Copy D drive to DVD


  #1  
Old 12-22-12, 05:04 PM
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Copy D drive to DVD

Like many brand new Laptops nowday, they don’t come with a Vista Home DVD but rather they include the Vista Home system files along with the factory settings on the D:\ drive.

After about 6 years on my HP Laptop I would like to reformat the HD and do a clean install but before I wonder if I could copy the D:\ drive to a DVD and use this DVD for my new install.

Anyone has done this? Would I be able to re install Vista Home as stated above?
 
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Old 12-22-12, 05:47 PM
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I'm not an expert on this but I don't think windows will allow itself to be copied. Did you make recovery disks when you got the machine? I think that's how you would do a clean install. Even if you could copy your installed and used copy of windows, it would defeat the purpose of doing a clean install. I would try going through the process of making a recovery disk if you haven't already done so. Also, you should have a seperate recovery partition on your HD. If you don't reformat that partition, you should be able to re-install from that.
 
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Old 12-22-12, 07:57 PM
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Perhaps I didnt explain properly, but what I want to copy is the special partition the manufacturer install on the D;\ and its purpose is to use this partition for recovery. Therefore you dont need to make a recovery disk assuming your HD is intact.
 
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Old 12-23-12, 06:30 AM
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You could drag 'n' drop the D drive onto a DVD to copy it (or several DVDs as it may turn out), but if it was me I would make a set of recovery discs instead.
 

Last edited by Rick Johnston; 12-23-12 at 06:37 AM. Reason: clarification
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Old 12-23-12, 06:35 AM
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You can copy everything to an external Hard Drive. It would back up everything you told it to, including D drive. You still would have to make a boot/recovery disk as you can not boot from an external HD.
 
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Old 12-23-12, 06:39 AM
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Czizzi has the best idea. External drives are not that expensive and it's a one shot deal. Do you use DVD's for this? I didn't know they were compatible as CD's were. Live and learn.
 
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Old 12-23-12, 07:38 AM
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Yes I have used DVD's as boot disks and they work

Also I do have a USB 1.5TB external Seagate HD and I made it bootable. Then when I was booting I had a menu giving the options to boot from the Seagate HD or the main Vista HD

But I think we are talking here about backing up my D and that is not my question. Yes I know that I can copy my D to my external HD, then use my boot disk to boot the HP laptop and copy everything from the external HD to C on the laptop. But this process will not install the Vista OS on the HP laptop, it will just copy the files and the laptop will not boot.

I also know that when I boot now the HP laptop and press the ESC key during the boot time, I get a menu with the option to re install Vista from D, and this process will erase everything on the C (the D will remain intact). So I just would like to duplicate this process but instead of using the D I want to copy the contents of the D to an external HD or DVD's and then re install Vista.

Some how I don’t think I can do that
 
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Old 12-23-12, 09:41 AM
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Is there a reason you are stuck on Vista? Just curious. It was a difficult OS to use and has sunsetted with Microsoft anyway. Any reason not to upgrade to "7", or at least XP?
 
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Old 12-23-12, 11:36 AM
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Money is the only issue Larry but I don’t agree that Vista was (is) a difficult OS, for me anyway. I know what the majority of users say about Vista but perhaps I'm the lucky one?

I also have a Dell laptop with Vista which came with the Vista DVD and the HP laptop (belongs to the wife) which did not come with a Vista DVD. Both machines after 5 years+ operate beautiful with no glitches at all. I already did a re install on the Dell laptop and it was easy since I have the DVD and only reason for the re install was to eliminate all garbage accumulating after all these years

Updating to 7 or 8 needs to buy the DVD at around $150 and don’t think it’s a wise investment for my needs. Perhaps in the future……..
 
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Old 12-23-12, 11:51 AM
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FYI, you can upgrade to 8 for $39.99 for the download or $69.99 for the disc until the end of January.
 
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Old 12-23-12, 12:16 PM
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Thanks, I will check this out
 
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Old 12-23-12, 01:02 PM
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Understand fully. Good information Becky!!
 
 

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