HP Envy recovery disc

[ricalex]

Hi guys. Just bought a HP envy laptop and am wanting to do a system disk to restore windows. Trouble is, I see HP have a restore assistant so im not sure which way to go about creating my windows usb disc.

Ive read the hp recovery program wont work with windows 10 which i have on my laptop and im a little paranoid that by going through widows recovery through control panel isnt going to copy all the relevant laptop drivers ( so now you can tell im a newbie at this stuff).

If anyone can give advice or just point to a dummy type solution for me to look at, i'd be eternally grateful.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

The recovery program will reinstall the drivers and whatnot.

I have also read that on the models made starting in 2018, there was not an option to create recovery media.

That is because you can always clean install W10 for free using Microsoft's W10 Media creation tool.

But if one is  reinstalling Windows that way, they would have to reinstall the drivers and software from the PC's support page.

However, here is a way you can make a system image of your current installation, and you can update the image any time you want.

All you need is a portable hard drive, and this free disk imaging software...

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

Get a portable hard drive large enough to save the image on.

The software will also prompt you to make a rescue USB flash drive or DVD, which you boot from to access the image stored on your portable hard drive.

You can make a new system image anytime you want to keep it updated.

Then if you ever need to reinstall W10, you can use the latest image you made to be as close to where you were.

[ricalex]

Thank you Paul. I was going to just buy the Hp recovery media as i dont want to find i have done the wrong thing when its too late. I might have a go at this later. I dont know what year my model is but there is hp recovery manager, ive just heard conflicting reports on it working properly.

Thanks for the reply fella. Hopefully this will calm my paranoia that i could bugger things up and not have a system restore method.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Now you have all of your bases covered. 

Buy the recovery media, clean install W10 with the media creation tool, or use the free imaging software.

I used to always order the recovery media shortly after receiving my HP PC's, because they quit selling it after the model has been around for a few years.

So, if a person waits 5 years and then the hard drive dies, and then they go to order recovery media, it is not always available anymore.