Memorex is a reputable company yet Googling this suggests the tech might be correct, they do not seem compatible with HP products.

The following is written assuming you have already created a set of recovery disks. But as you have Memorex and HP does not like them I suspect otherwise. You must NOT proceed without creating those recovery disks! This link will guide you through, start with the first link underneath About the HP Recovery Manager

Look through your My Documents folder and deleting anything you no longer need. Once you have your new DVDs you would need to save your 'My Documents' folder but you need to know how large the folder is.

Right click Start
click Explore
Now look on the left side near the top and right click on My Documents and then click Properties.

This will show you how many files and more importantly how much space it takes up. A DVD can hold up to 4.7 gigabytes so if your My Documents is less than that it can be burned to one DVD. If the folder is larger you will need to burn to more than one DVD. Be sure to have a Sharpie felt tip pen or similar to write on the DVDs for future reference.

You will need to repeat this for your music, pictures and video folders. It can be time consuming but really it is something you should do anyway to protect yourself in case the computer fails and you lose everything.

Then you'll need to save your address book and favourites.

Before you start re-installing you should find any CDs or DVDs for programs you may have installed since buying the computer.

obbist,
I have 914 MB in my document before any cleaning.. have them on a flash drive already.. also bookmarks.. address book I think I have it as I can't view. How do I copy contact E-mail list from Opera?
ALL my pix are stored in a pay off line storage place..No music or anything like that.
He told me it should take 5 or 6 disk..I was told the recovery would take would take about 3.. hope I have enough disk for both. It is about 15 miles back to where I can buy more but maybe I can get a ride tomorrow to get more just in case.
Thanks..if U or anyone else can give me more advise please do.
I have some things on the desk top but most can be deleted.
My son wants me to use dragon but WOT won't work there.. how important is WOT. Going now to see if the will walk me through the recovery disk.. they told me earlier they would.
Thanks,
Dar

obbist,
I have the recovery disks made. The tech was great.. he stayed with me the whole way. Of course being in India I had to ask him over a lot. I guess I can move on tomorrow to the next step of resetting my computer. I hope 7 disk will be enough. He said it should be more than enough.
Thanks for advising me on getting the recovery ones done 1st. If I had the right DVDs last nite I would have done it then..
Things work out for the best sometimes.
Thanks again,
Dar

Owbist, if Dar has the recovery CDs made and all her data saved, does HP not have a recovery partition and recovery utility which can be activated by using Alt F10 ( or F11) combo as other manufacturers have. This would put her computer to "out of the box" condition

I recently bought a new Hp and and ordered the ordered the recovery CDs. Before I received them I found the system restore would not work. The tech walked me through a recovery that was on my PC. It took care of my problem and it made the PC like new again. I have not done that on my own. I am more comfortable using the restore CDs.

I have never used the recovery partition, but I have used the recovery DVDs that I made, and things went very smoothly. I have since removed the recovery partition from my older XP computer since I have complete images of my whole HDD on two different external drives. I do a complete backup every month soon after the MS updates are installed, and I alternate between the two external drives. I've learned the hard way how time consuming it is to restore after a computer is several years old and there are gazillions of updates and programs to re-install. :-)

grandms, I enjoy doing it all, doesn't say much for my life.

When I was in Va in the month of July, my laptop had to be backed up since it had been off several months before we left for VA. The only DVD with Light Scribe support I could find was Memorex. I bought a stack of 25 cakebox and used them to back up my laptop. Them not being compatible with HP is bull crap. They worked just fine with Vista on my laptop.

I bought an HP laptop 8 months ago and the sales person sold me Memorex to make the recovery CDs. I ruined 6 out of the 10 then went online to instant chat with HP. Tech said get Sony cds if I could find them, if not buy HP ones from them. I bought the Sonys and it worked perfectly. I also printed out the chat transcript and showed it to the sales person and got my money back for the Memorex cds.

