Windows Starter recovery w/o dvd

[felmon]

greets!

just got a Samsung N150 Plus netbook with Windows 7 Starter.

I wanted to back up the Windows recovery partition to be able to re-
install it if it gets corrupted or if I remove it.

what is a good way to back it up with an eye on certainty and ease of
reinstallation?

the N150 doesn't have a dvd. I suppose I could purchase an external one
and will do so if that is necessary or if other methods are terribly
complex or uncertain but would rather avoid that.

I have tried googling around but so far I haven't stumbled on anything
useful.

felmon

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

greets!

just got a Samsung N150 Plus netbook with Windows 7 Starter.

I wanted to back up the Windows recovery partition to be able to re-
install it if it gets corrupted or if I remove it.

what is a good way to back it up with an eye on certainty and ease of
reinstallation?

the N150 doesn't have a dvd. I suppose I could purchase an external one
and will do so if that is necessary or if other methods are terribly
complex or uncertain but would rather avoid that.

I have tried googling around but so far I haven't stumbled on anything
useful.

felmon

Ask the manufacturer to send you a restore disc.

 

[AJL]

Ask the manufacturer to send you a restore disc.

Won't work since he has no external DVD reader/writer (the netbook has
none internally). But as I said, if he did he could make his own
recovery disk.

To the OP: I recently restored my Eee PC netbook (also no internal DVD
but which came with a recovery DVD disk) and besides needing the
external DVD writer for that, I needed it to reinstall all my old
apps, which of course came on CD/DVDs...

Get the DVD writer, you won't be sorry...

 

[BillW50]

AJL wrote on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 11:58:41 -0700:

Won't work since he has no external DVD reader/writer (the netbook has
none internally). But as I said, if he did he could make his own
recovery disk.

To the OP: I recently restored my Eee PC netbook (also no internal DVD
but which came with a recovery DVD disk) and besides needing the
external DVD writer for that, I needed it to reinstall all my old
apps, which of course came on CD/DVDs...

Get the DVD writer, you won't be sorry...

Hello AJL! Did you know that Asus Xandros recovery DVD (or was it your
Windows machine one?) can be used in another computer with a drive and
it can create the recovery on a flash drive? I believe it needs to be at
least 2GB in size.

There are ways to get by without an external DVD drive. But some of them
requires a lot of work to get say Windows to install from a flash drive.
But it can be done. But I do agree, getting an external DVD drive really
does make things as easy as it gets. Yes I have a few of them myself.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Won't work since he has no external DVD reader/writer (the netbook has
none internally). But as I said, if he did he could make his own
recovery disk.

Well, the manufacturer sent me a restore DVD for an Acer netbook that
didn't have an optical drive. BTW, the disk was free, and they didn't
hassle me at all when I called.

Please - please - explain to me how my not having a drive prevents a
manufacturer from sending me a restore DVD

 

[AJL]

Well, the manufacturer sent me a restore DVD for an Acer netbook that
didn't have an optical drive. BTW, the disk was free, and they didn't
hassle me at all when I called.

Heck Asus *included* the recovery DVD in the new packaging of both my
Eee PC netbooks that have no internal DVD drive to run them on.

And of course my full size Acer laptops came with *no* recovery DVD
even though they *do have* an internal DVD drive. Go figure.

In the past when I had an HP laptop and I had them send me a recovery
disk they charged me $10 for it. I like the Asus way the best...

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Heck Asus *included* the recovery DVD in the new packaging of both my
Eee PC netbooks that have no internal DVD drive to run them on.

And of course my full size Acer laptops came with *no* recovery DVD
even though they *do have* an internal DVD drive. Go figure.

It's an unfortunate crap shoot, I guess...

In the past when I had an HP laptop and I had them send me a recovery
disk they charged me $10 for it. I like the Asus way the best...

The other computers here have software to burn recovery DVDs, but I had to
supply my own blanks

Two of them are not much good anyway - the computers stated out with
Windows Vista and I upgraded them to Win 7, so I'm not eager to recover to
factory status.

I'll rely on backups - which I don't do often enough. Of course

 

[BillW50]

Gene E. Bloch wrote on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:13:36 -0700:
[...]

