Do I need to create my recovery disks as soon as I get my machine?

Is it too late?

I have been using my system for about 4 months. When I use the Lenovo program to create recovery disks, do the disks create an image of my hard drive at that time or does it go back in time and create an image when my system was virgin?

 

I would think you should be able to do it at any time.

 

it will restore it to how the HDD came from the factory, not it's current state. You should make them ASAP though. If that hidden partition gets wiped or corrupted, it's gone.

 

The Recovery partition serves to "re-image" the main drive, directly via F11 at startup, or indirectly by booting from the set of Recovery disks.

You can create the Recovery disks any time, but obviously the sooner the better. They are handy when you upgrade to a bigger/faster device and need to "image" the new drive (to create both the C partition with Windows and the Recovery partition).

Certain users prefer "fresh installation" of Windows and drivers. Actually, after a few years, the Recovery partition will be out of date, or no longer preferred. It will then be better to install Windows and the latest versions of device drivers and (selective) ThinkVantage applications.

 

The factory disk set is great for when you sell a machine. That's about the only time I ever use it.

 

its totally up to u. for precaution theres no harm doing it.
the recovery disk basically will create a hidden partition on ur harddrive. to restore ur laptop into factory defaults.

 

You should do it asap ...dead harddrive = no recovery discs for you.

The restore cd/dvd is generated from the hidden backup partition, not your current os install you are using. It is clean, and always will be.

 

No, it's not too late. The recovery disks are copied from the recovery partition, so how long you've been using the laptop makes no difference as long as that recovery partition is untouched (as it will be, unless you formatted the entire hard drive and did a clean install).

It's a good idea to get those disks (1 CD + 2 DVDs) burned ASAP though, as other posters have pointed out. Do note that you will only be able to burn one set of disks, so don't lose them (Lenovo sells them to you for ~$50 a set)!