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My netbook came preinstalled with Windows 7. It also has a recovery partition. Do I still need to create separate system repair discs?

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There usually isn't any way to boot directly from the recovery partition, that's what the system repair discs are for. Depending on the system, the recovery partition may or may not be essential for problem repair (thus, if you lose the HD you could be screwed).

I personally take the alternative tactic of making a complete image (I boot linux from a CD and use an external hard disk to write the image to). This way I can always get back to factory state, even if the hard disk dies or whatever.

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My netbook doesn't have any CD/DVD drive, and Windows 7 refuses to create system repair discs? Could I use an USB stick? – Toro Mar 15 '10 at 11:09
I suspect you can't create a bootable USB repair stick. You should be able to create system repair disks using an external USB dvd writer (they aren't too expensive, and you don't need high speed for this job). – Michael Kohne Mar 15 '10 at 13:00

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