Vista Ultimate Complete PC Image Restore

[Fastlayne]

I have a brand new HP Pavilion with Vista Home Premium pre-installed - no
Microsoft Vista disks.

I have purchased an Any Time Upgrade key for Vista Ultimate.

What is the recommended procedure to create a full system image after I have
upgraded to Vista Ultimate? And specifically does it create a bootable
"Installation" disk as part of the recovery set so that I can fully recover
my PC in the event of a hard drive failure?

My confusion with regards to the "Complete PC Restore" feature of Vista
Ultimate is the first step that states that I need to insert the "Vista
Installation CD".

Thanks.

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

The Complete PC Backup is 'not' bootable, it require that you boot from your
Windows Vista installation disk into the Windows Recovery Environment and
follow instructions to restore the image.

Please see my tutorial for further instructions on how to create and restore
it:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E8E5CC039D51E3DB!16507.entry

 

[Fastlayne]

Okay, but anyone with a pre-installed version of Vista Ultimate will not have
the "Vista DVD". (Or that have upgraded to Ultimate, in my case.)

It would appear that I have upgraded to Ultimate to get a feature that I
cannot use!

I am familiar with other 3rd party restore applications that create the boot
disk that then prompts for the remaining disks in the set.

Unfortunately, I did not order the Any Time upgrade via the web and did not
request the Vista disk (which only costs me shipping and handling).

Now what????

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

Well, the recommendation in this case would be to obtain the disk, whether
its through the OEM or Microsoft.

 

[Fastlayne]

The box (HP Pavilion) came from Best Buy.

I see that I can use an HP tool to create one and only one set of recovery
DVDs. No problem. That is the first thing I will do.

Then I will test them.

Then I will upgrade to Ultimate.

Then I will attempt to use Complete PC Restore to create a new recovery set,
so that I have an image that is Ultimate, which of course is my desired
starting point after a hardware failure.

I just have to cross my fingers and hope that the original HP Recovery Set
will get me into the right Vista Recovery Environment that allows me to
restore from my "Ultimate Image".