Need to recover my G73 but...

[brettt777]

I am wanting to do a full recovery on my G73jh because it has a few issues and I would just like it back to factory fresh. I didn't burn any recovery disks when I first got it and now when I try to, it burns the first two disks fine and then hangs up on the third disk, giving me this error:

"An exception error occurred during the burning progress. DVD-3 needs to be burned again. Please insert a blank writable DVD."

I have verified that the drive works properly and the disks that it tells me are bad, work fine when I try them later. So I am wondering about using the F9 keyboard method. I started it the other day just to see what happens. It brings up the recovery display and gives me the three options so that much appears to work; I didn't go any further than that. My concern is that if the thing won't burn the disks for whatever reason, could there be something wrong with my recovery directory and then when I try to do an F9 recovery I get stuck somewhere in the middle with no way out? Does it use that same recovery directory for burning the disks and for doing a keyboard recovery? What would you recommend I do? I have seen on a number of forums that issues with burning the recovery disks aren't all that uncommon on this machine. Should I go ahead with the F9 keyboard method? It gives me some partition options that I actualy like. If I do say, a single partition Windows reinstall, will it still put the thing back the way it was when I got it with all the extra little options and programs or would it be just a basic Windows 7 installation? Would it redo the recovery directory so I could actualy burn a set of disks?
One last question is this. I have a friend who has a G73 that is a few months newer than mine. I believe that other than the slightly faster CPU (that would make his a G73jw, wouldn't it?) his machine is the same as mine. Same OS, same video card, same RAM. So I am wondering if a set of recovery disks burned on his machine would work on mine, or are they proprietary to each individual machine?

[zviratko]

the recovery software is s*t to say the least, let it create the discs and then look for the isos.. i'm not sure where I found them, I think it was in My Documents? then just burn them in whatever way suits you, or just backup them somewhere if you're not going to use them.

Beware that the recovery isos will only recover the recovery partition, which in turn recovers windows installation - and you will lose all partitioning on the first drive.

I personaly ditched the recovery completely because of all that and did a fresh install, but it is quite helpful to keep the eSupport directory (contains all the default drivers, some scripts etc...). I prefer windows 7 system image backup to "recovery partition backup" (whoever came up with that was just not thinking)

[brettt777]

zviratko wrote:
the recovery software is s*t to say the least, let it create the discs and then look for the isos.. i'm not sure where I found them, I think it was in My Documents? then just burn them in whatever way suits you, or just backup them somewhere if you're not going to use them.

Beware that the recovery isos will only recover the recovery partition, which in turn recovers windows installation - and you will lose all partitioning on the first drive.

I personaly ditched the recovery completely because of all that and did a fresh install, but it is quite helpful to keep the eSupport directory (contains all the default drivers, some scripts etc...). I prefer windows 7 system image backup to "recovery partition backup" (whoever came up with that was just not thinking)

When you say recovery partition, are you refering to the protected recovery directory on the OS partition? Or is it some seperate partition that I'm not seeing? As far as loosing all the seperate partitions, that's fine with me. I would prefer one big partition to two or three smaller ones anyway. I have what appears to be a seperate partition for Windows Office 2010 but I already have that software and would never need to purchase and activate that partition.
When you say it recovers the recovery partition and then in turn, recovers Windows but not all the seperate partitions, does that means it totaly wipes the HHD and re-partitions it and then installs Windows?
And one last thing, since I have already tried to create recovery disks on a few different occasions, wouldn't those .iso files be on the HDD somewhere already? The process did create the .iso's but just wouldn't burn all the disks. Or does it delete the iso's once you exit the program?

[Chastity]

The iso files are deleted when the app is done burning. Using the disks are also pointless. 🙂 Just use the F9 recovery option on POST. You can also use Windows Disk Manager to delete the extra partition on the HDD, and then expand the first partition to use the extra free space.

[brettt777]

Chastity wrote:
The iso files are deleted when the app is done burning. Using the disks are also pointless. 🙂 Just use the F9 recovery option on POST. You can also use Windows Disk Manager to delete the extra partition on the HDD, and then expand the first partition to use the extra free space.

Actualy I found all the Win 7 installation and driver files you have posted and am in the process of putting all that on disks and then I'll just start from scratch. If I reinstall from the Win7 x64 ISO, I assume it will let me wipe the HDD and let me set up the partitions how I want them or...?

Also, If I install with the Win7 ISO file, I can just input the security key off the bottom of the laptop when it asks for a key?