Recovery Discs (a MUST have for ALL!)

Many of us Windows 7 users doesn't even know it, but some (if not all) brands that did not come with recovery discs can make their own for free. Well, not quite free. You must have some blank DVD+R or DVD-R discs, about 3 to 4 of them. They can't be the rewritable ones, and they MUST be DVD's, not CD's. These discs are not to be confused with emergency repair discs, boot discs, or a complete backup of your system. However, if you can't boot into the recovery partition, these discs are your solution to reinstall Windows clean, like from the factory. And a note here, they're not like the Dell discs that you can reinstall XP Pro on any XP Pro licensed Dell system. They are meant ONLY for your computer, and the system allows you to make ONE copy only, so remember where they are. If you can boot into your computer, you may be able to do this without the discs by going into the recovery partition (please read your manual for these instructions). The manual also tells you what program to go into to create these discs. The program for HP is in the CyberLink DVD Suite. It may be not be the same program for all brands, however, click Start (the Windows symbol), type in Recovery Disc Creation and the program that creates these will appear. Follow all instructions (close all open programs, pause antivirus and anti spyware, too). It will take around one to two hours to complete this task. In fact, the program spends more time checking each disc for defects than it takes to burn the disc. That is good, because you want it right. And please don't buy store brand or unknown brand discs. You only need a five pack for this, buy the best (Sony, Memorex,etc). The reason that I stumbled across this was I was reading up on instructions for backing up. By all means, please create these discs, because it's not a matter of IF, but WHEN you need these. I have them for my laptops, and they saved my butt more than once. And this may be a matter of controversy, but in the manual states that if your computer is getting slow and bogged down, use these discs to make it fresh again. Too, it states that it's a good idea to reinstall once a year under heavy usage for the same reason. The reason I decided to share this with you is that no matter the OS, I'm a member of three different OS forums, and Windows 7 has just begun. The other forums specialize in older OS's (Win 2K & XP Pro), and in many cases, reinstall is the only answer for many problems. That is why you need these discs, because the day will come, whether you want it to or not. Sincerely yours, Charles

First class information there Charles and a very good post (i hope many members and guests take note)

I hope so,too. It's always best to be prepared for any situation, and this (along with a full backup) will make you prepared. Even without a full backup, you can start fresh. Almost all apps can be downloaded again, if necessary. But certain things such as photo albums, music and movie albums needs to be backed up to another form of media besides your main hard drive. There are situations where all can be lost if it isn't done. That's why I now backup photo albums to my Kingston memory stick. It's only 4GB, but that's a lot of photos. That's the only personal things that I retain on my computer. But students and those whose job requires the use of a computer generates a lot of data. It's CRITICAL for them to backup, whether it's a USB stick or external drive, or CD/DVD backups. DVD is better if your OS and hardware supports it, as DVD's hold 4.7GB of data compared to 700MB for CD's. But no matter what, while your computer is still healthy, make those Recovery Discs. The day will come that you will need them, and hopefully it will be a long time away. Merry Christmas to All!

Yep, making recovery disks is an absolute must if you don't have the install media. I've seen a few people with machines that are out of warranty and lost their restore partition. Thankfully, Dell were good in this instance and posted out the media free of charge.

Yes, but I doubt HP will. That's why they included the option to burn them, to save money. But I don't see where they saved that much. They can buy DVD's a for a lot less than me, and could have included them for only five more bucks at their cost. I guess the hitch is that the set is only for that computer, not a million of them. You can buy them, but I've not priced them, as I made my own.

I just use Acronis True Image Home to backup my system to an external hard drive and made an Acronis Emergency bootable CD.

Works like a charm! Plus it's much, much faster that taking two hours! About 10-15 minutes at most, then about 3 minutes to burn the bootable CD.

True, as I said, the discs I were talking about is not a complete backup, but they would be good to have. If nothing else, were you to sell your computer, that person would have the discs. But you are right about your idea of backing up. However, there's no such thing as too many backups. I have one on my WD drive also, but it's a straight backup without using additional software.

I have win7 iso image which i had burned in DVD. I dont save anything important on my C drive. I save all my files and folder on partitioned drive. So whenever there is some big f**** up. I conveniently slip in my win7 disc and do complete fresh install. No need to use 5 DVDs and all those crap and then I am ready to roll again. I usually format my C drive one in a while ( Quarterly)

Good information that needs repeating several times a year.
Thank You.

Really, that's the best way. You don't reinstall all of the "crapware" that came with the computer. But it would still be a good idea to keep these discs, if you were to sell the computer, having a way of recovery would make it sell faster, and at a higher price. I doubt I'll ever buy a used computer again, but if I did, there better be a way to restore it to "like new" again, if not, I'll look elsewhere.