Cloning a Compaq Recovery DVD

I just bought a Compaq Presario and read that it would only let me
create one Recovery DVD. That would be fine except that I would
prefer to have backups of my Recovery DVD in case my primary DVD
becomes defective. If I created a clone Recovery DVD using Nero or
some other program, would it be able to tell the difference and not
work? If I am able to copy the files in my Recovery Partition, will
they work? Thanks in advance.

If you make a recovery DVD using the program that came with the
computer, it's a near certainty that you can copy the DVD that you made
with any DVD copier.

[Note: My Gateway said I could only make 1 DVD, but it doesn't seem to
enforce that; after having made 1, it let me make another after
rebooting, and they appear identical]

Cloning or backing up the recovery partition itself is more difficult.
I'd try using Ghost or Acronis True Image. Because it's a bootable
partition, simply copying the files in the partition probably won't give
you a directly usable result, although there may still be value in doing
that (it may give you enough files to be able to reinstall a generic
version of Windows manually, for example).


DarkPhoenix wrote:
> I just bought a Compaq Presario and read that it would only let me
> create one Recovery DVD. That would be fine except that I would
> prefer to have backups of my Recovery DVD in case my primary DVD
> becomes defective. If I created a clone Recovery DVD using Nero or
> some other program, would it be able to tell the difference and not
> work? If I am able to copy the files in my Recovery Partition, will
> they work? Thanks in advance.
>

DarkPhoenix wrote on 18/08/2007 03:06:41:
> I just bought a Compaq Presario and read that it would only let me
> create one Recovery DVD. That would be fine except that I would
> prefer to have backups of my Recovery DVD in case my primary DVD
> becomes defective. If I created a clone Recovery DVD using Nero or
> some other program, would it be able to tell the difference and not
> work? If I am able to copy the files in my Recovery Partition, will
> they work? Thanks in advance.

I got round the limitation of only one copy of the recovery data as
follows.

With my Lenovo 3000 C200 Windows XP Pro (WXP) I use Terabyte's BING to
handle my hard drive imaging and partitions.

Created an image of the C: partition containing WXP to another
partition/CD/DVD.

Ran the program from WXP to create a set of recovery CDs/DVD (set 1).
(The WXP on C: now knew that it had created the only allowable copy - I
couldn't find where it stored this info to hack it).

Restored the image of the C: partition with WXP on it. WXP was then as
good as new and didn't know that it had already produced a set of
recovery media. Ran the program to create a set of recovery CDs/DVD
(set 2).

Of course using BING one can image the recovery partition itself (as
many copies as you want) to restore it if ever required. I have done
this and run without a recovery partition and use the space on the hard
drive for myself.

(I now run Windows XP without any of the Lenovo rubbish on a FAT32
partition by choice- getting there is another story).

Turps

DarkPhoenix wrote in news:1187402801.892439.213800
@z24g2000prh.googlegroups.com:

> I just bought a Compaq Presario and read that it would only let me
> create one Recovery DVD. That would be fine except that I would
> prefer to have backups of my Recovery DVD in case my primary DVD
> becomes defective. If I created a clone Recovery DVD using Nero or
> some other program, would it be able to tell the difference and not
> work? If I am able to copy the files in my Recovery Partition, will
> they work? Thanks in advance.
>

Search for and then rename the file HPCD.sys. This will usually reenable
the ability to create another restore set.

--
Ds.Laptop.Repair at gmail dot com
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