The HP Pavilion dv7t Quad Edition Series (dv7tqe) is a desktop replacement style laptop available from HP.com which currently starts at $899.99. The model I purchased came in at $1,199.99 with a number of additional options added. This price includes a $300 discount and various free upgrades being offered by HP at the time.
When looking for a new laptop I primarily wanted something at a price of around $1,000, a 17” or greater screen, and a powerful processor and graphics card capable of handling just about anything I threw at it. I already had a smaller laptop I used all over my apartment for various tasks, but it was severely underpowered and unimpressive when running games and sometimes even displaying full-screen video. This laptop wouldn’t completely replace my smaller laptop, just compliment it with more power in exchange for less portability.
While there were a number of manufacturers that had laptops which could potentially satisfy my requirements, very few of those manufacturers had fully customizable laptop choices. Many manufacturers have a “CUSTOMIZE” button next to their various models of laptops on their website, but usually few real choices await the potential buyer (getting to pick a version of Windows 7 does not count as customizing a laptop). I still looked at just about every manufacturer I could imagine, and in the end chose the dv7tqe because it offered everything I was looking for, and then some, at the most competitive price.
Here are the specifications of my dv7tqe as ordered:
- Display: 17.3-inch diagonal Full HD Anti-glare LED-backlit Display (1920 x 1080)
- Processor: Intel i7-2670QM (2.2 Ghz, 6MB l3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 Ghz
- OS: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
- Graphics Card: 2GB Radeon HD 6770M GDDR5
- Memory: 8GB DDR3 (2 Dimm)
- Storage: 750GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
- Battery: 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
- Optical Drive: Combination Blu-ray Player & SuperMulti DVD Burner
- Ports: 2 USB 2.0, 2 USB 3.0, Ethernet, VGA, HDMI, Microphone, 2 Headphone
- Dimensions: 16.38″ (W) x 10.83″ (D) x 1.24″ (min H) / 1.42” (max H)
- Weight: 6.72 lbs
- Color: Dark Umber
- Multimedia Inputs: HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Integrated Microphone; Fingerprint Reader
- Wireless: Intel 802.11 b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth
A few comments regarding my build out and the options HP had available. First, as I wanted the best possible graphics and gaming performance, the extra $150 for the 1080p screen over the stock 900p screen was a must buy. What would be the point of a giant screen if you couldn’t back it up with great resolution? Second, while processor upgrades were available for $150 to $350, the potential gains seemed pretty insignificant. A few tenths of a GHz when you’re already pushing into the 3’s in turbo mode just wasn’t worth it to me. Third, taking the 2GB option over the 1GB option on the video card was probably a waste, even at only an additional cost of $50 more. Most reliable sources will tell you that 2GB will offer no performance increase over 1GB for this level of graphics card (or possibly most any level of graphics card). Fourth, you can probably skip the 7200RPM drive if you’re planning on installing a Solid State Drive (SSD) yourself. More on that later.
Buying Experience and Packaging
I customized and bought my HP dv7tqe direct from HP. Checkout was flawless and smooth, and I received a number of e-mails afterwards informing me of the status of the order as it worked its way through their system (received, confirmed, shipped, etc.). Shipping was free, but I was charged Colorado state sales tax (your mileage may vary depending on where you order from or ship to). Shipping was done via FedEx. HP shipped the notebook out from Shanghai, China almost exactly nine days to the hour after I placed the order, and it arrived at my doorstep in the morning five days after that. I was pretty impressed that it took less than 14 full days to get my new customized laptop… all the way from Shanghai no less!
The packaging was well done by HP, and the package was unharmed when I received it. All contents appeared undamaged upon opening. More on that to come (don’t worry, it’s not that bad, I promise).
Design
My dv7tqe was the “Dark Umber” finish (it’s also available in an upgraded “Steel Gray” finish). “Dark Umber” is kind of an odd brushed dark brown finish. It looks good in the light, but in any sort of shadow it mostly just looks nearly black. The top is aluminum, and has a lighted HP logo when the laptop is running. I’ve read reports that when you started earlier models of this laptop, you could see the bright spot from the logo through the screen. That wasn’t the case with my model.
