HP laptop has used up all four primary partitions

[gregrocker]

I am curious what you use in the Cyberlink suite. I find almost everything I used a 3rd party burner for previously has a solid built-in Win7 app.

For example, I thought I would never give up ImgBurn for burning bootable ISO's but finally Windows image burner is flawless even with variable speed.

Otherwise someone may know a stable freeware app for whatever you need in Cyberlink, which might free you up for eventual clean reinstall.

 

[Marrea]

I am curious what you use in the Cyberlink suite.

Hi

Well I have to be honest with you here. At the moment I am not actually using anything in the CyberLink Suite. The reason for this is that I have spent all my time so far since buying the laptop sorting out/trying to sort out various things, followed by installing and configuring Ubuntu, and as a consequence I have not had a chance to use any of the CyberLink programs!

However, I want time to have a look round them and see what they do. In particular I think I may well want to try out Power Director.

As regards disc burning, I have always used Nero in Windows and K3b in Linux, both of which I have found very reliable. I'm not saying that the built-in Windows disc image burner won't be just as reliable but I've not tried it yet.

I have a back-up copy on an external hard drive of the complete SwSetup directory so the fact that I failed to complete the WAIK/imagex procedure hopefully won't prevent me reinstalling HP programs should I decide to do a completely fresh reinstallation of Windows 7.

 

[madtownidiot]

You might want to consider not installing the HP programs.. most of them are simply redundant UIs of functions that already exist in windows.. others are factory installed spyware. I can give you a list of good, free, apps that perform the same functions with a lighter load on your system depending on what you use your computer for

 

[Marrea]

.. others are factory installed spyware.

Hmmm, that sounds very sneaky. Do you happen to know which programs fall into this category?

I use my computer mainly for the following:

• Internet and e-mail (obviously - I think everyone uses their computer for these)
• Word processing and all the other typical "office" tasks such as databases and Powerpoint. No problem here as I have a retail copy of MS Office.
• Digital imaging. Again no problem here as I have the full Photoshop on my main computer and normally put Elements on my other machines. From my experience with Linux I know all about Gimp but prefer to use Photoshop in Windows, which is where I do most of my detailed photo work.
• Video editing - but I am a relative newcomer to this.
• Music ripping and burning.
• Converting vinyl to digital. Audacity is excellent for this.

I also love "fiddling", ie finding out more about the computer under the hood, which is why I can't resist doing things like re-partitioning and re-installing - when neither of these is strictly needed most of the time!!

So when we analyse it, we are coming to the conclusion that I don't necessarily need any of the HP programs at all, aren't we.

I suppose my main concern is the HP utilities. Do I really need things like HP Tools, HP Support Assistant etc. For instance, will the laptop function OK without eg the HP Updates? As long as I install the Windows updates, do I really need HP Updates - whatever they are?

 

[madtownidiot]

I make a good portion of my income reconfiguring and reselling tweaked laptops that are less than a year old, mainly from HP, Dell and Lenovo. HP support assistant is factory installed spyware.. constantly phones home with all kinds of data about usage whenever you're on the internet

Your laptop will work fine without any of the HP apps and you don't need the support assistant to get updated drivers.. just type go to support.hp.com to get anything that isn't included with windows update (although if you have a fingerprint reader that you want to use, you should install the software for it before going to windows update. You'll need to know the exact model number from the sticker on the bottom of your laptop (there are dozens of version of a Pavilion DV-5 for example) I usually get the drivers and ignore the applications that come with them, unless you have to download the application to get the driver, in which case, I look elsewhere

as for video editing and music ripping and burning, those are best done in linux ultimate edition with the ubuntu studio packages installed... all kinds of useful stuff there

 

[Marrea]

HP support assistant is factory installed spyware.. constantly phones home with all kinds of data about usage whenever you're on the internet

If that is really true, it is extremely worrying.

Your laptop will work fine without any of the HP apps and you don't need the support assistant to get updated drivers..

One driver I am concerned about is the AMD SATA Controller, the details of which are given in Device Manager as:

Provider: AMD
Date: 07/10/2009
Version: 1.2.0.164

I am wondering whether this particular driver is vital for the correct operation of the machine? It sounds pretty important.

