Setting up new laptop

Bought the computer. It's spent most of the day downloading and installing updates and is now ready for me to recreate a backup recovery media.

I have an external hard drive which has a variety of stuff on, which I want to keep, but these instructions:
https://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c04641788

say:
Connect a USB drive to the computer.
CAUTION:
Everything on the drive is deleted when you create the recovery drive.

So do I need to buy a new blank USB?

Re: Setting up new laptop

I'd be tempted to ignore Microsoft's offering and go for an independent disk imaging program. I use AOMEI's `Backupper` program, it's very good (IMO) and is free. The program creates an image of your PC's drive as a file which can then be copied to an external drive. You can also create a disk restore DVD which can be used to boot your laptop and use the file to recreate your drive exactly as when you backed it up.

Have a look here:

https://www.aomeitech.com/ab/standard.html

Re: Setting up new laptop

Thanks Judd - I'll be downloading that program first thing tomorrow.

Re: Setting up new laptop

Just read that link

First of all remove your extrnl hard drive from your computer, that is essential.
That link refers to putting backup on that drive DON'T. Get a memory stick that will fit into your USB port and use that for backup

I fear that if you tried to load to your exisitng extrnl drive it may wipe everything off
Be safe and get a memory stick

quote

Creating a Microsoft recovery USB drive
A recovery drive can troubleshoot problems with your computer even when the operating system does not open. You can also copy the HP Recovery partition to the drive. Follow these steps to create a recovery USB drive:
Connect a USB drive to the computer.
CAUTION:
Everything on the drive is deleted when you create the recovery drive.


NEVER EVER BACKUP TO THE MAIN DRIVE ALWAYS BACKUP TO A SECOND DRIVE BE INTRNL OR EXTRNL

Re: Setting up new laptop

I don't know how you've got your PC's hard drive partitioned (divided into different sections) but mine has two partitions - the C: drive where Windows and the operating system is stored, and a D: drive where all by files, data, photos and music are stored. When I image my C: drive, the file is copied to the D: drive and there it can be stored safely but also copied to an external USB drive, that way, you always have two copies.

As an extra, if a file on your PC gets corrupted or lost and you want to replace it, the backup program allows you to `mount` the disk image as a virtual partition and you can copy it from there.

Re: Setting up new laptop

Following on from Realspeed's post, the MS recovery drive will restore your PC to its original settings, i.e. as when you bought it brand new. Not very good if you've installed all of your favourite programs on it and got it working just as you want.

Re: Setting up new laptop

jUDD

Do not rely on drive "D" for storage.I had a Maxtor hard drive with everything on it ,ie 5000+ clients at the kennels, and never gave a thought about backup. I was so ignorant about computers way back then.

What happened the hard drive failed and lost absolutely everything. Did panic set in? you bet it did! all client bookings were also on hard copies(paper) one for us and one for he client, thank goodness
So took the computer to a computer genius who had so many qualifications!!!. Anyway he managed somehow to extract all the booking program and clients and put on another hard drive.
The maxor HD went back to the manufactures and they agreed it was a disk failure and replaced it free of charge with a bigger one.

Let me say that taught me a huge lesson. since then I have so many backups in place you would not believe

Re: Setting up new laptop

Don't worry RS, all my data is methodically backed up to two external hard drives for safe keeping. I just keep data on the D: drive for convenience.

Re: Setting up new laptop

I have purchased, and created, a USB recovery drive.

I bought a 32 Gb one, for about 20 quid.

The recovery drive set up program does do a format, on the new drive. This is to ensure that no other programs are lurking on there.

Once created, this drive offers several options to get you going if your boot drive has problems.

Most of the options are just repair actions which fix corrupted files, etc - without losing any system stuff.

Only if the boot drive is totally irreparable do you get offered the option to completely re-install W10.
If this option does come up W10 asks if you want a complete install or just W10 - leaving your other apps as they are.
Otherwise everything remains there and the drive is simply "fixed".

So, this is just a recovery tool.

https://www.maketecheasier.com/creat...ecovery-drive/

I get the idea put forward, by Judd, to have separate partitions for your W10 and your data.
The only drawbacks I see, with that, are that, if W10 dies, and has to be reinstalled, the registry - the important part of W10- dies as well - so the new installation of W10 will not know where your apps are and they might need to be reinstalled.
However, the DATA files are safer using Judd's advice.

All of this advice does not mean that you don't need to keep backing up your important data to a separate drive, etc. That remains essential!

Re: Setting up new laptop

Thanks for all your replies. I have a 64 GB USB on order - arriving today.

I generally follow a maintenance routine - which I do about once a month - six weeks, which includes running C/cleaner, clearing browsing history, uninstall any unwanted programmes then take three backups - all kept in three different locations.
That's in addition to updates the computer keeps reminding me to do!