The bezel around the screen is glossy black plastic and has the camera and microphone at the top. The screen is matte, so it’s too bad they didn’t think to also make the bezel matte. You won’t get reflections off the screen, but they do sometimes come off the bezel. I haven’t noticed except when bright light sources are behind you in just the right spot.
At the top of the keyboard is the first set of speakers behind a silver colored grille. When my laptop arrived, there was a slight unintended dimple in the right side of the grille. I’ve since noticed an even slighter dimple on the left side that I put there somehow. Bottom line, I think it’s fairly easy to bend this grille. I didn’t bother complaining to HP. It didn’t bother me enough to trouble with it.
The matte black keyboard is surrounded by the same aluminum dark umber finish and sits in is a glossy black plastic depression. The edge of the base of the laptop has a silver plastic rim. The bottom of the base is made from black plastic. All in all, it’s a good looking laptop. Definitely on the stylish side. The only thing of note here is that the dark umber finish smudges easily. If you’re a clean freak, you’ll be wiping down this laptop a lot.
Weight and Size
The dv7tqe is big… very big. It’s not a laptop you’ll want if you plan on carrying it all over God’s green earth. Sure, around an apartment is fine, but even then, it’s bulky. I took it on a weekend trip across country (via plane), and it traveled fine, but with a very big laptop backpack. It weighs in at a hefty 7.13 pounds. The power cord and adapter is nearly another 1.64 pounds. That means you’re going to be hauling around nearly nine pounds of computer when you take this with you. I don’t think the laptop is especially thick for how big it is though. Your mileage may vary depending on what you’re used to, but it doesn’t feel much thicker than my little 14” Dell.
Quality of Construction
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the toughest, tightest constructed laptop I’ve ever seen, I’d say this is right in 7 or so range. While the palm rests don’t have any give to them, the keyboard feels a little soft, especially under the number pad which visibly flexes under firm key strikes. The hinges are strong, and the screen doesn’t flex very much given how thin it is. Along with the aforementioned malleability of the speaker grille, the silver plastic edging feels a little cheap. Also, the tool-less panel on the bottom side for accessing the hard drives and memory is very weak, and the “teeth” that hold it to the case are extremely small and break easily.
Performance
The first thing to note before I talk about performance is to let you know that I did perform one critical upgrade on the laptop immediately after I received it. I installed a Crucial M4 128GB solid state drive in the first drive bay, and moved the 750GB 7200RPM hard disk drive to the secondary bay (yes, the laptop has two drive bays underneath, which is a pretty spiffy feature). I obtained the SSD for about $200, and the cable cost me about $30. It was a very straightforward self upgrade, with no problems at all. HP offers some complicated options for customizing the drive(s) in the laptop during configuration, but doing it yourself seemed like the slightly cheaper route.
So, along with that upgrade, the i7-2670QM (2.2 GHz with Turboboost up to 3.1 Ghz), 2GB Radeon HD 6770M, and 8GB DDR3 RAM performed like this…
PCMark 7: 4,308 PCMarks
PCMark 7 measures overall system performance and takes into account all components such as processor, storage, graphics card and memory:
| Laptop | PCMark 7 Score |
| HP dv7t Quad (Intel Core i7 2670QM 2.20GHz, 2GB Radeon HD 6770M, 8GB RAM, Crucial M4) | 4,308 PCMarks |
| Sony VAIO SA (Intel Core i5-2430M 2.50GHz, AMD Radeon 6630M, 4GB RAM) | 2,022 PCMarks |
| Lenovo ThinkPad W520 – Intel Core i7 2720QM, 4GB RAM, Nvidia Quadro 2000, Intel 320 SSD | 4,299 PCMarks |
| HP Envy 17 3D – Intel Core i7-2670QM, AMD 6850M 1GB, 8GB RAM, 7200RPM HD | 2,592 PCMarks |
| Lenovo IdeaPad U400 – Intel Core i5-2430M, AMD Radeon 6470M, 6GB RAM, 5400RPM HD | 2,287 PCMarks |
| Dell XPS 15z – Intel Core i7-2620M, Nvidia GT 525M, 8GB RAM, SSD | 3,604 PCMarks |
3DMark Vantage: 6,139 3DMarks
3DMark Vantage focuses on measuring 3D performance and as such the graphics card (GPU) is the most important component to affect this score:
| Laptop | 3DMark Vantage Score |
| HP dv7t Quad (Intel Core i7 2670QM 2.20GHz, 2GB Radeon HD 6770M, 8GB RAM, Crucial M4) | 6,139 3DMarks |
| HP Pavilion dv6z Quad Edition – AMD A8-3510MX, AMD 6620G Graphics | 2,919 3DMarks |
| HP Pavilion dv6t Quad Edition – Intel Core i7-2630qm, AMD 6770M Graphics | 6,373 3DMarks |
| HP Pavilion dm4x – Intel Core i5-2410m 2.30Ghz, 6GB RAM, Intel HD3000 Graphics | 1,174 3DMarks |
Windows Experience Index Score: 6.6
The Windows Experience Index (or WEI) spits out a score based on the lowest component score, the highest possible score for a component is 7.9 which the SSD achieved.
