HELP I NEED A RECOVERY DISC!

[Da_Shocker]

For a Pavilion DV7-4069wm

[evildragon]

I'm gonna PM you a trick to get it from HP for free.. (I used to work for them and know the way they will be forced to do it).

Just know, you will be getting it directly from HP, and no one here will send you a bootlegged disc. (Even though the recovery disc only work on the machine they are designed to, it checks HP's "Tattoo" in the BIOS to confirm it's the right machine).

[GohanX]

Use a bootleg xp/vista/whatever disc and download the drivers from hp's site. I do this anyway on new computers just to get rid of crap.

Some hps also have a recovery partition so they don't need a recovery disc if the heard drive isn't toast.

[MN12BIRD]

God recovery CD's and even worse, recovery partitions are so LAME! Would it really kill these OEM's to just give you the real Microsoft OS disks with their computers?

I love the HP's with the recovery partition. They know the most common thing in the laptop to fail is the Hard Drive! So when it does and you put in a new HD you realize your FUCKED because they didn't give you any CD with the computer. It doesn't make any sense. Just put a 50 cent CD in the box already!

I don't even bother with the recovery CD's. They just load all that crapware that comes bloated up on them to begin with. Just do a fresh install with a real M$ OS CD and download all the drivers after.

[evildragon]

What it is is Microsoft makes a deal with the OEM vendors to NOT include the disc, and rely only on a proprietary recovery partition, which will actually fail if the main windows partition itself is corrupt (because they deliberately remove partitioning capabilities).

There is only one OEM vendor that will include a REAL Windows disc. Dell. It's branded Dell, but it's just a regular OEM install and contains no drivers..

But if this guy can get the legal recovery kit for free, why bootleg? Seriously, not worth it.. You might as well get what you already paid for.

As for crapware, they can all be uninstalled.

[kgenthe]

I hate the recovery partition's as well. And I really hate the bloatware that comes on HP computers (a million different HP media branded products always running in the background). Anyway, I bought an HP over Christmas (09) and recently sold it to my parents and bought an iMac (need it for college program). Thankfully, one of those stupid HP programs that runs in the background was a nagging "Make Recovery Disc" application.

So come 6 months later when I need to wipe the machine. I pop in the disc, and it actually has an easy menu to reset to factory defaults. Using either the recovery partition or the disc. Obviously I use the HDD partition for speed. Worked great. If the HDD failed, I could just use the DVDs (you make 3 total).

Granted I had to spend 3 hours removing the bloatware. But that's another topic.

From what I understand, Microsoft gives manufactures a discount if they DON'T include a recovery disc. So if I saved $10-20 by burning them myself, then it was worth it. Still, I always recommend Dell to friends and family (less bloatware and you get recovery discs).

@original poster: Just call HP and bitch until they mail you the discs.

[evildragon]

You kinda repeated everything I already said. :P

Except I told him the way that would force HP to send a recovery kit for free..

[evildragon]

See? Free discs obtained with saying the right thing to HP..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3.../freediscs.jpg

[TheRollingStoner]

See? Free discs obtained with saying the right thing to HP..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3.../freediscs.jpg

That's pretty much the same as my laptop, there. 'Cept mine is a CQ50, not a full keyboard and probably some minor differences in hardware specs.

[kgenthe]

You kinda repeated everything I already said. :P

Except I told him the way that would force HP to send a recovery kit for free..

Last edited by kgenthe; Yesterday at 11:21 PM. Reason: Sorry for repeating a lot of what evildragon said

Sorry buddy!

[evildragon]

That's alright...

TheRollingStoner, mine is a CQ61-313us, and it's the first laptop I ever had, that does NOT use a BIOS. It uses that EFI thing, same thing Intel Macs use.

[TheRollingStoner]

Cool man, this is the first laptop I've ever had too. I've had it for almost two years, it's nothing special but it does everything I need it to do, which is alot, actually. Oh yeah, and I used to drive a Caprice too. Awesome car, I had a '92.

[E.J.]

There's a nice program that can make uninstalling bloatware a breeze.

-PC Decrapifier-

[evildragon]

Add/Remove Programs ain't bad either. Only on HP is there a service that hides from that list, that I use a program that's pretty advanced and shows more startup items than msconfig, in which I remove it from there.. Forget the name though.

[Knuckle Duster]

Add/Remove Programs ain't bad either. Only on HP is there a service that hides from that list, that I use a program that's pretty advanced and shows more startup items than msconfig, in which I remove it from there.. Forget the name though.

Using 'Autoruns' shows you everything running you could want to know about.

As a heads up to anybody using HP hardware. Their games service relies on Wild Tangent, a gray area spyware company that's making deals to avoid getting cleaned. You're best off not installing using an HP disk image.