does win 7 recovery disc creation includes laptop drivers?

[Happy Hopping]

In a lot of laptop, there are dozens of drivers. I notice the WIM file size is different in a windows recovery disc vs. another recovery disc I create for desktop. Does it include all those utility / drivers in case the manufacturer removes those drivers from their website?

 

[pxc]

It usually includes everything which was included by default, so restoring from the discs brings it back to pre-initial boot condition. That usually includes junkware and software trials if those were included. I think it's more rare now, but older laptops could create OEM installation DVDs which could be used to perform a bare install. If the recovery disc creation required more than 1 DVD, it's almost certainly the former case.

 

[Happy Hopping]

Okay, say you have a defective hard drive, so obvious you can't do a sys. restore. And in the case of that laptop, the defects of the hard drive doesn't allow a recovery disc. It says error somehow. So I manage to create a mirror successfully and duplicate that mirror on the new drive. The new drive does not have a recovery partition.

From that new drive, I manage to create a repair disc. So bottom line is, does this new repair disc has the laptop drivers and those utility that seems to be needed for the laptop?

 

[BinarySynapse]

It depends entirely on the how the system manufacturer implemented their recovery solution. But in general, if you can create recovery discs and use them, you will have exactly what the manufacturer originally included on the hard drive.

 

[Happy Hopping]

Why is it depend on sys. manufacturer? Isn't this a Win 7 operation? Shouldn't it depends on how microsoft grab those drivers or not?

 

[BinarySynapse]

Why is it depend on sys. manufacturer? Isn't this a Win 7 operation? Shouldn't it depends on how microsoft grab those drivers or not?

Simple answer: No.


While MS does include a broad range of drivers in Win7's base installation image, it won't include drivers for everything out there, especially specialized OEM specific hardware (e.g. media buttons or drop sensors), nor will it have any drivers for hardware that was created after the latest service pack was released. It also won't include any extra software that the OEM bundles on their systems (AV, CD-burners, system diagnostics, etc). So while an OEM can use MS's tools to create a recovery image, it'll only have extra what the OEM decides to include. If all you're given or have access to is a plain OS Reinstallation DVD, then be prepared to do some legwork.

*I've intentionally not mentioned Windows Updates since a recovery operation will generally not have access to it until after the system is back up and running.