I can’t find it among the drivers available for download for my particular laptop on the HP Support site. And when I installed drivermax (http://www.innovative-sol.com/drivermax), although it listed it along with 77 other devices, when I tried to back them all up and copy to an external USB hard drive it threw up an error saying it was “unable to locate” the AMD SATA Controller driver.

So, do I need this driver following a fresh installation of Windows and, if so, why is it so elusive and seemingly impossible to get hold of a copy?

 

[madtownidiot]

IMO Drivermax, Driver Detective and almost all other "driver finders" are questionable at best, and usually a worse alternative than just sticking with the generic drivers that come with windows. Third party driver websites are also usually unreliable. If you can't find it listed in the HP website try a slightly higher laptop model number as most larger computer manufacturers will provide links to the drivers for certain model numbers, but not others, even though they have identical components.
Failing that, go directly to the hardware manufacturers' site... or paste the hardware ID as listed in properties into a Google search and look for links to either hp.com or the specific hardware manufacturer... but don't click any other links if you use that method because almost all of them are bogus and usually a good place to end up with malware.

 

[gregrocker]

SATA controller is part of the chipset, so just make sure you have the latest chipset from HP Support Downloads webpage for your model.

Drivermax is from the XPired era and is no longer necessary with WIn7 as MS spent a fortune getting the drivers into the installer or quickly available via optional Windows Updates.

Only if there are performance issues should you change out the installed drivers, starting with chipset and display.

 

[Marrea]

SATA controller is part of the chipset, so just make sure you have the latest chipset from HP Support Downloads webpage for your model.

Many thanks for the clarification, gregrocker. I wasn't aware of that, but I'm still not sure where to find it. Can't see anything about chipset on the driver download page for my model, which is a G62-a18SA (XC302EA#ABU), Windows 7 64-bit. :huh: Later Edit: on the specification sheet for the laptop the chipset is stated to be an AMD RS880M, if that helps.

Drivermax is from the XPired era and is no longer necessary with WIn7 as MS spent a fortune getting the drivers into the installer or quickly available via optional Windows Updates.

I only downloaded it after reading the following excerpt in an article entitled "Windows 8 wish list" in PC Pro, November 2010 (UK magazine):

"One of the most irritating things about wiping your OS and starting from scratch is the reinstallation of all your drivers. While Windows Update does a reasonable job of hunting down common drivers, you're all too often left hunting round for discs or downloads to get all your printers/cameras/MP3 players/graphics cards and so on back to full working order. An online driver locker, where you can save a backup of your drivers and reinstall them once you've wiped the OS, would be a winner.

How to get it now DriverMax does a good job of packaging up all your drivers into one folder, which can be restored in bulk after you've wiped the OS. But you'll still need to manually save the folder to a USB drive or online backup service before hitting the nuclear button."

So it sounded like a fairly useful application.

Only if there are performance issues should you change out the installed drivers, starting with chipset and display.

That was never my intention! I thought the idea of drivermax was that it simply gathered together all your existing installed drivers, not replaced them with others.

 

[gregrocker]

I used it in XP and Vista and it worked OK with several obvious blunders. I just don't think it's needed any longer, however others may.

Edit: I just used DriverMax for the first time in 2-3 years to find an elusive Display driver for a ten year old Dell laptop, which now provides Sleep/Hibernate and better resolution and is more stable than Standard VGA. So I will use it again if finding a driver defies Google.

The way the Support Downloads pages work, the last avail chipset for your install might be on the Vista 64 bit page. You can compare it to see if it is more recent. I would still go with installer/updates unless performance is at issue. Watch for repeat errors in Event Viewer and Performance log, but mainly judge by touch.

If you want to go ahead and try a newer chipset, set a restore point so you can easily roll back since it contains several drivers which are hard to pinpoint in Device Manager without working from the unzipped files' ReadMe list, and often not even then.

What's really valuable here is the learning, too, as you will now know more than 90% of users.

