Will Recovery Disks save personal data?

[garfox]

Having crashed my wife's dual-boot system, and the HP recovery section is no longer available. We have got it back up using the hp windows 7 update disk from hp. (had vista).
What I need to know is best way to back up our data before I crash something again.
Will windows 7 help me build "recovery" disks that also back up our personal data... or should I back up our personal data another way?
We have no Windows 7 installation disk - just the upgrade disk from HP (Vista to Windows 7).
Reason for asking: I have 2 corrupted partitions in linux that I need to reformat and I want our data backed up before I start.
Thanks for backup info regarding Windows recovery disks.

 

[WR2]

Hello garfox;

They will not save your personal files and data. But the 'build your own' Recovery CD/DVD/USB drive could help you 'recover the OS' in a repair mode, not needing a clean or factory fresh re-install to the whole HDD.

IMO the best way to go forward and rescue your personal files and data is using a RescueCD - a bootable LiveCD with the whole OS on a CD or USB thumb drive.
Ubuntu Desktop I like the USB flash option. Most other distro's also have LiveCD options.
You can use DVD/USB/External hard drives as your storage media for the rescued files.

 

[garfox]

Hello garfox;

They will not save your personal files and data. But the 'build your own' Recovery CD/DVD/USB drive could help you 'recover the OS' in a repair mode, not needing a clean or factory fresh re-install to the whole HDD.

IMO the best way to go forward and rescue your personal files and data is using a RescueCD - a bootable LiveCD with the whole OS on a CD or USB thumb drive.
Ubuntu Desktop I like the USB flash option. Most other distro's also have LiveCD options.
You can use DVD/USB/External hard drives as your storage media for the rescued files.

Thanks much for the info - since both still boot stable I am holding off until I can get an ext hard drive to back it all up anywho.
Then I am going to try removing the bad linux partitions and go from there after I have a disk copy reflect in hand.

Again thanks much.

 

[garfox]

Best answer selected by garfox.

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr.