It used to be that when you received a new computer you also received a handful of discs that could be used to completely restore the computer to the factory default state. Many times now you don’t receive discs, unless you want to pay extra for them. All the restoration files are put in a partition on your hard drive installed on the machine.
I can understand the value of this as now you don’t have to go tracking down all those discs, unless you’ve organized them and know exactly where they are kept. Everything you need is on the hard drive that’s always with the machine.
The question I now have though is what happens if you fry your hard drive or have some other type of complete hard drive failure? My personal opinion is to either move those recovery files off the hard drive and put them on a disc yourself, or purchase the separate discs for your use.
Before you do anything else when setting up a computer, be sure to create all the necessary recovery and emergency boot discs you’ll need for your particular model. You might even go so far as to visit the manufacturer’s website and download all the available drivers and program files that are available for your machine and burn them to a disc as well.
You hope you’ll never need any of this stuff. But the first time you need it and done have it, just go grab some aspirin instead because your headaches are only the beginning of the price you’ll pay for not taking these precautionary steps.