BootRacer: 26 seconds
BootRacer measures the boot up time for a PC. The SSD helped the dv7t Quad get a 15 seconds boot to logon and then 26 seconds to be on the desktop ready to work. As you can see, this is rated Excellent.
Here’s a comparison of how the HP dv7tqe stacks up relative to other laptops:
I was surprised the numbers weren’t higher for PCMark and 3DMark, but in the end this laptop feels very fast. I have yet to experience any slowness, on any task. The only recent game that I have is Star Wars: The Old Republic, and even in areas with many other players interacting, the laptop is able to deliver about 30 frames per second on the highest graphic settings so long as shading is turned off. On low settings, also with shading off, you get about 45-60 frames per second in the same areas with the same settings. Very playable.
Battery Life
As with any laptop, the battery life can vary quite a bit depending on what you’re doing. This is a desktop replacement laptop, so battery life isn’t as important, but I was still averaging about 3 hours or more with mid-level screen brightness doing typical day-to-day tasks. If I switched over to the discrete graphics card (the laptop normally uses the integrated Intel graphics on the CPU) and ran a graphics intensive game, battery life dropped down to about 45 minutes. You really need to have this laptop plugged in if you plan on pushing the processor and graphics card.
Though not entirely related to battery life it’s worth mentioning here that the power cord and adapter are very long (12’). This ensures you will almost never need an extension cord and can sit quite far away from an outlet and still reach it. I do wish someone besides Apple would start putting magnetic quick releases on their power connections though to reduce the potential for the laptop being pulled off a table by the power cord.
Keyboard
The keyboard is big, and for the most part the keys are pretty big. A full size number pad is even included. The exceptions to the keys being big are the up and down arrows, which are half sized keys to make them fit in the overall design. All four of the arrow keys are below the right shift key, and if they hadn’t done this, all four wouldn’t have fit.
Like I mentioned before, there is some give to the keyboard under firm typing. It’s nearly unnoticeable in the middle of the keyboard, but the number pad visibly flexes. It didn’t really bother me, but if you plan on using the number pad a lot, it might make you look at a different build.
Before I ordered the laptop, I didn’t know why people made such a big to-do about there not being a back-lit keyboard option. After using the laptop for just a bit though, I see why so many people are clamoring for this option. The screen is so big and bright, it beckons you to work on it in low light surroundings. While I figured the light from the screen would help bathe the keys in light during low light conditions, it really doesn’t work that way. The screen is so bright, it makes you nearly blind to anything else in a dark room. Okay, a bit of an exaggeration, but it does make it hard to make out the pencil thin white markings on the keys. A back-lit keyboard would be a definite improvement. However, this may only be a concern if you plan on using it in darker than normal conditions.
A couple of extra notes regarding the keyboard. First, the top row of function keys (F1-F12) can be set in the bios to either be control functions (help, screen brightness, screen setup, play, rewind, fast forward, volume, wireless on/off), or can be set to act as normal function keys. Hitting the ‘fn’ key while hitting the function key will access the other mode of the key. Pretty nifty. At first I thought the purist side of me would demand setting the default to the normal function key setup, but I’ve since gone back to having them access control functions. You just use those things more.
