recovery partition

[Shawn Modersohn]

I have a new XP hewlet packard here. There is a c: recovery partition and
d: windows partition. There was no XP cd. Not even a measly recovery cd
was provided. It gives you the option to burn a recovery cd however. I
managed to find a setting that at least shows the contents of the c: drive
from explorer, but the contents have a locked icon. I see a i386 folder
that I hope has a setup.exe in there. How do I view the contents of these
directories?

I want to wipe this thing clean turning off the system restore and
repartition my own backup volumes. Where do I find the image file that
makes this possible? I have a feeling that using HP's burn backup cd is
going to make a disk that depends on the recovery partition I am going to
wipe clean.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Creating HP Recovery CDs Using Recovery CD Creator
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...3&lang=en&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&docname=bph08097

HP Pavilions that ship with Microsoft Windows XP do
not come with recovery CDs. Instead, they use a hidden
space (partition) on the hard drive to store the recovery
information.

Read the following HP article thoroughly. I would recommend that you
follow the HP procedure for performing a "destructive recovery". Do not
use an alternative method to "wipe your disk clean".
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...docname=bph07145&product=71013&dlc=en&lang=en

Obtaining HP Recovery CDs
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...3&lang=en&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&docname=bph07143

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| I have a new XP hewlet packard here. There is a c: recovery partition and
| d: windows partition. There was no XP cd. Not even a measly recovery cd
| was provided. It gives you the option to burn a recovery cd however. I
| managed to find a setting that at least shows the contents of the c: drive
| from explorer, but the contents have a locked icon. I see a i386 folder
| that I hope has a setup.exe in there. How do I view the contents of these
| directories?
|
| I want to wipe this thing clean turning off the system restore and
| repartition my own backup volumes. Where do I find the image file that
| makes this possible? I have a feeling that using HP's burn backup cd is
| going to make a disk that depends on the recovery partition I am going to
| wipe clean.

 

[Allan]

I also have a HP and at times have had to do a recovery
and set it back to factory settings and all. In mine
there is a setting under HP/tools/ that has a system
recovery. But before you do this unplug all printers and
such. Just mouse, monitor, and keyboard. Even unplug
speakers I have found out. Hope this in some way helps
out or is what you are talking about.
Allan

 

[Steve Nielsen]

I have a new XP hewlet packard here. There is a c: recovery partition and
d: windows partition. There was no XP cd. Not even a measly recovery cd
was provided. It gives you the option to burn a recovery cd however. I
managed to find a setting that at least shows the contents of the c: drive
from explorer, but the contents have a locked icon. I see a i386 folder
that I hope has a setup.exe in there. How do I view the contents of these
directories?

I want to wipe this thing clean turning off the system restore and
repartition my own backup volumes. Where do I find the image file that
makes this possible? I have a feeling that using HP's burn backup cd is
going to make a disk that depends on the recovery partition I am going to
wipe clean.

Follow Carey's advice. I would also add that you'd be better off in the
long run to install a second hard drive for backup purposes, not use a
partition on your single drive because if the single drive fails your
backups are gone with it.

Steve

 

[Shawn Modersohn]

Follow Carey's advice. I would also add that you'd be better off in the
long run to install a second hard drive for backup purposes, not use a
partition on your single drive because if the single drive fails your
backups are gone with it.

Steve

There is going to be a second hard drive. It sounds like getting an
independent image of my OS is way more difficult than it should be. Thanks
for the replies so far.

 

[Steve Nielsen]

There is going to be a second hard drive.
Good.

It sounds like getting an
independent image of my OS is way more difficult than it should be.

Yes, you will be stuck with an HP recovery CD set will undoubtedly put
everything back to the way it was from the factory, including the
recovery partition, which you don't want. Sorry, I wasn't thinking about
that in my earlier post.

The only option I can see is to purchase a seperate XP CD. If you have a
not in use previous version of Windows (9x or above) CD you can save
some money and buy an XP Upgrade CD.

Thanks
for the replies so far.

You're welcome. Sorry I can't be of more help in this.

Steve

 

[Alex Nichol]

I have a new XP hewlet packard here. There is a c: recovery partition and
d: windows partition. There was no XP cd. Not even a measly recovery cd
was provided. It gives you the option to burn a recovery cd however. I
managed to find a setting that at least shows the contents of the c: drive
from explorer, but the contents have a locked icon. I see a i386 folder
that I hope has a setup.exe in there. How do I view the contents of these
directories?

I want to wipe this thing clean turning off the system restore and
repartition my own backup volumes. Where do I find the image file that
makes this possible? I have a feeling that using HP's burn backup cd is
going to make a disk that depends on the recovery partition I am going to
wipe clean.

HP provide the means of restoring to ex-factory state in the form of
files in a hidden partition, which you invoke at power on by a hot key
(F10 ?). If you set out with the intention of deleting that partition
you would need a regular CD - and that might not work with the HP
hardware. If you want flexibility in repartitioning the only course is
*not* to buy from HP