New Laptop Questions.

[The Howling Wolves]

HP Pavillion dv7, 17.3" monitor,2 separate 320 HD's 6GB ram

Here's a snip shot of my hardrives.


Several questions:
1. Is it smart to make separate Recovery Discs than the one in "E" Drive and if so
should I make them after installing new software and how often for safe keeping?

2. What's the easiest way to transfer files from Desktop to Laptop? I know there
is a USB cable you can use but I also have an External "Mybook" HD and or thumb drives that can be used. Just trying to keep it simple!

3. Have many bookmarks I would like to transfer but not sure I will use same browser.

4. Any other tips on setting up new laptop are appreciated. Was bloated with HP
stuff that I don't have a clue as to what is useful and what is garbage.
Thanks for your assistance.

 

[ken9122]

Do you have a router or swicth? If so set up a workgroup and transfer files thru it. I would avoid useing 'Homegroup'.

Ken

 

[richc46]

HP Pavillion dv7, 17.3" monitor,2 separate 320 HD's 6GB ram

Here's a snip shot of my hardrives.
View attachment 110657

Several questions:
1. Is it smart to make separate Recovery Discs than the one in "E" Drive and if so
should I make them after installing new software and how often for safe keeping?

2. What's the easiest way to transfer files from Desktop to Laptop? I know there
is a USB cable you can use but I also have an External "Mybook" HD and or thumb drives that can be used. Just trying to keep it simple!

3. Have many bookmarks I would like to transfer but not sure I will use same browser.

4. Any other tips on setting up new laptop are appreciated. Was bloated with HP
stuff that I don't have a clue as to what is useful and what is garbage.
Thanks for your assistance.

Make a new recovery DVD soon after installation. No need to wait for the install of software. It will return you to factory specs.
I would just save to a thumb drive if large enough. If you need more space an external hard drive is the way to go. They are very undependable, though. Bad average lifespan.
You can export favorites to a thumb drive. You should be able to import to a different brower. If not able there is not much that you could have done beforehand.
Most of that bloatware is garbage. Do not remove it as it may void your warranty. Please I hope others dont come and say that is not true. I have had posts with that problem
Hope this helps buddy.

 

[zigzag3143]

HP Pavillion dv7, 17.3" monitor,2 separate 320 HD's 6GB ram

Here's a snip shot of my hardrives.
View attachment 110657

Several questions:
1. Is it smart to make separate Recovery Discs than the one in "E" Drive and if so
should I make them after installing new software and how often for safe keeping?

2. What's the easiest way to transfer files from Desktop to Laptop? I know there
is a USB cable you can use but I also have an External "Mybook" HD and or thumb drives that can be used. Just trying to keep it simple!

3. Have many bookmarks I would like to transfer but not sure I will use same browser.

4. Any other tips on setting up new laptop are appreciated. Was bloated with HP
stuff that I don't have a clue as to what is useful and what is garbage.
Thanks for your assistance.

Greets

1-recovery discs simply restore the OS to its factory settings. Making recovery dics of the other partitions wont do a thing. I suspect you should do backups of all the partitions (and I recommend Acronis for it)

2-Transferring files is as easy or as hard as you want to make it. You can simply plug the drive in and drag and drop them. A faster method is to use a file transfer app from a third party. You could also simply share the files if both computers are to be used.

3-That depends on which source browser and which destination. Usually you can use export in the source and import in the destination browser.

4-HP is NOTORIOUS for bloat. If you know what you are doing (and I think you do) I always recommend wiping the HD and re-installing a clean OS. That requires a win 7 dvd which you probably did not get from HP but is your right to get from them.


Ken

 

[boohbah]

There's a ton of info HERE dennis.

 

[The Howling Wolves]

Do you have a router or swicth? If so set up a workgroup and transfer files thru it. I would avoid useing 'Homegroup'.

Ken

Ken,
No router or switch.

Not real sure I want to network them yet!

 

[The Howling Wolves]

There's a ton of info HERE dennis.

Boo,
You are right about a ton of GREAT info in that link.

Thanks everyone for chiming in and help.
Got enough info here to keep me busy for awhile.
Surprises are on the way....

 

[ken9122]

Do you have a router or swicth? If so set up a workgroup and transfer files thru it. I would avoid useing 'Homegroup'.

Ken

Ken,
No router or switch.

Not real sure I want to network them yet!

How do you connect to the internet ? A simle router a great firewall.
A good project for the future.

Ken

 

[linnemeyerhere]

I like the usb hard drive for transferring data. But this is a widget you should seriously consider a smaller version has saved my laptop numerous dings and scratches and they can handle all the accessories !
Case Logic 17 Laptop Sleeve > Laptop Sleeves > Case Logic

 

[Hopalong X]

1. Is it smart to make separate Recovery Discs than the one in "E" Drive and if so
should I make them after installing new software and how often for safe keeping?