The other note (and gripe) regarding the keyboard is what indicator lights they didn’t include. While the caps lock key and the wireless on/off function key have a little white light on them to indicate their status (on/off), the number lock key does not. This seems to me to be a major impairment given that they put a full number pad on the keyboard!
Final side note on the keyboard, it is not an anti-ghosting keyboard. You can always make two simultaneous keyboard inputs, but you can only make three depending on which keys you’d like to hit. I imagine this is a problem with a lot of laptop keyboards, but worth mentioning nonetheless. If you are a hardcore gamer constantly mashing a lot of keys at once and expecting a lot of things to happen at once, it will bother you.
Touch Pad
Not much to say here. It works, and HP includes some nice drivers which allow for two-finger scrolling and some other advanced options. There is a nice line of light around the edge of the touch pad, and also a place to tap in the upper left corner twice if you’d like to disable it. I used this quite a bit to force myself to use a wireless USB mouse I had. It’s amazing how often you’ll use the pad with a mouse sitting right there unless you turn the touch pad off. When you double tap the upper left corner, the white light around the touch pad is replaced by an orange light at the top center edge, letting you know the touch pad is disabled.
Screen
Beautiful. Just beautiful. The color is brilliant and the brightness is astounding. As I mentioned above, it’s so bright I regularly leave it on about mid level settings. Even then, the brightness is enough to trick you into seeing the dark umber color of the laptop as being black.
I went with the upgraded 1920×1080 version that costs $150 extra. It’s a matte display, not shiny like some laptops, so bright lights behind you aren’t a big problem. The range of vertical tilt under which the screen will maintain proper display of colors is pretty limited, but horizontal range is almost unlimited. I would tell you to be careful about privacy when on an airplane, but there’s no way your pulling out this beast there anyway.
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Ports
It should have everything you need, except maybe a FireWire (IEEE 1394) port. Connections include two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a VGA port, an HDMI port, an Ethernet port, an SD/MMC memory card port, two headphone ports, and one microphone port.
HP dv7t left side: fan exhaust, VGA monitor out port, HDMI monitor out port, Ethernet port, two USB 2.0 ports, one microphone port, and two headphone ports
HP dv7tqe right side: two USB 3.0 ports, optical drive, power adapter port, and laptop lock slot
HP dv7tqe front side: left speaker, SD/MMC memory card port, and right speaker
HP dv7tqe back side: nothing but the Hewlett Packard name and the hinges
Wireless
The wireless card appears to function just fine, as does the Bluetooth. Though I had read that the wireless card seemed or tested slow to others, I never noticed under either normal usage or heavy usage with games. This was the case for both 802.11 g and n type wireless networks.
Speakers
The dv7tqe has five speakers. Two on the front side, two above the keyboard, and one subwoofer on the bottom right side. The sound is pretty amazing when you remind yourself that it’s a laptop. You get pretty full sound, and this means you only need to buy headphones if you are a real serious audiophile or don’t want someone nearby to hear just how awesome this laptop sounds.
Heating and Cooling
Under normal everyday use, the laptop stays relatively cool. You certainly don’t notice the heat on the palm rests. Any heat is dispelled out the exhaust slots on the back left side. However, when you put the laptop under load, either benchmarking or running a graphics intensive game, the heat really starts to ramp up. The heat pouring out of the exhaust ports on the left side is impressive. It’s a wonder the plastic edging at the exhaust port doesn’t melt. You could almost scald a finger if you were to leave it there long enough.
What this means is that eventually, under heavy graphics load, the left palm rest does start to get warm. And if you’ve got the computer in your lap, your left thigh will get warm. Luckily this laptop is big enough that you can keep the left side of the laptop hanging off the left edge of your left thigh a little, and it’s not a big deal. I decided to invest in a laptop cooling pad that has a fan in it so I wouldn’t ever be uncomfortable.
