Need to create recovery discs

yaggayagga Havn't you heard? ... New
edited March 2008 in Science & Tech
I am going to try to help someone out in a couple days. He just bought a new laptop with vista and asked me to make him a recovery disc(s). He was offered this service for $70 at the store for 4 dvd discs supposedly.

I am wondering how about I need to successfully get him set up with recovery disc(s) for something closer to free, never minding the cost of dvds, software, time, drinks, etc.

I have been aware of Norton Ghost for just about eternity, but never used it. I'm sure I've got a copy somewhere, but probably an older copy. This is where I'd start, correct? Obtain Norton Ghost, I think it's v14 now? Does a trial version work as well as buying it? I then need to go about the process, and am not sure if it is tricky or not. I do not have external floppy drives to plug into the laptop so I kind of need to make a boot disc without any floppy use. The outcome I need to have is dvd disc(s), as buying an externally set up hard drive is not cost effective.

Can anyone help me through the process? ...ahead of time I hope...

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited February 2008
    All of today's OEM computers can make their own. Toshibas and high-end Dells come with them.
  • yaggayagga Havn't you heard? ... New
    edited February 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    All of today's OEM computers can make their own. Toshibas and high-end Dells come with them.

    The laptop is an HP, not that it matters.

    But... can they make recovery discs that will FULLY INSTALL into a NEW BLANK HARD DRIVE?
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited February 2008
    Yagga, if your friend has the money, here's what I recommend:
    Procure a 2.5" external USB enclosure and 2.5" laptop hard drive. Purchase Acronis software, and just perform a clone operation once every week or two. It's a very simple operation and rock solid reliable. If something happens to his hard drive, be it vicious malware or even a catastrophic drive failure, all he has to do is pop in the cloned drive and his computer is up and running, exactly at the state of the last hard drive clone operation - OS, programs, settings, email folders, everything. Don't buy a ready-made external drive from a store, as they are ripoffs (IMO) and contain a bit of useless software. Give Newegg specials or eBay (as much as I hate to recommend that) a try. There's a flood of 2.5" drives on eBay and quality, aluminum enclosures for modest prices. This is a little more expensive than recover CDs, but the simplicity is unmatched. I recommend getting one of the enclosures that has a double USB connector. Many laptops cannot supply enough power to a small external drive through only one USB port.

    I set up exactly this configuration for me son when he started college, assuming he wouldn't be careful enough about safe computing. It's already paid off handsomely for him. The clone will make a perfect image of the hard drive, including the protected OS restore partition, so your friend would still have the factory licensed copy of Windows.

    I believe there now is also a freeware backup-restore software that includes cloning capability, but I don't know its name. I do know though, that Acronis is superb.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited March 2008
    yagga wrote:
    The laptop is an HP, not that it matters.

    But... can they make recovery discs that will FULLY INSTALL into a NEW BLANK HARD DRIVE?

    Yes.
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