Folder HP_RECOVERY (D:) in Windows browser is empty, same for folder HP_TOOLS (E:) also empty. ?

[wy7]

Well, my notebook HP ProBook 450 G3 works fine. But I see always see these 2 empty but intended for repair folders in my Windows browser: 'HP_RECOVERY' and also 'HP_TOOLS'. I wish to normalize this situation and fill up  these 2 folders with the needed missing files. That could improve eventually troubleshooting, I assume. How can I get those missing files?

[Lil_Boy_Blue]

Hi

Filling those 2 folders will not help IF/WHEN the hard disk fails. 

But to create a Recovery Media would be a good thing.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-probook-450-g3-notebook-pc/7834555

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-probook-450-g3-notebook-pc/7834555

and investigate this....

Cloud Recovery Client

1.1 Rev.08

3.5 MB

Feb 15, 2018

Download

[wy7]

Hi Lil_Boy_Blue,

Thank you for the interesting and useful tips.

I did put the cloud recovery driver sp85318 for Cloud Recovery Client Version 1.1 in the folder HP_RECOVERY (:D)

Also the drivers sp77823 and sp91490 in HP_TOOLS (:E) for non HD fail diagnostics purposes.

So those tools easily accessible if necessary.

HP Support Assistant is also a useful available tool.

wy7

[WAWood]

@wy7 

In my experience, even if you only "touch" the HP Recovery partition, you render it unusable.  So your putting something into that drive was most likely, a waste of your time.

@Lil_Boy_Blue recommended that you do a backup so you have something to recovery from -- but I would go one step further ...

I personally prefer to use third-party Backup solutions as they tend to be both more flexible and more reliable than any built-in solutions.

Macrium Reflect (MR) provides a FREE version that can be used to image and restore partitions or entire drives.

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR) from here: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
2) Run MR and choose the option: "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows" to write a full backup to an external drive or USB stick
3) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

My experience is that MR, when using the High Compression option, typically can compress the saved image file to about 50% of the USED space in the OS partition. This means if you have an 80GB OS partition, and 40GB is used, MR only needs about 20GB to store the image file.

I use this all the time and it typically takes less than 15 minutes to do the image backup and about the same time or less to do a restore.

Plus, MR has the option to Add a Recovery Boot Menu entry. This allows you then to boot into WinRE, and you can then use that to do a restore -- when you can't boot into Windows!

NOW, you have the means to restore a full working system from the external drive or USB stick in only a few minutes.

[wy7]

@Lil_Boy_Blue

@WAWood

Hi,

I succeeded making a USB Recovery stick from the downloadfile sp85318.exe  put the folder HP_RECOVERY (D:)

It lasted ±1h40min making it but it works.

Now that folder has a content of 505 MB  in format NTFS

Ok!

Remark:

At setup of this HP Cloud Revovery Client Version 1.1 (sp85318) you must select between 3 options: only the OS, only the drivers or the OS + the drivers (option I choose). When, as test,  I did run the Recovery from the setup file on the USB stick I saw that Windows 10 was going to be installed! So that's a bit questionnable kind of GWX surprise because my OS is still Windows 7. The HP_RECOVERY (D:) folder (partition) has  now a content of 505 MB with the driver sp85318 included. The USB stick used has 9.6 GB of data used and 19.2 GB available on a total of 28.8 GB (standard 32 GB USB 3.0 stick).

I surely will try out also the promising Macrium Reflect (MR) recovery option proposed by WAWood.