Windows 7: Are "System Repair Discs" = "System Recovery Discs" ?

Are "System Repair Discs" (like described e.g. here:
System Repair Disc - Create)

the same as "System Recovery Discs" (like described e.g. here:
Download Windows 7 System Recovery Discs — The NeoSmart Files)

If not: What are the differences?

Peter

Yes, they are the same thing. They give you the option to launch repair from the dvd/cd. They CANNOT be used to reinstall windows.

Just FYI, till some time ago OEM computers came with a vendor-supplied "Restore" disk (also called recovery disk sometimes). These are completely different from the ones you have listed. These let you reinstall the os and in some cases the mobo drivers.

The Recovery Disks previously supplied by manufacturers for factory installs are now generated by the Recovery partition for users to make themselves. These recover the computer to factory condition with all of the bloatware which maker's now enforce as it provides most of their profit margin.

More valuable for a reinstall is a Windows 7 installation DVD, which can be used to clean reinstall the version of Windows 7 which was factory-installed, using the Product Key on the COA sticker. Since this is usually a batch key, it often requires a robocall to MS during reactivation to sort the exact number.

I bought a computer with the PC manufacturers/OEM OS installed. In addition to the hidden factory restore partition you can burn the factory restore/"recovery" DVDs for a factory restore. (Only burns 2 DVDs!!??).

I would make the disks as a backup and especially if you want to recoup the Recov partition disk space.

A more useful backup however is to save a Windows 7 backup image once you have it set up and running as you like.

Working on a brand new Gateway laptop this past week - the manufacturer's recovery partition is (in Disk Management) to the left of the 100MB system partition which is to the left of the C: partition. This would make recouping that 14GB difficult, no?

In my limited experience with playing with these recovery partitions it seems that Windows Disk Management is incapable of extending partitions to the left. And the free (trial) versions of the popular disk management progs don't go left either - but their paid versions do.

So (maybe) you need to pay to recoup (on a Gateway anyway).
Or is there another way?

Yes, we can do it easily now with the failsafe free Partition Wizard CD.

In fact, there is a great tutorial that shows the steps in Option Two for exactly the kind of space recovery you mention for either Recov or 100mb: Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD

Every step is chkdsk'd so we end up with no errors or fails, after hundreds of trials here helping others do this.

Hey Greg
I tried the free version of Partition Wizard about a month or so ago and it would not combine the partitions. I tried 2 others, can't recall their names. I recall a message in the help files that said very specifically that you needed to Pro version to do that procedure. And I could have sworn the Pro version was not free. It's been too long for my old brain. Let me check it out again and see if I missed something very obvious.

Backup a Windows 7 image externally.

Boot PW CD, select 1 for Screen Res, rightclick partitions you wish to delete, OK.

Now rightclick Windows 7 partition>Resize>slide left grey border all the way to left over deleted partitions, OK.

Finally rightlick Windows 7 partition>Modify>Set to Active, OK, Apply all steps.

Now boot into Windows 7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD, click through to Recovery Tools list to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots. Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

Ah! Partition Wizard CD.
I was using a download run from within Windows.
Do they have a down-loadable ISO that I can burn?