Vista - Recovery and Re-format

Dear community,
I collected my new laptop a couple of days ago and was surprised it came
with no OS disk. It has 64bit Business vista.
After setting it up, I used the feature to create a recovery "disk", which I
have written on an external (portable HD).
Is there also a partition on my "Mother" HD because the 80gb drive seems to
only have only 66.5 gb useable space. Therefore, what's with the recovery
disk, if the hard drive has a "copy" of vista on it???
Please forgive me, but in the old days with XP, I'd reformat and re-install
the windows every year......if I want to do this in vista should I use the
Portable HD files or the partitoned part of the HD???
Also, now I've added software and settings, should I delete the portable
version and save a fresh one?
Thanks (vista newbie......)
T_D

"technique_doc" <techniquedoc@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:CFE41F7F-512F-49E1-B795-75CEB755878A@microsoft.com...
> Dear community,
> I collected my new laptop a couple of days ago and was surprised it came
> with no OS disk. It has 64bit Business vista.
> After setting it up, I used the feature to create a recovery "disk", which
> I
> have written on an external (portable HD).
> Is there also a partition on my "Mother" HD because the 80gb drive seems
> to
> only have only 66.5 gb useable space. Therefore, what's with the recovery
> disk, if the hard drive has a "copy" of vista on it???
> Please forgive me, but in the old days with XP, I'd reformat and
> re-install
> the windows every year......if I want to do this in vista should I use the
> Portable HD files or the partitoned part of the HD???
> Also, now I've added software and settings, should I delete the portable
> version and save a fresh one?
> Thanks (vista newbie......)
> T_D

Did you get any documentation with your new laptop?
It should explain to you how to recover from a serious problem, essentially
by using the combination of the contents of the second hard drive partition
and your "recovery" archive. It should also tell you how to revert to the
"as delivered" configuration. If it does not, contact the manufacturer's
tech support for the necessary information.
FWIW, your situation has nothing to do with Vista, per se. I have a laptop
with XP on it that provides exactly the same combination of safety features
you describe. The difference appears to be that mine came with full
instructions on how to restore to the "as delivered" configuration.

"technique_doc" wrote
> Dear community,
> I collected my new laptop a couple of days ago and was surprised it came
> with no OS disk. It has 64bit Business vista.
> After setting it up, I used the feature to create a recovery "disk", which
> I
> have written on an external (portable HD).
> Is there also a partition on my "Mother" HD because the 80gb drive seems
> to
> only have only 66.5 gb useable space. Therefore, what's with the recovery
> disk, if the hard drive has a "copy" of vista on it???
> Please forgive me, but in the old days with XP, I'd reformat and
> re-install
> the windows every year......if I want to do this in vista should I use the
> Portable HD files or the partitoned part of the HD???
> Also, now I've added software and settings, should I delete the portable
> version and save a fresh one?

Check the documentation that came with the computer or contact the
computer's tech support for specific info on how the recovery process works.

I'm not sure why you were reinstalling XP every year. With proper
maintenance, good hardware and software, practicing safe hex, and use of a
drive imaging program to regularly save images of the system to an external
hard drive, there is little reason from most people to reinstall. This
system which is set up as a multi-boot with XP and Vista is going on 5 years
for the primary XP installation without a reinstall of the OS.

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

My Laptop is an HP dv9030us and I made the recovery disks with 3 blank DVDs
right when I bought it.

They are meant to restore your system to its original factory condition -
that is, what it was like when you brought it home, untouched - in the event
of a un- recoverable crash or a need to reformat your hard drive.

My recovery DVDs run the recovery almost all automatically; all I have to do
is agree to start the recovery and acknowledge that my C:\ will be
reformatted and that all data will be lost from that drive. That's it. Then
the computer tells me when disk 1 is done and when to insert disk 2 and so
on.

The downside of this system is when you want to install your own full
Windows OS, rather than the OEM-based recovery. For example, I recently
tried to set up an XP dual boot with Vista already installed. My recovery
disks install XP Media Center and have tons of bloatware on them which is a
pain. So I happen to have a full version of Windows XP Pro that I'm not
using (really, it's true), so I can install that instead, right? Well,....my
XP Pro CD does not have all the motherboard drivers for my particular
computer, drivers which are in my recovery disks but which are virtually
buried therein and almost impossible to find.

I guess that's the price of ease and automation. ....Frank



"Rock" <Rock@nospam.net> wrote in message
news:OmHL2$clHHA.1776@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> "technique_doc" wrote
>> Dear community,
>> I collected my new laptop a couple of days ago and was surprised it came
>> with no OS disk. It has 64bit Business vista.
>> After setting it up, I used the feature to create a recovery "disk",
>> which I
>> have written on an external (portable HD).
>> Is there also a partition on my "Mother" HD because the 80gb drive seems
>> to
>> only have only 66.5 gb useable space. Therefore, what's with the recovery
>> disk, if the hard drive has a "copy" of vista on it???
>> Please forgive me, but in the old days with XP, I'd reformat and
>> re-install
>> the windows every year......if I want to do this in vista should I use
>> the
>> Portable HD files or the partitoned part of the HD???
>> Also, now I've added software and settings, should I delete the portable
>> version and save a fresh one?
>
> Check the documentation that came with the computer or contact the
> computer's tech support for specific info on how the recovery process
> works.
>
> I'm not sure why you were reinstalling XP every year. With proper
> maintenance, good hardware and software, practicing safe hex, and use of a
> drive imaging program to regularly save images of the system to an
> external hard drive, there is little reason from most people to reinstall.
> This system which is set up as a multi-boot with XP and Vista is going on
> 5 years for the primary XP installation without a reinstall of the OS.
>
> --
> Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

> Did you get any documentation with your new laptop?
> It should explain to you how to recover from a serious problem, essentially
> by using the combination of the contents of the second hard drive partition
> and your "recovery" archive. It should also tell you how to revert to the
> "as delivered" configuration.

OK, this is what I wanted to hear I guess. I need to leave the partition
well alone and keep the "recovery archive" renewed/replaced every now and
then have it ready for a disaster.
One of the replies asked why I wanted to re-install XP - I'm not expecting
to do this with vista at all, it's purely for safety. I found that XP
eventually got cluttered up and ran "as new" after re-format and re-install
(as one would expect). The type of problems included cloning of system
processes (ATi graphics) and general remains of program files.
I have documentation from HP on this laptop (yes!) and have downloaded the
pdfs just in case. I would imagine no troubles at all. But essentially, as
you say, it is a combination of both mother HD (partition) and recovery disk
(portable HD).
Thanks
T_D