HP does include some nice temperature/fan management software called CoolSense that allows you to change when the fan will kick in to keep the laptop cool. Under one setting, it will run the fan as needed to keep the laptop as cool as possible. Under a second setting it will optimize performance of the laptop and run the fan as necessary to do so. Under the final setting, it will run the fan as little as possible. The computer can detect when it is sitting on a flat surface or in your lap or other non-flat and level surface, allowing you to provide a setting for both situations.
The mode under which the fan runs as little as possible is called “Quietest Mode” for a reason: the fan in the laptop can be very loud when spinning at full speed (under everyday use, it rarely spins up). My mother even remarked over Christmas while I was gaming away that it was louder than the dishwasher in the other room. I don’t know if other similar high performance laptops are like this, but beware if this is a concern for you. All-in-all, it never bothered me when gaming with sound effects from the games obscuring most of the fan noise.
Customer Support and Warranty
I didn’t have to call customer support for anything, so I can’t comment on that, but I wanted to mention what type of warranty the laptop came with. My laptop came with a 2-year limited warranty. Essentially, HP backs the laptop as being free from any defects, and will repair or replace the laptop if necessary. The warranty does state that they have to receive the defective laptop before they will send out a new or repaired one.
Conclusion
I really like the dv7t Quad. It’s got a few little quirks that I wish weren’t there, like the smudginess of the finish, the loud fan, and the missing light for the number lock. It’s also missing some features like a back-lit keyboard.
But the pluses outweigh these small negatives. Having two drive bays underneath is an incredibly powerful arrangement, allowing you to have both an SSD and HDD in the same unit. The screen is just incredible, the keyboard spacious, and the sound is of a quality you would never expect from a laptop.
I can tell you that if you take this thing out into public, it never fails to garner a few looks from tech-types and non-tech-types alike. Although I haven’t yet established whether they’re admiring it or just wondering whether it’s about ready to give birth to a baby net-book because of its size.
If you have particular questions regarding the laptop that I didn’t address, please leave a reply below and I’ll try and respond as soon as possible.
Pros
- 1080p screen is really nice, extremely bright and great matte finish
- Dual drive bays allows for two HDs or SSD / HD combo
- Spacious keyboard
- Speakers have good sound quality
- Great price for the features and performance you get, especially when using a coupon
Cons
- Loud fans
- System gets warm when gaming
- Number Lock key has no light to indicate when it is on
- Dark umber case finish picks up fingerprints easily
- Glossy bezel around screen can reflect light and be annoying
thanks for the review Matthew, for the SSD, did you put a fresh install of Windows 7 on there or was it the HP factory default image?
I used the HP recovery discs to do the install. I wanted to do a fresh install of Windows 7, but when I did that, I had problems getting a few things to work correctly. Most specifically, the fingerprint reader (which by the way is one of the best fingerprint readers I’ve ever used… it works nearly every time you use it (unless you really try to make it fail)), and the on-screen audio volume adjustment display (I might have got this working at one point).
Nothing I could find online would properly install the drivers for the fingerprint reader, and I wanted to get the laptop in full working condition ASAP, so I just used the HP recovery discs (which I believe pulls information from a recovery partition on the hard drive, it doesn’t load EVERYTHING from the discs). This loaded all the bloatware as well, but I was okay with it for the time being. There wasn’t actually too much bloatware all things considered.
I’ve since been made aware that the HP recovery discs have an option to select what you want to install from them, and that you can supposedly do a pretty minimal install, with just windows and the hardware drivers. I plan on doing this sometime in the near future. It will probably provide a small boost in performance. I imagine it will be pretty small though, because my gut feeling is the hardware hardly notices the minimal increased software load.
ok, thanks Matthew, I don’t own a separate copy of Windows 7 so I’ll probably do the same as you anyway, just wanted to get an idea of if the boot time was with a clean Windows 7 install.
How come the dv6t Quad scored higher on 3DMark with a lesser configuration? What resolution did you do the benchmark on?
You’re guessing along the same lines I was.
I tested at 1920×1080 (2.07 million pixels). That dv6tqe score came a 1366×768 model (1.05 million pixels).
Given the marginal difference in the two computers’ processing power and memory (the memory probably had little to no effect here), I think having to process twice as many pixels is the difference maker.
