Unable To Create System Restore Disks

[zzAOWzz]

My laptop has become increasingly slow and unstable and, having finally lost patience with it, am looking to do a full factory reset.  I've tried creating recovery disks using the 'Recovery Disk Creation' program, but get an error message saying my computer does not have a drive capable of creating CDs or DVDs and to contact HP Support.  I'm pretty sure this is incorrect, but can't seem to circumvent.

I've tried ordering a recovery tool from HP, but get a message saying it is unavailable for my product.

As my laptop is long out of warranty, it seems I can't even send an email to HP.  Hence, I have come here.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[Verki1]

If your computer unable to create system restore disks, you can try to use some third party software to create system restore disc. So that you can restore you laptop successfully.

[WAWood]

@zzAOWzz

Hello;

Allow me to welcome you to the HP forums!

Sorry, but I don't have very good news for you ...

First off,  the link that @Verki1  provided is for a system REPAIR disk -- and that is used to repair broken Windows boot files.  It can NOT be used to install or reinstall Windows.  So, that is a waste of time!

Second, it is likely that the HP Recovery Manager wants DVDs (since the recovery media disk set consists of DVDs) and if your CD/DVD unit does not burn DVDs, or if you aren't using the right kind of DVD, then that function won't work.

If you want to create a recovery backup, from which you could restore your setup to a different drive, then my suggestion is to use a third-party product known as Macrium Reflect.

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, USB stick, or DVDs
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 WinPE, 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, USB or DVDs stick in only a few minutes.

Good Luck

[zzAOWzz]

Great!  Thanks for a very detailed response.  I will give this a whirl over the weekend.