Vista - Create a Gateway OEM Recovery Disc

I recently purchased a Gateway laptop M-6888U that had no software disc provided. I was told by Bestbuy to simply backup my entire drive. I wish to know is there a way to make a recovery disc that WILL install a fresh copy of vista64 or am I screwed since everyone is trying to cut corners? I know I can make a recovery disc that works IF I have a working installation of my OS. My concern is if the drive gets corrupted and my OS needs to be reinstalled I'm screwed, with my only option being to purchase a new copy of Vista.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Hello Gruvin, and welcome to Vista Forums.

This link at Gateway will help show you how to create a set of OEM recovery discs to use to restore Vista back to factory defaults with if you are unable to from the hard drive's recovery partition. Just repeat again, and select the other option to create the Vista recovery disc and not just one for the applications and drivers disc.

Gateway Support - Create System Recovery Discs for the Applications and Drivers External Media in the Gateway Recovery Center

Hope this helps,
Shawn

You sir are the greatest. I tried to find this info from the gateway support site and could not. I appreciate your speedy response!

You're welcome Gruvin.