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I recently purchased a HP Pavilion g6 laptop running Windows 8. I want to either obtain the Windows 8 ISO or make some kind of recovery disk that would allow me to restore the system if things go wrong.

The HP Pavilion comes with the 'HP Recovery Manager' which I thought may do the job, but on running it and putting in a DVD-R as requested it seems to just hang for a number of hours without doing a thing (the disk sounds like it's spinning for a few minutes but then goes silent).

I then tried 'recdisc.exe' but I get the error 

System Repair could not be created
The device reported unexpected or invalid data for a command. (0xC0AA02FF)

Next I obtained my Windows 8 product key using the software ProduKey thinking this would allow me to go to the Microsoft website and download the Windows 8 ISO, but as far as I can tell all that is available is the upgrade which can be used if one is running something like Windows 7.

Can anyone advise?

EDIT: after a reboot recdisc.exe did work; I think the problem was due to some Windows updates needing a reboot, but never the less I would like a full Windows 8 ISO if possible.

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If you solved the problem, instead of editing the question, make it an answer and mark it as such after the time limit – Luke Jan 12 at 19:09
Not really solved the problem- I still would like to create a Windows 8 installation disk from ISO using my product key and/or work out how to create a full recovery disk (e.g. using the HP Recovery Manager say). I think all recdisc.exe has given me is a few recovery tools. – fpghost Jan 12 at 19:44
Then that information is what you should put in the question. As it stands now, after your first edit, it looks like you are just looking for a location for the Windows 8 ISO; is that correct? – Luke Jan 12 at 20:40
@Luke after the edit I believe it reads that I am after the location of the Windows 8 ISO (not just the upgrade from Windows 7, but the ISO for someone who has bought a new laptop with Windows 8 pre-installed and has a Windows 8 product key etc etc). Also as the OP mentions I'm having issues with the HP recovery manager. So 2 of 3 of the original points remain. – fpghost Jan 12 at 21:37
I know you paid for the laptop and OS, but the original unaltered ISO sans crapware is not available to you for free; you'll need to buy a copy of Windows 8. Laptop manufacturers long ago stopped bundling Windows DVDs, and even recovery DVDs. – Karan Jan 14 at 0:46
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3 Answers

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You are supposed to be able to make recovery discs, but we are having the same sort of problem, it burns the disc but when it try's to verify it can't seem to do it, we have gone through loads of discs and have the same problem every time. It's worth noting that you can't use re-recordable discs, at least managed to find that info in the online help. Any solutions would be appreciated ....

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Okay, I understand that you are not able to create recovery DVD sets. No Problem. You may use pen drive as your recovery media . If that too not works, you may use flash recovery utility that will help you to copy set of DVD.It is fast..

Also, help me with your product ID or serial number of your laptop to help you in better way.

Regards

Al

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I faced the same problem. In my case the reason was that Windows 8 does not have built in CD/DVD burning software. Well, some operations can be performed but some functions are missing. For example, there is no 'erase disc' option for DVD drive in the context menu of Windows 8 file explorer. This option presented however in Windows 7. So, I simply installed free CD/DVD burning software InfraRecorder and the problem was solved. I mean that after this procedure Windows 8 created recovery disk without any error messages. I also suspect that any other CD/DVD burning software would solve the problem, but I didn't check it. Good luck!

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