 

[slamka]

Hi all.
I bought a new HP laptop - ProBook 4530s - and I am facing to the same described problem - HP used all 4 primary partitions:

• 200 MB - Win7 booting partition
• the rest of HDD - whole OS + programs + personal data
• 17GB - HP_RECOVERY
• 5GB - HP_TOOLS

The second problem is, that HP is today not providing any tool for creating HP Recovery discs, they only sends them via post, so if I make something wrong, I have no option to recover the origin state.

I want to repartition my hard drive - to have C: for system and programs and D: for data. But I cant, because all partitions are used.

My first propose:

• to delete main primary partition for OS+programs+personal data and to create one extended partition instead of it and inside extended partition I can create as many partitions as I want.
• then perform Recovery via F11, from partition HP_RECOVERY

Will this work?
Will Recovery from not touched partition recover my laptop to the state of first launch? I understand that it will work if main partition is primary (for OS+programs+data), but will this work for extended partition and first created logical partition inside of it??

My second propose:

• to delete all partitions and perform clean instal of Win7 64bit from DVD drive
• install drivers (not all HP software, but required) for laptop from HP site
• apply OEM activation number on the label and active Win7

The question is if something goes wrong and my laptop have to go to warranty, what will HP say??

Any more ideas and tested solutions for repartitioning HP laptop??? :huh:

 

[gregrocker]

There's no reason to delete C to change it to Logical. Instead use free Partition Wizard bootable CD to
rightclick on C, choose Modify>Convert to Logical, OK, Apply.

Once it's converted, you can rightclick C>Resize to slide the right grey border to the left to make room for new partition(s), OK. Then create New partitions as you wish in the space, label and letter them, OK. Apply steps.

If you want to clean reinstall I'd be sure to make the Recovery Disks first and save the Recovery partition which will run on recent models even if C is reinstalled or all other partitions besides Recovery are deleted to repartition.

Preserving recovery and making the disks as a backup will allow you to restore to factory condition if you need to return to HP under warranty. When speaking with Tech Support do not tell them you clean reinstalled or they may not help you, although it will not void the parts warranty under law.

If you want to use a Win7 Installation DVD to clean reinstall follow these steps to get a perfect reinstall of factory OEM, with special notes included about HP's: Reinstalling Windows 7

Do you have a Win7 installation DVD for your licensed version?

 

[slamka]

As I wrote, I have no option to create HP Recovery discs, only to make an image of first start system (which takes 51GB!). HP did not provide any tool for creation of these discs today, they only send them via post, I have ordered them already.

I think I will perform clean install (I have some image of Windows 7 instalation DVD) and firstly backup and then restore OEM number and certificate via SLIC Toolkit.

 

[theog]

   Information

We always assume you have made your Recovery Disks using the OEM manufacturer's Recovery Media Creator app the first day you had your new PC.
& made the Startup Repair CD.
startup repair disc-create
​

Did you make the OEM manufacturer's Recovery Disks?


How to make HP Recovery DVD disks:
Recover Windows Vista Operating System Using HP Recovery - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

How to make HP Recovery USB disk:
Creating a Recovery Disk on a USB Flash Disk HP Pavilion dv6700z CTO Entertainment Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

 

[slamka]

As I worte, HP is NOT providing any Recovery program for burning HP Recovery Discs for ProBook 4530s.
This feature (as I was used for several years - after buying a new laptop firstly burn Recovery discs) is not available anymore.

HP will only send these discs for free, but on your request. I ordered them already.

I am able only to create complete image of HDD after first start of computer with Windows 7 backup feature (this takes 51GB!). There is no HP Recovery Manager or any similiar program dedicated for burning HP Recovery discs..

The only one way how to recover PC to the stage of first launch is to perform Recovery from HP_RECOVERY partition, via F11 button during boot. If you delete (or make something wrong) this partition, you are not able to perform recovery to the first start of your PC without discs received from HP.

 

[gregrocker]

There is no reason to backup factory SLP activation using SLIC toolkit as the Product Key on COA sticker will reactivate as OEM-COA in MS Servers, rather than OEM-SLP factory offline activation.

 

[hussainahmad88]

my dear freind cool but confusing world of windows Seven
God lets go back to windows 98 loving Windows if their was a software them i will use it agin
to much fast