Recovery partition on an HP

[il barbi]

I have an HP Pavilion that has been shipped to me with Windows XP already
installed and a recovery partition D: from which I can restore Windows in
case of malfunctioning due tipically to malware. Anyway I occasionally find
worms on D: and then, as advised, I disable and re-enable system
configuration recovery. Moreover I read that someone advise to permanently
disable system recovery because it is a feature overloading the system and,
as said, malware can creep into it. Now if I disable system recovery I can
made use of system recovery CDs but I read that they embed WinXP as loaded
originally in the PC, namely WinXP SP2 without the many updates I downloaded
afterwards. In the contrary I read that recovering from partition D: embeds
all downloaded updates. Is it true?
I'd like better to have WinXP on CDs, as it was for Win98, but updates are a
bulk of Mbs and unfortunately Adsl doesn't reach my phone line
il barbi

 

[Joe Grover]

The "System Recovery" option that people refer to disabling has nothing to
do with restoring your PC from the recovery partition created by HP.

I believe what they're referring to is the System Restore feature. This is
essentially a snapshot of your system configuration so if you install an
application and things go south you can restore a previous System Restore
point and go back to that "last known good configuration". You can manually
create a restore point if you're about to do some funky things to your
machine just as a fallback measure.

The recovery partition that HP created is to actually reinstall the
operating system in the case of unrecoverable software errors.

There is also a feature in Windows called Automated System Recovery, which
you can read about here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818903


Joe

 

[Rock]

Your post is unclear. I will reply with questions and info inline.

I have an HP Pavilion that has been shipped to me with Windows XP already
installed and a recovery partition D: from which I can restore Windows in
case of malfunctioning due tipically to malware. Anyway I occasionally find
worms on D:

What do you mean that you occasionally find "worms" on D:. That is a
recovery partition, there shouldn't be any infections on it. All you do is
read from it.

and then, as advised, I disable and re-enable system configuration
recovery.

What do you mean by system configuration recovery? As advised by whom? Do
you mean the system restore feature in XP? Yes if a restore point is
infected then the way to get rid of that is disable System Restore which
causes all restore points to be deleted. But this has nothing to do with
the system recovery partition. That is normally just an image of the drive
as received from the factory. Normally you would clean the system first
with system restore enabled, then when it's clean, if there is concern about
something being in a restore point, at that point turn off system restore to
delete all restore points and then turn it back on.

Moreover I read that someone advise to permanently disable system recovery
because it is a feature overloading the system and, as said, malware can
creep into it.

Again what do you mean by system recovery? If you mean System Restore, I
don't recommend turning it off. It has it's uses. But System restore is
only good going back a week or two at most, so what you should do is limit
the amount of space allocated to system restore, the default of 12% on
today's large drives is too much, and disable it on any data only drives.
See Bert Kinney's System Restore page for info on SR and how to keep it
healthy.

http://bertk.mvps.org/index.html

If you mean something other than system restore then be more clear on what
you are referring to.

Now if I disable system recovery I can made use of system recovery CDs

Again this is unclear. What do you mean by system recovery. There is
nothing in System Restore prohibiting you from using the recovery CD.

but I read that they embed WinXP as loaded originally in the PC, namely
WinXP SP2 without the many updates I downloaded afterwards.

Yes, of course, the recovery CD doesn't change when the installation is
updated. It is a means to restore the system to the condition it was in as
received from the factory.

In the contrary I read that recovering from partition D: embeds all
downloaded updates. Is it true?

Where did you read this? First I have heard of it. The recovery partition
is just an image of the drive as received from the factory. Essentially the
same as the recovery CD, hence it does not change when updates are added to
the installation.

I'd like better to have WinXP on CDs, as it was for Win98, but updates are
a bulk of Mbs and unfortunately Adsl doesn't reach my phone line

I think one should always have an installation CD. I would never buy a
system that didn't come with one.

 

[supizh2]

I read that they embed WinXP as loaded

originally in the PC, namely WinXP SP2 without the many updates I downloaded
afterwards.

Dear Joe,

if you need to recover your system with all drivers and updates
installed, you need to make a backup first. You can use Windows
inbuild tools such as Windows Backup or Restore Wizard or you may use
a third party software to do it. As a matter of fact, third party
programs have some advantages to Windows Backup tool such as an
ability to backaup to network share and restore from it, an ability to
use bootable recovery CD if your system becomes unbootable and other
usefull tools. I used Paragon Drive Backup software for 3 years and
absolutely pleased with it. You may try it here for free:
http://drive-backup.com/

As for me I back up my system every week automaticaly (by schedule)
and if something happens with it, I easily restore it from an archive.