recover

Hello I want to create the recover disk for my friends Presario. I don't know if it is a dvd or cd burner 'My computer' says drive E: DVD RW. There is no + or - and I do not know what kind of disc to use. She bought a ten stack of printable DVD-R 16x,4.7 GB, 120 min by Memorex. Can these be used? If not, what are we to look for? The +, - and cd or dvd is confusing. I know I should use one that cannot be written over but these don't say that on the package. Thank you for your help.

Open Device Manager, expand CD/DVD. That should tell you the make and model. Then do a Google search for info about it or go to the manufacturers web site for info. Most newer DVD-RW drives handle both R and +R format but I've always had better luck with +R.

I will try. It seems in depth for a process so often used. I gather the dvd rw means we cannot use the stack of dvd-r she got and we should get cd+r? I hope they write only once .

True, if it's XP then it will almost surely require CDRs and not DVD+-R.

Hi Z We are off to get some cdrs and thank you for your help.

Hello all This is only to convet to the forum the results of my initial post, and for thse who have new pcs that did not come with an o.s. recovery disc. I did create recovery discs for my friend and a neighbor and both took about 90 minutes. I determined that the bays had dvd burners so obtained dvd-r discs. Use discs that cannot be written over. After locating the "Creation of recovery disc" on the pc, either by looking at All Programs or performing a 'search', you insert the dvd before starting the program. When the program appears it will let you kow if you have the right disc or not and how many it will take. When you click 'next' it is a straight forward process of following prompts until all three have been written to. Thanx for all the advice and I hope this helps those w/o discs.