backup OS

dznutz

dznutz

New Member
i bought a new hp laptop and to get the OS recovery disks i have to make one myself given the supplied software. problem is i only get one chance. they gave me options like burning dvd's or using a usb drive.

question is windows 7 premium usually required how many gigs of space? also, does the transfer rate of the usb drive matters? can i use a hard drive instead? does it usually format the hard drive prior to making the copy? thx
 
Most new Hp and most brands of laptops dont even need "disks". I have a three year old hp laptop and it has the main hdd "C" and a Recovery drive "D" if your laptop has a "D" (Recovery) sector than you do not need to make the disks. I have had to restore my laptop to factory defaults twice and i dont have any Recovery Disks.
 
many reasons. what if i want to upgrade the hdd space or if the hdd goes bad. will need to make the backup OS
 
i can make the disks using the software provided in the lappy. the backup OS is in the recovery partition. question is how much space will windows 7 home premium take assuming i get a flash drive to fit it.
 
how big is the recovery partition?

My acer took 12.6GB (4DVD-r) to burn the recovery disk, I would assume that the HP would be around the same size.
 
Instead of using the recovery partition, which will return your system back to what it was the day you got it, I prefer to use software like Macrium Reflect to create an image of my system. I make sure to remove any crapware, install OS updates and install my most important applications then create a "snapshot" of my system at that point. That way if I need to restore I won't have to go back to square 1. I periodically make images to capture current OS updates and newly installed apps.

I use an external hard drive that connects by either eSATA or USB depending upon which of those the system I'm doing an image of supports. I wouldn't trust an image backup to a USB thumbdrive.

Make sure you create a "Rescue CD" that will allow you to boot the machine and restore the image. Win 7 actually has the ability to save a system image and create a bootable "Repair Disk" built-in so you don't actually need any 3rd party software.
 
Last edited:
Make the recovery disks by using DVD's. Don't even think about using USB stick as they are not as reliable as dvd's.
 
alright cool. dvd's it is. not sure of the exact size it it was over 14 gb with a couple of gigs to spare in the hidden partition.

i use acronis to make the image. i was just wondering about making the OS copy that one usually would get when purchasing a new computer. but like my vaio 4 years ago it now requires making your own disks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top