Make these on 2-3 DVD's. It is a last case nothing else works scenario. At least you can get the Windows 7 installed even though you lose everything else.

Use the HP Make Recovery Disk software. Then you can delete the HP stuff you want if any or all.

Mike

 

[The Howling Wolves]

Do you have a router or swicth? If so set up a workgroup and transfer files thru it. I would avoid useing 'Homegroup'.

Ken

Ken,
No router or switch.

Not real sure I want to network them yet!

How do you connect to the internet ? A simle router a great firewall.
A good project for the future.

Ken

Ken,
We subscribe to AT&T U-verse where we have a router for TV and internet. It's a 3 in one package deal and one charge/payment per month.

 

[HerrKaLeun]

Ken,
We subscribe to AT&T U-verse where we have a router for TV and internet. It's a 3 in one package deal and one charge/payment per month.

So did you get a modem/router from AT&T? Is that much different from a normal router with built-in modem? Can you replace that with a regular modem/router (i assume it is DSL)

I'm kind of eying that u-verse too at some point when it will be offered in my area... but like to keep my router

 

[DeaconFrost]

I would make the DVDs as soon as possible, and put them somewhere safe. It makes little sense to keep your only recovery method on the same physical drive. Besides, you can recover all that wasted space once you do make the discs.

Networking them would definitely be the fastest method. If you don't have a router, use/make a crossover cable and manually configure the wired network settings to connect them.

I believe software exists to convert favorites between browsers, but I'm not sure. I only use IE because it works for me as well as anything else, and it already there.

When I bought an HP laptop for my wife, I made the recovery discs, then blew away everything on the drive and did a clean install. I only installed drivers and helper apps that were needed, and it ran much much faster than it did out of the box.

 

[The Howling Wolves]

I just got thru making 4 Recovery Discs and I really don't want to do a clean install as I loaded all my graphics software, printer driver, MS Office 2007 and a few others.
Still have more HP crap but not sure what some are for! I will post them tomorrow and get some help.
I believe the AT&T is a router as it comes out of the wall with a white coax cable to the router and from there to my desktop.
So Ken.....the answer is yes. I must have had a brainfart.

 

[Kari]

A geeks guide to start using HP laptop as a second computer

1. Burn the recovery disks as soon as possible. Recovery partition (or disks) does not include any of other software you have installed later, it's just OS & HP bloatware.
2. Remember HP lets you use the the Recovery Disk(s) creator only once. Be sure your laptop is connected to AC power when burning the disks. Mark the disks well and keep them in the safe place. I have a habit also to create the first system image at this point, before installing any software or transferring files.
3. HP Pavilion series notebooks have the recovery partition located in the second partition of the first hard disk (disk 0), so it's pretty useless if the system drive becomes corrupted. For this reason, I recommend deleting the partition after burning the disks and giving the freed space to system partition, or creating a similar partition on second hd (disk 1) and copying the content of Recovery partition there. Even if HP does not allow you to burn more than one set, you can always make copies of those disks if you feel for added security. If you decide to keep the Recovery partition and you later overwrite your boot files, the F11 (F10 on some HP models) boot to recovery tools stops working. In this case setting the Recovery partition active from Disk Management allows F11 recovery tools boot again.
4. Uninstall all MediaSmart-applications. They load slowly and are resource heavy. In my (subjective) opinion, they give you nothing what WMC and a third party webcam software doesn't:
   • MediaSmart Live TV
   • MediaSmart DVD
   • MediaSmart MVP (Music, Video, Pictures)
   • MediaSmart WebCam
   • etc.
5. Also uninstall Cyberlink WebCam (Only included in some Pavilion models). Reason as above.
6. Create the same user accounts you already have on desktop. From the software installed in desktop, choose which you are going to use also on laptop. Install these.
7. Use Windows Easy Transfer and an external drive to transfer user settings and files from desktop. Let WET copy user settings for those programs installed in (6) and user files from those accounts you have duplicated on laptop. Let WET also copy files from accounts you have not duplicated but feel you need the files, and put them in Public Folders on laptop. If the desktop has Vista or Seven, WET is already inlcluded on it. For XP, you can download WET here.
8. After installing the software and transferring your files, create a system image, second if you already created one in (2).

Good luck, may God give you some patience...

Kari

 

[The Howling Wolves]

Made the discs and here is the HP shit lists. I will look at your to do list again tomorrow.
Please close your eyes and get some rest.

 

[Kari]

I never install (or always uninstall):
- HP Network Assistant
- HP Support Assistant
- HP Advisor
- HP Update
- HP Quick Launch Buttons

First four are useless, Windows Update takes care of driver updates. The last one is not only useless, but it's very resource heavy in longer use. Besides, Seven can take care of the buttons without HP's help.

Kari

 

[linnemeyerhere]

HP software is the gift that keeps on giving !

 

[The Howling Wolves]

Kari,
Here's what's left over....

 

[wds7]

The best way is CLONE it to another Hdd and use that ....
You need one for back up anyway ...