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General discussion

How Do I Make Recovery CD'S?

Jan 16, 2005 12:12AM PST

Hi Everyone, I have a HP, Model 552w, 60G, 256 Ram, Pentium 4, Windows XP computer. I bought it used. The way my PC is set up is I have a C and a D drive. The D drive is partitioned off and is where HP set up the recovery or restore area in case anything happened and you needed to put the PC back to original state. I had to do this once already and it was a ROYAL PAIN. Is there a way to make a set of CD's in case I were ever have to do this again, God forbid! LOL! If there is a way, could someone walk me through it or tell me of a link on the web where it tells how and if it can be done. Would it take less time than doing it they other way? Also about how many CD's would it take to do this? The "ROYAL PAIN" took 12 straight hours plus some of the next day to fully get everything back to normal. I'm still in the learning stages with all this, since Oct 2004. Thanks to everyone here. I've been reading this forum and the Windows XP forum and I'm amazed at the great support and help given. So glad I found this site! HPXP

Discussion is locked

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Recent HPs...
Jan 16, 2005 12:18AM PST

Had a menu item to make a set of Restore CDs.

Too many ignore the offer to make them.

Bob

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Try this
Jan 16, 2005 1:07AM PST

I found this doing a Google search. If it doesn't work, try contacting HP.

"A set of recovery discs can be made by using the HP Recovery Disc Creator software. Click Start, All Programs, Hewlett-Packard, HP Pavilion PC Tools, and then HP PC Recovery CD Creator. For more information about creating recovery discs, use HP Desktop PCs - Creating Recovery CDs Using HP's Recovery CD Creator .

If you still feel that you would like to order recovery discs, contact HP."

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hpxp
Jan 16, 2005 1:48AM PST

glb's directions as to where to find the recovery CD creator are exactly the same as on my Compaq. On mine it took 7 CD's which the wizard tells you exactly what to do including numbering them BUT it can only be used once from what I have been told so if the original owner already did it, you are out of luck unless the original owner will give you the ones that they created. The CD wizard makes the whole process very easy.

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Recovery cd
Jan 16, 2005 2:12AM PST

Mine has the wizard for making the recovery cd. I did it and it only took 1 cd, it said i had sucessfully created a recovery cd. Does that sound right?

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Recovery CD's
Jan 16, 2005 2:17AM PST

Hi, And thanks everyone. Roddy, that must be what happened, as I can find nowhere to make the recovery CD's, no wizard, nada, nothing! I went to hp tools on my pc and it did not give an option to make the cd's. Im pretty sure that was the correct place to look on the pc. I bought the PC from a pawn shop. The person that owned it may have done the set and just didn't find them to add with the PC. Although it came with all the original manuals and a few other goodies, no set of CD's for recovery. So, I guess I'm out of luck. I REALLY like this PC, and its a great starter, I know I'll upgrade one day. I'm trying to cram in as much info as I can on computers. Its something I've really taken to and all I want to to is learn as much as possible. I have a LONGGGGGG way to go, LOL!! Thanks Again! HPXP

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NOT RECOVERY CDs!
Jan 16, 2005 2:31AM PST

Worth noting is AUTOSTREAMER which can make an OS CD in the absence of anything else will give you some hope of reinstalling that OS, but will stress the owner of said machine since it requires more smarts. At least there are many here to help you with that.

-> Go get BELARC ADVISOR to get a report with the CDKEYS before you find out you needed that information.

Bob

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Having read through this thread...
Jan 16, 2005 3:19AM PST

it appears that the easy solution is unavailable to you so another option is needed.

You can create drive images using various imaging software such as:
Ghost (my personal favorite)
Drive Image 7.03
TeraByte's Image
Acronis True Image
DriveClone
and Paragon's Drive-Backup 6.0.

All will create an exact image of your hard drive and allow the image to be restored to create a bootable system exactly as it was when the image was made. Some will image the entire hard drive or only specific partitions as you, the user, decide while others will image only the entire drive. Most will also write directly to CD-R or CD-RW and make the media bootable.

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PC Magazine
Jan 16, 2005 7:20PM PST

Has an article in the 2-8-2005 issue with how to instructions for making an XP-SP2 recovery CD. For this to work, you must have an XP disk. According to the article, if your computer didn't come with a copy of XP, no disk at all or it came with a restore set, you should be able to contact Microsoft and get one. Whether this is true or not, I don't know. But even if you do get a new copy, you will need the product key number that is unique to your machine.

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Free recovery discs fom HP
Jan 18, 2005 5:50AM PST

If your pc was purchased new from a HP dealer and it is registered to you, somewhere in the HP guarantee info is a contact phone number for HP give them a call and ask for the set of 5 recovery discs for WXP.
They come for free if the above conditions prevail.