Everything is great again. He even setup my mail..bookmarks & everything I could think of right off like the virus detector. HP sure has some great support even if they are in India. I could even half way understand this one. It would have cost me over $200 to do all the things he did. I still have some work to do getting everything done but right now I am very pleased.
One thing I do need to do still is get some extensions.
I asked him what browser he liked.. 1st was FireFox then Chrome.. I had him put in Chrome for now. I already put in MWB & will get SASW next. Ninite makes it easy... thanks Raven :)
I need to find out how to disable tabs in Thunderbird.. done it once but don't remember how.
I have one small problem.. when I went to put away my disk I have 2 marked #1. I don't know which is right & don't remember marking 2 with #1.. I have 2 & 3 also. I must have done it last nite but my mind is blank on doing it. I wish I knew which is the right one. BTW we didn't make copies. We skipped that as I had most if not all saved.
Dar

Well I ran into the 1st problem now.. the speakers don't work but did before tonite.. He worked on it some & said he would call me back tomorrow nite. I'm sure they are plugged in.
I guess something had to go wrong... Murphy's law.
Dar

Nice to hear you had a pleasant experience with the tech support Dar. When I had printer problems - defective printer it turned out to be - there were very helpful to me.

Gene, I was not sure if HP do use a recovery partition these days or not so I suggested to Dar about creating the recovery DVDs are a safety precaution.

Even with a recovery partition everyone should create those recovery disks because if the hard drive fails the all is lost including the recovery files.

I second Owbist's last sentence. Even with the recovery partition, if the hard drive dies, you are SOL. With both my computers, the first thing I did after clean up any bloatware was to make the recovery disks.

My Hp is just a few months old and it has a C and D listed as hard drives. The D drive is a recovery. All HPs may not have it but my last 2 have had.

Vala55,
Mine also has a D with recovery but I also know if my hard drive fails that D is gone.

How do I safely remove this trial version of Nortons? Can I just delete it from add & removeDar

I always delete in add and remove programs and have never had a problem. I have done that with Norton on several computers.

Wanted to add, I always order the restore CDs. Years ago the PC came with them. Later I didn't trust making them myself so I still order them. They have saved me a lot of money over the years. They only cost around $20.

Not really a good idea to use the Add/Remove utility. There is often too many orphaned files and registry entries left behind which may cause conflicts It is normally advised to use an AV's dedicated removal tool for the most thorough removal.

When I bought this Vista system it of course came without restore disks. I e-mailed the CEO of HP and identified myself as a long-time HP user, and went about listing all my past and current systems and printers with serial numbers. Further, I complained as to how inappropriate it was not to include factory restore disks. Low and behold, I got a set in the mail.

DA

Here is a link that might be useful: Norton Removal Tool

OH ME! There is several on that page & I have no idea which one to download..
Dar

Yes there are several on that page, but you only use the one that is identical to the trial version on your laptop

I use this on peoples computer, usually after the program cleaner,, because most seem to have tried many anti-virus progs...

AppRemover is a free utility from OPSWAT that enables users to remove antivirus, antispyware and other security applications, as well as left over files remaining from incomplete uninstallations. There's no more need to mess around with your registry.

AppRemover has been downloaded 1330733 times.
Tested malware-free using the free online scanner at Filterbit.com

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.appremover.com/

agree use appremover that is what many of the support forums are using now.

Using AppRemover
here are your step by step directions

I got Norton completely out with no problems.
I am beginning to really dislike Thunderbird 5. I keep losing the folders. How on earth do I find folders I made? I wish there was some way I could get the older (3 something I believe) Thunderbird I had .

My speakers don't work & my printer doesn't work. I am buying a ticket to fly to VA tomorrow & won't be able to print them.
I ordered recovery disk for my son & HP sent me a letter.. I noticed the instruction has for a Vista.
I checked the numbers & it was for a Vista computer.. Sure glad I noticed it or he would have had useless recovery disk. They blamed a computer for making that mistake.

One day I will get this computer back like it should be.. I hope.
Dar