Making a rescue disk set for a new HP

[W. eWatson]

I just bought a new HP s-5 1224. From past experience with an HP, they
want you to create a rescue disk set. How does one do that?

I called the store, and they said most new HP PCs usually brings up a
window (automatically?) that leads you through it. That didn't happen.

Will just using the Control Panel ability to create an image, does this
result in the same thing? Presumably either method will put the
"rescue" info on a DVD, correct?

Windows 7.

 

[Paul]

I just bought a new HP s-5 1224. From past experience with an HP, they
want you to create a rescue disk set. How does one do that?

I called the store, and they said most new HP PCs usually brings up a
window (automatically?) that leads you through it. That didn't happen.

Will just using the Control Panel ability to create an image, does this
result in the same thing? Presumably either method will put the
"rescue" info on a DVD, correct?

Windows 7.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/manualCategory?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&document=&product=5231538

Getting Started Guide

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02791831.pdf

"The number of discs in the recovery-disc set depends on your computer model
(typically 1–3 DVD discs). The *Recovery Disc Creator* program will tell you the
specific number of blank discs needed to make the set."

That would correspond to making an image of the recovery partition
on the hard drive. (On my Acer computer, this would be a four disc
set, three discs for Windows 7, and an additional disc claiming to
be drivers.)

You could try going to the program launch thing and typing "recovery"
and see what pops up. Or browse C: and the Program Files to find
something named like that.

If the computer has already made one set of recovery media, it
may refuse to make a second set. For example, if the computer
is used, the first owner makes a set, the Recovery Disc Creator
keeps track of whether it made a set or not. Only one set is
supposed to be made, per machine.

If that were to happen, I'd just use something like Macrium Reflect Free,
and just image the entire drive. That way, if you need to put the
recovery partition back on the computer, you have a means to do so.

*******

You can make a fifth disc, on the menu for "System Image". That
disc would be 200MB in size, and fits on a CD. The other discs
might well require blank DVDs. The purpose of a "System Image"
disc, is for restoring from the Windows 7 backup software. The
disc also has a recovery console, a "DOS prompt" you can boot
to, to use tools such as bootrec, bootsect, bcdedit, chkdsk,
diskpart and so on. As well as dos-like "dir" and friends.
That's for when the computer is broken, and the built-in boot
repair capabilities of Windows 7 no longer work. Your computer
won't come with a "real" installer DVD, but you can download
one of those off the Internet (~3.3GB) and the installer DVD
will also boot to the recovery console. So even if your
computer is completely broken, you can still download something
that can be used to boot the computer.

I would not store the recovery information solely on DVDs or
on a USB stick. Make images of the media as soon as you've finished
creating them. You should have two copies. If your DVDs develop
"bit-rot", the images you make of the DVDs can be used to make
more DVDs at a later date.

Paul

 

[Ed Cryer]

I just bought a new HP s-5 1224. From past experience with an HP, they
want you to create a rescue disk set. How does one do that?

I called the store, and they said most new HP PCs usually brings up a
window (automatically?) that leads you through it. That didn't happen.

Will just using the Control Panel ability to create an image, does this
result in the same thing? Presumably either method will put the
"rescue" info on a DVD, correct?

Windows 7.

My last HP desktop had a SmartRestore program in the Programs list. It
was pretty versatile and did more than just create rescue disks.

Ed

 

[W. eWatson]

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/manualCategory?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&document=&product=5231538


Getting Started Guide

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02791831.pdf

"The number of discs in the recovery-disc set depends on your
computer model
(typically 1–3 DVD discs). The *Recovery Disc Creator* program will
tell you the
specific number of blank discs needed to make the set."

That would correspond to making an image of the recovery partition
on the hard drive. (On my Acer computer, this would be a four disc
set, three discs for Windows 7, and an additional disc claiming to
be drivers.)

You could try going to the program launch thing and typing "recovery"
and see what pops up. Or browse C: and the Program Files to find
something named like that.

If the computer has already made one set of recovery media, it
may refuse to make a second set. For example, if the computer
is used, the first owner makes a set, the Recovery Disc Creator
keeps track of whether it made a set or not. Only one set is
supposed to be made, per machine.

If that were to happen, I'd just use something like Macrium Reflect Free,
and just image the entire drive. That way, if you need to put the
recovery partition back on the computer, you have a means to do so.

