's own cs maker, but if as you say that isn't working... this might be a viable alternative.