Is Repair Disk same as Recovery Disk?

[PassionateLatin]

Hi.


I am new here and I need some help. I created a repair disk a few weeks ago but I'm not sure if it'll also work as a recovery CD, meaning that if I need it, it'll reformat my hard drive. Is this disk good enough to reformat my hard drive, or will I have to order recovery discs from Toshiba?


I also wanted to know if, when I forget to plug the battery to the charger, if it creates a hibernation file just to get me to pick up where I left off, if it takes a lot of hard drive space if it does, and if so how can I find that file and delete it just to save hard disk space. This happened to me like 5 times since I got this computer brand new in January.


Thank you so much
Magali.

 

[not so gray matter]

The Windows Repair/Recovery Discs that you can make from within your computer are used simply to revert to backed up system images, repair your system and use other system maintenance tools from disc.

These discs do not allow you to perform a clean installation (Format, Install).

In order to perform a clean installation you'll need a Installation disc. The company that sold your computer should be able to sell you a copy for the cost of shipping and handling.

Many people attempt to get around this by creating the recovery discs as soon as they get the computer and then creating a system image of that time as well. This gives them the ability to revert to that time using the recovery disc. Personally, I use system imaging to revert to a point where I have all my basic programs and preferences installed, but haven't yet started to install games and other junk.

EDIT: You should purchase the installation discs, but you should also create a system image (a full hard drive backup) once you've installed your basic programs and preferences. This will allow you to revert to a clean Windows installation without the hassle of installing drivers, required programs and all of the other requirements that don't come pre-installed.

I don't trust the native Windows function, instead I use a program called Macrium Reflect. There are many more options including the native function, Norton Ghost and others.

 

[severedsolo]

Hi PassionateLatin, welcome to SF

My girlfriend has the exact same laptop as you, and it has a recovery partition which can be accessed from spamming f8 on boot, and going "repair my computer" of course this isnt alot of good if your Bootmanager has failed, which is where the Repair disk comes in

Repair disks are basically used to load the WINdowsREcovery enviroment (or WINRE as its normally called) which will allow you to for instance, do a system restore or load a system image if you have made one (im guessing you have... normally repair disks are a result of making a system image) it may well allow you to access the Recovery Partition as well if they are toshiba repair disks, I honestly dont know i havent gone down that road with the Gf's lappy as i installed Windows 7 on there from my retail disk without all the spam once she got it.

Having said that, yes, get Toshiba to send you installation disks, NOT recovery disks, because in the event of hard drive failure, that Recovery Partition is gone, and so you will lose your OS

Is that clear enough for you? reading it back it seems to make sense to me... but i have a habit of going a bit geeky

 

[PassionateLatin]

Thanks, everyone for your help! You guys are awesome!!

 

[Curious Georgia]

I still am not sure what the answer is -- --- are repair disks and recovery disks the same thing or something different from each other????? I did a temp assignment at Sony parts and Accessories a long time ago and they sold RECOVERY SETS for their computers which had hard drive failure, motherboards replaced or any other event which required reinstallation of the OS. They called them recovery sets and they were used to reinstall the full operating system sans any add-on features which would no longer be available. So if recovery sets are not really recovering what are they doing and are they the same as repair disks?

 

[maxseven]

A Repair disc is something that can be made with your working PC, to help fix Windows if it breaks, leaving your programs & files intact.

The Sony RECOVERY SETS you cite are different in that they contain the original factory "everything". AFAIK you would only use those if you wanted to get your PC to "out of box" condition" and thus they would wipe everything first before reinstalling.