11 Backup and recovery
Recovery after a system failure is as complete as your most current backup. HP recommends that you
create recovery discs immediately after software setup. As you add new software and data files, you
should continue to back up your system on a regular basis to maintain a reasonably current backup.
Tools provided by the operating system and HP Recovery Manager software are designed to help you
with the following tasks for safeguarding your information and restoring it in case of a system failure:
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Creating a set of recovery discs (Recovery Manager software feature). Recovery discs are used
to start up (boot) your computer and restore the operating system and software programs to factory
settings in case of system failure or instability.
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Backing up your information regularly to protect your important system files.
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Creating system restore points (operating system feature). System restore points allow you to
reverse undesirable changes to your computer by restoring the computer to an earlier state.
●
Recovering a program or driver (Recovery Manager software feature). This feature helps you
reinstall a program or driver without performing a full system recovery.
●
Performing a full system recovery (Recovery Manager software feature). With Recovery Manager,
you can recover your full factory image if you experience system failure or instability. Recovery
Manager works from a dedicated recovery partition (select models only) on the hard drive or from
recovery discs you create.
NOTE: Computers with a solid-state drive (SSD) may not have a recovery partition. Recovery
discs have been included for computers that do not have a partition. Use these discs to recover
your operating system and software. To check for the presence of a recovery partition, select
Start, right-click Computer, click Manage, and then click Disk Management. If the partition is
present, an HP Recovery drive is listed in the window.
Creating recovery discs
HP recommends that you create recovery discs to be sure that you can restore your system to its original
factory state if you experience serious system failure or instability. Create these discs after setting up
the computer for the first time.
Handle these discs carefully and keep them in a safe place. The software allows the creation of only
one set of recovery discs.
NOTE: If your computer does not include an integrated optical drive, you can use an optional external
optical drive (purchased separately) to create recovery discs, or you can purchase recovery discs for
your computer from the HP Web site.
Note the following guidelines before creating recovery discs:
●
You will need high-quality DVD-R, DVD+R, BD-R (writable Blu-ray), or CD-R discs. All these discs
are purchased separately. DVDs and BDs have a much higher capacity than CDs. If you use CDs,
up to 20 discs may be required, whereas only a few DVDs or BDs are required.
NOTE: Read-write discs, such as CD-RW, DVD±RW, double-layer DVD±RW, and BD-RE
(rewritable Blu-ray) discs, are not compatible with the Recovery Manager software.
●
The computer must be connected to AC power during this process.
84 Chapter 11 Backup and recovery ENWW