If I get a chance to re-run the benchmark at the lower resolution, I’ll report back.
Matthew,
Nice review but one small mistake, USB 3.0 is on the left and USB 2.0 is on the right. With regards to the “HP Recovery” partition, there is an option there for a “Minimal” install (less bloatware) or “Factory Restore”. I’m not sure when you actually received your dv7tqe but the 2GB video card option is now an AMD Radeon 7690M XT and is definitely a better performer than the 1GB option.
Again, nice review.
Hi OhioLefty,
I stand corrected. The USB 3.0 ports are indeed on the left, and the 2.0′s on the right. The nearly microscopic labels show the “SS” USB 3.0 symbols beneath the ports. The ports on the right just have the traditional USB 2.0 symbol (via equally tiny labels). What’s funny, and why I was tricked, is that the plastic interior of the 2.0 ports have a blue-ish tinge (blue being the color commonly used for 3.0 (albeit a brighter blue usually)). The ones on the left are straight black.
I’ve heard about the new video card. Kudos to those who can reap the benefits of waiting!
Cheers.
thanks for the review but can it be used for gaming
Hi Joey,
Yes. It will handle any game you would like. You probably won’t be able to run newer games on maximum graphic settings, but on something lower than that. SWTOR runs very well on it so long as the graphics are set to medium or lower. The game still looks great.
Great review Matt. I have the same computer and just bought the 256 GB Crucial SSD drive. Where did you buy the SSD cable to install the drive internally?
Hi Camilo,
See the link below for what you need. I’ve also included their YouTube video on how to do it. Looks like they are short on stock right now.
However, note that you won’t need this cable to hook up your SSD where your existing hard drive is, you will merely swap it out.
This cable will just allow you to install your old hard drive into the second bay. If you can live without your old HDD for a while, maybe replace it with the SSD, and then wait for the new cable to arrive to put the HDD into the second bay.
HP probably also sells these, just probably even more expensive.
Good luck!
http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_5&products_id=379
Thank you so much Matt. I actually installed my new SSD today in the original HDD bay and this computer is now even more amazing. I can now actually afford to wait for the cable.
Customize your dv7tqe series .tried order from hp website and said price was not correct after submitting order and now holding 1300 bucks for three to five days.Are u kidding me.Just remove the item or fix the pricing.Customer service said sorry.Really now i have to wait three to five days to order from someone else.Hope my college professor will understand why my work will be late..Never again HP.
Same thing happened to me !
Just ordered one looking at the reviews and comments and now waiting. I’m planning to use it mostly for development purpose (vs,c#, mobile apps etc).
Hope it works out well. Thanks guys.
Good choice on the dv7t, certainly good screen real estate for seeing a lot of code on the screen at one time. Good luck!
Thanks for the review and comments,
Mine is being built as I’m typing, hopefully. Best deal with the 30% discount.Couldn’t resist. Looking forward to an major upgrade from a dv5000. Yea, I know, I’ve skipped a few generations
I keep seeing issues with heat, planning on using a cooler when I try games if necessary. Has anyone found one that works better with this laptop?
Thinking coolmaster- from NewEgg:
NB ACC CM | R9-NBC-LPAR-GP RT or
NB ACC COOLERMASTER NOTEPAL U3
Anyone tried the fresh install off the recovery disks making sure all drivers is selected? It would be nice to get rid of the junk.
Thanks
I have used the recovery disks to do a clean install. It got all the right drivers loaded, and none of the bloatware.
I use the CoolerMaster NotePal X-Slim. I don’t think it keeps the laptop that much cooler, but it keeps my lap cool, is big enough, and was cheap.
Enjoy the new laptop!
Hi,
I was just wondering what laptop would be the best for a college student. I was looking at the dv6 and dv7 or the envy 15 and the envy 17.
Your thoughts would be helpful.
Thanks
In general a more portable laptop is a good idea for college so I’d lean towards either the dv6 or Envy 15 in case you need to carry the laptop to other locations. If you can afford the Envy 15′s higher price, I say go for it, but to save some dollars go for the dv6 as it’s a very capable performer and costs less. Good luck at college!
