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Help please!

I'm going to sell my HP62 laptop on eBay, and I want to format it before I send it off. It's running Windows 7 and no CD was provided with the machine. On my last laptop, there was a built-in utility to format the disk and return it to its factory condition, but on this one all I can find is a system restore thing and the earliest time I set a resore point was this month.

How can I format it? I've got an external HDD if that helps.

If you don't have a CD, is there a recovery partition?

Power it off then on, during startup keep pressing the F11 key.

This should start up the HP Recovery Manager which allows a complete factory restore or the creation of recovery disks.

If that doesn't work you'll need to get a set of recovery disks, you can get them from HP or possibly eBay.

Don't waste your time trying to re-install with a set of disks borrowed from a mate, as they need to be HP specific.

What is a recovery partition? The drive is split into a C: for program files and stuff, and an E drive or something for Data - its empty.

Thanks johnny will try the F11 tomorrow, factory restore is what I'm after.

Basically what jonny said. Instead of going you a CD, most manufacturers put all the recovery tools on the HD. You can't see the partition through Windows.

On a related note, my sister has a new Samsung with a "Samsung Recovery Disk" that reinstalls Windows 7. The only problem is it reinstalls Windows with NO drivers, FUCKING NONE!

It requires no serial, no inputting of options, it's completely unattended and Samsung branded, yet you have to go to their website and get the drivers. (It doesn't even install the pissing network card, so you can't even cable up to the router, you've got to use another computer...)

Very frustrating but becoming more popular with recovery disks, defeats the point of a recovery CD to a certain extent. had this several times in the last year or so.

I tend to make a driver CD myself and give to people in case of emergency/recovery and tell them to keep it with the laptop/pc.

Hate these recovery partitions. I want a friggin OS install disc you cheapskate robbing manufacturers!


That is exceptionally cheap and nasty

You could always install Windows 7 over the top using a USB rather than a disc and then use a torrented copy of driver genius to install / update any drivers that are missing

I like the new recovery system on Macs - just plug in a ethernet cable to connect to the internet and it does the rest.

Apple are stealing your thought, man...

Really? I thought it must've been a mistake! Jesus... I was so angry to find that "repairing" the new laptop removed all the drivers and gave it a clean OS - at least it was free of shitware.


I hadn't heard of that, is that on Lion Apple's "Vista"? I love the Migration Assistant and Time Machine so much, I don't know how I ever formatted a computer, bought a new computer or even owned a computer, without it.

Yeap had it on HP, Samsung and Fujitsu.

The only ones lately that let you do the whole installation including drivers seem to be Dell and Toshiba and they load the inventory full of bloatware and shit that you will never use in a million years and its all on fucking startup and hogs memory, wankers.

The internet recovery is new with Lion. Initially it only worked on new Mac's but they've definitely added it to the Macbook Pro's that were launched at the beginning of 2011. Not sure about other older Mac's. There is still a hidden recovery partition that it will restore from but if that's fucked (or you've installed a new blank hard drive) then it falls back to recovering via the internet.

With Vista and Windows 7, you can use an OEM key with a retail version of Windows if you activate by phone.

Or if you don't want to activate by phone, you can try this: http://directedge.us/content/abr-activation-backup-and-restore

No bloatware and default drivers pre-installed :)

Is that using the option key on boot or something? I'm genuinely curious, because surely if the OS is fucked, how does it connect and what not?

I've not long bought a new Macbook Pro, although it's running Snow Leopard, so if I find the balls to move to what I hear is a worse OS, it sounds like a nice feature. (Although saying that I've never had any OS problems, so I can't imagine when I'd need it. Still, it's a nice shiny gimmick!)

Restart and hold down command-r, this will bring up a utility menu which includes restore / recovery.

Not had any major issues with Lion. Thought it did trash my Time Machine backups (it couldn't backup and I had to start afresh, losing all the old backups in the process). I held off a bit until the main software I use had been updated, as there were some compatibility issues at first.

That's the other thing, I've heard stories of CS5 going a bit mental.

If I'm honest though, the only thing I like (that I've noticed or been told of) is the reversed (natural?) touchpad thing.

Launchpad and Mission Control seem quite pointless - I don't use the dock and use LaunchBar for all App related shenanigans. I have a feeling it's just where I've not really looked into it, so have too little knowledge to really know anything for sure!

Thanks all, particularly johnny, the F11 worked.

Its goodbye the HP G62 and hello MacBook Pro.

The reverse scroll is confusing to begin with, but a lot more natural when you're used to it - same way iOS works.

The thing with Launchpad, Mission Control and the new gestures is that you need to spend time getting used to them and using them in your workflow. I can't be bothered with most of them, the only new one I use a lot is the two finger side swipe in Safari to go backwards and forwards.

I saw that, but was puzzled by what's wrong with the current 3 finger back and forward?

Have you ever tried LaunchBar or Alfred? If you like a good workflow, the shit they do, especially LaunchBar (I've not used Alfred beyond a quick poke, but it looks its equal), is incredible.

http://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html

http://www.alfredapp.com/

Also, I recently bought Keycue (also seen in the video below), that's superb for getting familiar with all your shortcuts. It's taught me many I didn't use, which saves clicking.

http://www.ergonis.com/products/keycue/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ani_MlorVIc

Didn't know there was one before, my last Macbook didn't support gestures so its all new to me.

Can't be bothered with any of those helper apps. Don't tend to use shortcuts much either. It's fine if you primarily only use a few applications or have some very defined workflows but neither apply to me.