Member Avatar for genealogist

Hello, I,ve been adviced by Hewlett Packard to do a total reinstallment of my XP home edition. My computer is just 9 months old and has 80 GB and 512 MB RAM. I've got a "recoverydisc" which doesn't help at all.
My questions:
1) In which box/slide shall I put this disc? E/F?
2) I've tried both E and F SLIDES but the "recoverydisc" shows nothing but four folders with several subfolders which doesn't mean anything to me, not even when opened.
3) In order to henceforth backup my folders and files I want to install the Restore Wizard but I can't find it anywhere, not on the "Recoverydisc" or the Internet.
When reading Microsoft's KB 302894 about how to manually install the backup utility under point one I can't find the file named "Ntbackup.msi" file anywhere with or without the disc in any slide. I've searched for:
CD_ROM Drive:\VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP
but my computer has found NOTHING.
4)After that I've studied KB 305595 (in Swedish) which tells me to put a formatted disc into the computer and print
"format:a" in the COMMAND and then I get the answer:WRONG SYNTAX, CATALOGUE NAME OR VOLUME LABEL.
SOON I'M GOING CRAZY!!!!!
ARE THERE ANYONE WHO CAN HELP ME AND GIVE THE RIGHT ADVICE TO A SOLUTION?

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL
FROM GENEALOGIST

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by chrisbliss18

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— a few practical steps to follow before attempting a factory restore, and some quieter options if the recovery media won't behave as you expect. is right to push backing up first; here is a more hands‑on checklist and methods you can use now.

First priorities (do not run the restore until these are done)

  • Copy personal folders (documents, desktop, pictures, etc.) to an external USB drive. If Windows is running, use Explorer and drag the folders over.
  • If you have lots of small files or want a command option, the built‑in copy tool works reliably. Example command (run from an Administrator command prompt and change the paths to match your system):
    xcopy "C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%" "E:\Backup\%USERNAME%" /E /H /C /I

    This preserves subfolders and hidden files, and continues on error.

If Windows will not boot or you cannot write to USB from the running system

  • Remove the hard disk and attach it to another PC (or use a cheap USB‑to‑SATA adapter/enclosure) and copy the files there.
  • Or boot from a Linux Live CD/USB (Ubuntu, Knoppix, etc.) and copy files off the internal drive to an external disk.

Email, bookmarks and special data

  • Export or copy email stores and browser bookmarks explicitly (Outlook/Outlook Express/Thunderbird store files in specific folders). Export via the mail client when possible, or copy the mail store files if not. Also gather license keys for paid programs.

If the built‑in backup tool or installer files are missing

  • You can use free third‑party tools to make file backups or full disk images before wiping (examples: Macrium Reflect Free, Clonezilla, Cobian Backup, SyncBack). Make at least one test restore/check of a few files to confirm the backup is usable.

Final checks

  • Confirm you have installation or driver media and any product keys needed after restore. If the recovery media won’t boot or behaves only as a set of folders, contact HP support for exact restore instructions or replacement/rebuild media specific to your model.
Member Avatar for chrisbliss18

The recovery disk is a boot disk. You put it in the drive (usually the first one), reboot your computer, and the recovery disk will load and reinstall everything on your system.

Recovery disks are used to set all your software back to the state it was in when it was originally configured in the factory. None of your files will be saved.

If you wish to back up your files, there are many ways to do this. If you have a CD or DVD burner, burn your files off onto disks. You could put all your files onto flash drives or an external/secondary harddrive. If the files that you wish to save aren't too large, you can email them to yourself, run the system recovery, and download them from your email.

I'm very curious though. What problem are you having with your system that causes HP to tell you to reinstall everything? There are many times when tech support will tell you this simply because they do not have an answer for you or it would take too much time to explain how to fix the problem.

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