CrochetMan_sf wrote:
I purchased a Satalite L35-S2194 running XP Media Center from a pawn shop and it has a Win32 virus, I will be obtaining a recovery disk soon. When I do, I'll do a restore...
My question is (after restore):
1a. How would I create a recovery partition and/or disk creation utility (is this possible to do manually?) --OR--
1b. Would it be better to do a back-up (using Nero7.9) on a DVD --OR--
1c. Using Norton Partion Magic 8.0
My answer is 'none of the above:
1. Recovery partitions are used by manufacturers because they are easy and cheap, not because they are a good solution. If the hard drive fails, then you have no recovery option.
2. Nero is good for making archival copies of music, pictures or documents. It's not useful for creating a recovery solution.
3. Partition Magic is used to divide a hard disc into two or more partitions. This is useful if you are creating a dual-boot setup.
My suggestion is to use a backup utility such as Acronis True Image to make a restoreable disc image on an external hard drive or set of CDs. It will also allow you to make a bootable CD to use in the restore process. Ideally, you would do this after installing and configuring any applications that you have. Then if you need to perform a recovery, you are well ahead of starting from scratch with the Toshiba recovery discs. Acronis also will create incremental backups of any data you add over time.
Just my two cents.
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