Creating A Restore CD
The recovery CD set contains a complete set of the original operating system, drivers, and application software that shipped with the PC. The Recovery CD Creator software can be used to creat a set of recovery CDs for your computer. Because this software actually contains the Operating System, the Creator program allows only one complete set of CDs to be created. This data that will be put onto the CD is the same as the recovery CDs that you'd receive if you'd actually ordered them from HP.
You'll need a blank CD-R or blank DVD-R.
To begin, click Start, then All Programs. If you have an HP Pavilion click Hewlett-Packard and then HP PC Recovery CD Creator. If not, try clicking PC Help & Tools, then HP CD Recovery CD-DVD Creator to start the program.
You will see a welcome screen. Click the Continue button on each screen to start the disc creator. You will see how many disks are necessary to create the HP recovery disks. Label them, so you do not get confused after each burn.
The disk will burn, verify data, then eject each CD when complete. When the process is complete, you should have a working set of HP restore disks.
You will not be able to create another set, so if you lose or damage these disks, you'll need to contact HP for a replacement.
Related:
Learn how to recover from the HP partition