Thanks for your input andrew.
I will most likely go for the Envy 15 for better quality and performance. I agree a lighter laptop would be more convenient for college.
great review. just ordered one of these with almost identical specs and now i’m even more excited to get it. thanks for the comprehensive and thorough review
Just a bit more info on adding an SSD Matthew. (Great review btw)
So one would remove the original HD and replace it with the new SSD
drive. Then do a install of the OS and all original programs etc.
Question if the original HD is removed, how do you get to the partition
on it to do the recovery install on the SSD ?? Am I confused or did I miss
how to go about adding the new SSD ? Thanks for straightening me out LOL
Redwagon
Hi Redwagon,
Thanks for the compliment on the review.
No problem. You don’t need access to the partition to do a restore if you have the set of recovery discs. You can make a set of discs when you get the laptop, or can order a set direct from HP. I think the partition is only if you want the laptop to restore itself WITHOUT having the discs available.
Hope that helps!
- Matthew
Thanks much Matthew. I’ll just burn a couple of recovery disk myself. And btw, thanks for the links to the site that shows
how to go about adding the extra HD and the cables needed. Can’t wait to get my laptop and get started. Should be here next week
Redwagon…
Hey Mattthew, have another question. I have a Crucial 128GB SSD. I would like to copy the original OS on my
new HP dv7t quad to the SSD and install it in the main drive bay. I will make some recovery disks of the original
HD (750GB 7200 rpm) before doing this. Now my question is—
Can I format the original 750GB HD and use it as my archive HD for all my personal files (installed in the secondary
drive bay) and then later if I need to I can use the recovery disks to re-install the original system that came on it ??
Not sure if formatting the original HD if that will remove all of the original partitions that were on it so later it
cannot be recovered ?
Redwagon…
Hi Redwagon,
Yes, you can do exactly as you propose. You can also consolidate all the partitions on the data drive by using the built in Computer Management tool.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2674-partition-volume-create-new.html
If you conduct a recovery on the HDD later, it will remake the partitions I believe. Essentially, you have nothing to worry about. Anything you do can be undone.
Good call on the Crucial. I’ve got two and they work great. GL!
- Matthew
Once again Matthew I thank you for your help. I just wasn’t sure about deleteing partitions on the original HD that came with the dv7t quad.
I do have Acronis True Image 10 and I think it will do the same tasks as the website and programs you linked to. (Thanks for that link btw)
I have the Crucial C300 SSD and was using it in an older computer but I think it will better used in the new laptop.
Your help has been much appreciated Matthew !
Redwagon…
A question for you Matthew : I just rec’d my new HP dv7t quad and I also bought a Crucial 256 GB SSD ……..I do not have any recovery disks so how do I put the OS on the SSD to use it in the # 1 drive bay as the primary drive ?
- Fotis
Hi Fotis,
You can make recovery discs using the HP Recovery Manager that comes with the computer. You can also order a set of recovery discs direct from HP. Just log into your HP account and look up potential add-ons for your computer.
To get to the recovery manager, just hit the windows key and type “recovery” in the search box. Once you open the recovery manager, I believe the option is on the right to create a set of discs.
Good luck!
- Matthew
Hi Again Matthew—
Recieved my new dv7t quad last week (beautiful). First thing I did was burn a set of recovery disks.
Piece of cake. It took 5 each DVD’s to complete the entire recovery. And that took a whole lot of time as I was using
media that was only 4X.
Next thing I did was remove the original 750GB sata drive and replace it with a Crucial SSD (128GB series 300).
Then using the recovery disks I installed the original programs etc. That takes a while also, especially because it has to
do a “verify” check to make sure that portion was installed O.K. All worked out great and the laptop booted just fine.
Now (after purchasing the necessary cable to install the old HD in the extra HD slot–(thanks for that previous link, it saved me
lots of $$$ !!) using the W7 HD manager I deleted all of the original partitions and made it one simple partition. Then formatted
it and now I have the full 750GB as a BU and archive drive for all my personal files !!!
What a sweet notbook this is !!!! As always Matthew, thanks for all your previous posts and my specific help with all these tasks.
Redwagon…