*******

You can make a fifth disc, on the menu for "System Image". That
disc would be 200MB in size, and fits on a CD. The other discs
might well require blank DVDs. The purpose of a "System Image"
disc, is for restoring from the Windows 7 backup software. The
disc also has a recovery console, a "DOS prompt" you can boot
to, to use tools such as bootrec, bootsect, bcdedit, chkdsk,
diskpart and so on. As well as dos-like "dir" and friends.
That's for when the computer is broken, and the built-in boot
repair capabilities of Windows 7 no longer work. Your computer
won't come with a "real" installer DVD, but you can download
one of those off the Internet (~3.3GB) and the installer DVD
will also boot to the recovery console. So even if your
computer is completely broken, you can still download something
that can be used to boot the computer.

I would not store the recovery information solely on DVDs or
on a USB stick. Make images of the media as soon as you've finished
creating them. You should have two copies. If your DVDs develop
"bit-rot", the images you make of the DVDs can be used to make
more DVDs at a later date.

Paul

Thanks for the tips. I find it odd that the word rescue is not
mentioned at all in the pdf. It's more convenient to use the pdf than
the printed manual. I would have thought the pdf would have laid out
the idea of making rescue disks. It may be in a jumbled section on
repairing or troubleshooting problems.

I take it, probably wrongly, that recovery is the same as rescue. I
always thought of recovery as associated with backups on another drive.
That is, if one clobbers say a day file, one could recover it from the
backup drive.

Another concept, image, I "thought" meant you could create an OS backup,
which in the event of a disaster one could recreate the OS. What puzzles
me about that though is what about the non-OS Windows programs, Wordpad,
the web browser, etc.


Couldn't find recovery disc creator. Whoops maybe this is it.

I just found Create a system repair disk program. This sounds from the
description almost like the "old" rescue idea.

Actually, my partner in this affair has created 7 DVDs that appears be
the needed "rescue/recover" material. So I guess we are OK.

 

[Paul]

Thanks for the tips. I find it odd that the word rescue is not
mentioned at all in the pdf. It's more convenient to use the pdf than
the printed manual. I would have thought the pdf would have laid out
the idea of making rescue disks. It may be in a jumbled section on
repairing or troubleshooting problems.

I take it, probably wrongly, that recovery is the same as rescue. I
always thought of recovery as associated with backups on another drive.
That is, if one clobbers say a day file, one could recover it from the
backup drive.

Another concept, image, I "thought" meant you could create an OS backup,
which in the event of a disaster one could recreate the OS. What puzzles
me about that though is what about the non-OS Windows programs, Wordpad,
the web browser, etc.


Couldn't find recovery disc creator. Whoops maybe this is it.

I just found Create a system repair disk program. This sounds from the
description almost like the "old" rescue idea.

Actually, my partner in this affair has created 7 DVDs that appears be
the needed "rescue/recover" material. So I guess we are OK.

On my Acer, the prompt to prepare recovery media, did not show up right
away (as a nag the instant I booted).

You should get two nags. The first nag should be from HP, to prepare
a 3-DVD set containing the machine recovery partition. If the hard drive
is damaged, the 3-DVD set helps you format and load a new hard drive. And
this only applies, if you didn't have backups of the hard drive in the
first place. Nothing prevents you from imaging the whole hard drive
and using that at a later date.

An additional disc in the HP nag, might be a driver disc. You would use
the driver disc, if re-installing the OS using a downloaded OEM installer
DVD. That would cover any drivers not present in the OS at installation
time.

A separate nag, may happen a day later, and that one comes from
Microsoft. When you make a system image, you need an optical disc
to boot the computer, so you can restore the system image to a
brand new, empty hard drive. The menu that handles "Make a system image",
also has an item to "Make a rescue CD" kinda thing. And that's about 200MB
in size, and includes a DOS console for repair commands like bootrec,
bootsect, diskpart and so on.

Now that you have the DVDs, you should convert each DVD to an
ISO9660 and give it a descriptive label. If the set of seven
DVDs go bad, or you lose the DVDs when you next move, the
set of seven ISO9660 files you keep on the hard drive, can be
used to prepare another set of media. Ot something along those
lines. I keep my ISO9660 files from that laptop, on a small
external hard drive kept offline most of the time.

Paul