Lack of Recovery Media Discs [ Edited ]

[AngelAuthor]

{Content Removed: legal discussion}

Last summer I purchased a Pavilion dv7 from Costco.  Today, about eight months later, I decided it was time to install a clean windows to get my old performance back.  I was surprised when I opened the box of materials that came with the computer to find no discs, but a piece of paper that informed me that the recovery information was on my D partition.  I looked into that and the recovery disc creation software that was included to discover that I had one choice.  ONE choice:

Format and restore my system to factory specs.

I don't want to format and restore my system to factory specs.  I just want to reinstall Windows 7.  You know, the Windows 7 that I am a LICENSED AND AUTHORIZED USER OF SINCE I PURCHASED THIS LAPTOP??

As someone who paid for a license of Windows 7, I expect to be able to access the installation files for that software at will, without having to jump through HP's System Restore hoops attached to it.

So what are my options?  I went through HP's Recovery Manager to have it create recovery discs for me in the hopes that it would create a Windows 7 disc.  It gave me the option of using a large USB drive or burning four DVDs.  I chose the DVD's.

Mistake!

On the third DVD as the program was verifying the data already written, it hung, told me there was an error, and to try again later.   I inserted another new DVD and the program automatically tried to re-burn disc three.  Understand now, disc three was already burnt successfully before...the stupid program just couldn't "verify" the data, so now it was starting over.

Well, the same thing happened with this new DVD...it hung while verifying the data, so now I have TWO functioning disc threes and the program is asking me to put in another new DVD to try again...

I don't think so.

(Here's where the programers at HP got stupid...)

There's NO WAY now to go back and choose the USB option instead.  This idiot Recovery Manager software is 100% linear, no left, no right, no backing up...all it wants to do now is burn that third disc and it gives me NO OPTIONS TO DO ANYTHING ELSE!!  

What kind of morons design a program that does that?

So I turn to the HP website to have it send me the discs that should have been included in the box, hoping that HP was just hoping to save a few bucks by not shipping them to EVERYONE, but that they would ship them to me for free since I was still under warranty, and that these shipped discs would include Windows 7 standing alone.

NOpe...they want to charge me $16.00 to send them out.

Really?

{Content Removed: legal discussion} This was going to be very easy.  I paid HP a certain amount for a software license, and they refuse to give me access to that software unless I agree to wipe my hard drive as a part of their restore process.  

Fortunately for HP (maybe), I went online and chatted with one "Pukeet" ($100 says he's not a citizen of the U.S.), who, after hearing the steps I went through trying to create recovery discs tells me that he can ship me recovery discs for free.  Yay!

Yay?

I suppose it is still possible that what will arrive is a "packaged" restore program that includes Windows 7 after it has wiped my hard drive and no individual access to Windows 7 as a stand-alone product.  If that is the case, {Content Removed: legal discussion}

And I suspect that with the "make it go away" mentality of large corporations, after my initial complaint is filed, someone at the top will get the message and arrange to have a copy of Windows 7 sent specially to me.

I like HP products.  I hope they are getting enough complaints about this practice to change up before it comes time for me to buy a new system in another couple of years.  These kind of shenanigans are more than enough to give me second thoughts about buying my 3rd Pavilion.

[thilinawedanda]

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