Consumers using Hewlett-Packard PCs now have new options for disaster recovery, hard-disk upgrades and online security.
HP has eased a policy that could have limited how consumers recovered their PCs in the event of hardware failure or during hard-drive upgrades.
Starting with its Windows XP-based Pavilions, launched in September, HP ended its long-standing practice of providing recovery CDs with PCs, a resource that most other computer makers still offer. These CDs typically can be used to reinstall the operating system and other software such as hardware drivers.
HP instead chose to place the recovery mechanism on the hard drive in a 4GB partition that most consumers would find nearly impossible to delete by accident. Recovery, then, would come from software already installed on the PC rather than from a separate CD.
But since last week, Pavilion owners have been able to order a recovery CD from HP for around $10.
Separately, the company is starting to offer greater security for new PC users who are looking to venture online.