The other computers here have software to burn recovery DVDs, but I had to
supply my own blanks

Two of them are not much good anyway - the computers stated out with
Windows Vista and I upgraded them to Win 7, so I'm not eager to recover to
factory status.

I'll rely on backups - which I don't do often enough. Of course

Well I personally value backups far superior to the recovery disc
anyway. As once you have backups, the recovery disc is only good for if
you want to sell or give your computer away anyway. As why would you
want a system without your favorite applications and settings for? And
in your case, a totally different OS to boot. ;-)

 

[AJL]

The other computers here have software to burn recovery DVDs, but I had to
supply my own blanks

My 2 Acers also came with built in software to make recovery disks and
nagged until you did (or turned off the nag) which seemed odd to me
because both laptops have recovery partitions. However I usually get
rid of the recovery software and use the partition for more drive
space so always made the disks. My older Acer can only burn CDs
(although it reads DVDs) so it took 7 CDs for the 'recovery disk'...

Two of them are not much good anyway - the computers stated out with
Windows Vista and I upgraded them to Win 7, so I'm not eager to recover to
factory status.

*My theory* is that a laptop works best with the software that was
matched to and originally came installed on it. And AJL's theory of
laptops #2 is that the original factory installation as restored by a
recovery disk works faster and better than that OS with a years worth
of updates. The theory certainly works out on this netbook...

 

[felmon]

To the OP: I recently restored my Eee PC netbook (also no internal DVD
but which came with a recovery DVD disk) and besides needing the
external DVD writer for that, I needed it to reinstall all my old apps,
which of course came on CD/DVDs...

Get the DVD writer, you won't be sorry...

I am seriously considering this but I'm a bit short of time as I am
packing for a European jaunt and everything is last moment plus it would
be nice not to carry more gear.

am looking into clonezilla.

Felmon

 

[felmon]

Well I personally value backups far superior to the recovery disc
anyway. As once you have backups, the recovery disc is only good for if
you want to sell or give your computer away anyway. As why would you
want a system without your favorite applications and settings for? And
in your case, a totally different OS to boot. ;-)

in principle I agree with this but this device may go to my spouse and we
are a two operating system ('bi-OS'?) couple so I figured it would be
good to be able to restore to factory condition once I'm done with it.

perhaps I should just configure the Windows partition to my liking, back
that up and give her the kit and kaboodle when the time comes, she'd
probably be just as happy, or happier even.

Felmon

 

[BillW50]

AJL wrote on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:01:08 -0700:

*My theory* is that a laptop works best with the software that was
matched to and originally came installed on it. And AJL's theory of
laptops #2 is that the original factory installation as restored by a
recovery disk works faster and better than that OS with a years worth
of updates. The theory certainly works out on this netbook...

Yes, I too have seen this evidence time and time again. ;-)

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Gene E. Bloch wrote on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:13:36 -0700:
[...]

The other computers here have software to burn recovery DVDs, but I had to
supply my own blanks

Two of them are not much good anyway - the computers stated out with
Windows Vista and I upgraded them to Win 7, so I'm not eager to recover to
factory status.

I'll rely on backups - which I don't do often enough. Of course

Well I personally value backups far superior to the recovery disc
anyway. As once you have backups, the recovery disc is only good for if
you want to sell or give your computer away anyway. As why would you
want a system without your favorite applications and settings for? And
in your case, a totally different OS to boot. ;-)

I agree -- I have used a recovery disc for just the purpose you mention,
with the addition of running a disk wipe program to clear the now unused
portion of the recovered disk (just for paranoia) before giving it away.

As for value of recovering to a totally different OS to boot (is the pun
intended?) and the value of backups, well, obviously we agree there too.

 

[M.L.]

I am seriously considering this but I'm a bit short of time as I am
packing for a European jaunt and everything is last moment plus it would
be nice not to carry more gear.

Yes, that extra 10 ounces of gear could really ruin your trip.

 

[Death]

Yes, that extra 10 ounces of gear could really ruin your trip.

That's why Death doesn't carry anything smaller than a $50.
Those $20's get heavy.
Airport bums will relieve you of the small bills.
Wad 'em up in a ball, and toss 'em, watch a drunken bum take a face
plant trying to fetch 'em.

 

[felmon]

Yes, that extra 10 ounces of gear could really ruin your trip.

I'm glad you understand!

Felmon