Recovery method and options are a TOTAL MESS

[Konstantin_V]

Hi,

I just bought a brand new dv6-6c55er, but after playing with it for a while, I came into a state of complete shock. The bad kind of shock. Sorry for the caps lock in the title, but I really don't know what to do next.

What I wanted was simple: to be able to reinstall a system if anything goes wrong, without loosing my data. But with what HP gives, I've spent a whole weekend fulltime already, and I don't see any way to accomplish this my basic task.

Well, technically, there is a way: back my files up constantly onto an external drive... But first of all, I don't want a backup. I just don't want to loose what is there on the disk. And most of all, why on earth would I want to buy a laptop with 1TB HDD just to have to buy an external drive right away!

With default partitioning, there's only one partition my files can go into; there's no getting round it being formatted, and farewell to my data.

I also tried "path A" repartitioning from the following post (I found it recommended in several places):

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Other-Notebook-PC-Questions/How-to-repartition-HDD-of-HP-notebook-with-...

But the regular recovery becomes defunct if the default partition scheme is altered in any way. Only "clean image" recovery works _only_ from the bakup recovery disk in this case... and it clears any changes to the partition table, again loosing all my data.

I just tried another way: deleted the recovery partition on the HDD, to be able to create an extended partition in its place; hoping that maybe it won't get destroyed upon the recovery, and counting on that my backup USB recovery stick will work. Ha-ha! Recovery is not working any more. At all.

The main question is: IS THIS ALL A JOKE?! I very much hope it is. Help? Someone?

Thanks,

Konstantin

[Mumbodog]

You should have a "Minimized Image Recovery" option, it will not save anything on the C drive unless you use the HP file backup during the recovery process (which I don't recommend, use your own backup method for files on C drive) but will leave all other user created partitions intact.

See this document for explanations for each recovery option

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02638587&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en#N121

[Konstantin_V]

Thanks for your reply! I thought nobody here would answer me And thanks for the link: it explains. But I'm afraid I don't have the "Minimized Image Recovery" option,.. regretfully.

The in-Windows HP Recovery Manager prompts me to either

1) Reinstall applications and drivers

2) Use Windows' Restore Points

3) Something that reads like "Factory reset", but actually reboots into Windows Recovery (I didn't go further on this).

And the F11 version of recovery is no longer available to me: I've created a recovery USB stick (after-creation check was reported successful), deleted the recovery partition, but my stick turned out not bootable. And on-boot F11 no longer works for me: it just does the regular Win boot, without any additional prompts.

Before the F11-recovery became disfunctional, besides using Windows' Restore Points, it offered 2 options:

* "Clean image" (I have a Russian version, so I cannot give an exact English reading of it), which would wipe and repartition the entire HDD

* Another one -- I don't remember the name exactly. I used it after having repartitioned my HDD a bit: after converting disk C into logical, and shrinking it down to 100G. Shortly after being chosen, this option would lead to a reboot, after which the system would become unbootable, until "Clean image" recovery is used on it. I tried it several times -- with the same result.

Is there, maybe, a way to obtain another recovery manager that would contain the "Minimized Image Recovery" option?

[Mumbodog]

There are several versions of recovery manager, some were updated some not.

Sounds like you need to order a recovery disc set from HP. If it is under warranty you can explain to them the recovery usb you made does not work, they should waive the fee for the discs and send them to you for free.

You can order recovery media here, or call HP on the phone to order 1-800-474-6836

 http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00810334&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en