No matter what Best Buy’s Geek Squad, or Circuit City’s Firedog tell you, it’s very simple to make recovery cd’s or dvd’s. All you need are a few blank DVD-R’s or CD-R’s, and a little time. It takes no more than 5 minutes of user-input to start the process and insert blank discs as required.

HP’s recovery CD creator can be located by clicking the Windows Vista ‘Start’ Button >> ‘All Programs’ >> ‘Recovery Manager’ >> ‘Recovery Media Creator’. Double-click ‘Recovery Media Creator’, then follow the instructions on the screen. Basically, all you need to do is open the CD tray, put in a blank DVD and click ‘Next’. The burning process could take up to 3 hours, so you don’t want to start the process if you’re pressed for time. Click the images below for a larger view.

1) HP’s recovery CD creator can be located by clicking the Windows Vista ‘Start’ Button > ‘All Programs’ > ‘Recovery Manager’> ‘Recovery Media Creator’. Double-click ‘Recovery Media Creator’.

2) The program will calculate the number of CD’s or DVD’s necessary to create the recovery image. In this case I am using DVD+R format. It doesn’t matter which brand you use.

3) The disc is recognized as DVD+R. Now just click ‘next’.

4) The DVD burning process has started. You’ll need to be very patient – collecting the files and burning the discs could take up to 2 more hours. The tray will pop-out and the program will prompt you to insert a blank disk when a disc is done recording. Once it’s finished, just click ‘ok’, and you’re all done!