FirstWare

FirstWare RecoverPro Support Pages


FirstWare Recover Pro

1. What is FirstWare	4. How to reinstall FirstWare after HDD replacement	FirstWare FAQ's
2. What will I see on first boot?	5. How to remove FirstWare & the HPA	RecoverPro User Guide
3. How to use FirstWare	6. How to reinstall the HPA after it has been removed	FirstWare Console Guide



1.	What is FirstWare?
	FirstWare is a feature of the Phoenix FirstBIOS and is part of the Phoenix Core Managed Environment (cME) that we offer with Scenic/Esprimo/Celsius systems. If FirstWare RecoverPro comes with your PC, click on Start - All programs - RecoverPro for more information. There are also some pdf documents on your FirstWare RecoverPro Recovery CD which was delivered with your PC that has more detailed information. Fujitsu Siemens PC's that come with FirstWare RecoverPro pre-installed, have a dedicated 10GB partition of hard disk called the Host Protected Area or HPA. This HPA is unavailable to Windows, so Windows will report the Hard Disk size as being 10GB less than the true size of the disk. This HPA can be used to allow for a quick and easy recovery of the Operating System, Applications & Data, in the event of a system crash. It allows you to create both static restore points (where you create a copy of the entire hard disk drive or boot partition and store it in the HPA) or incremental restore points (which automatically track changes to the hard disk drive in real time and stores all data and system changes for quick recovery).



2.	What will you see when you first switch on your PC.
	Your PC will arrive with the Host Protected Area (HPA) already pre-installed (size = 10GB). On first boot, you will be presented with the normal Windows XP set up screens, which require you to choose how to partition your disk, your country / regional settings, accept the licence agreement, choose a computer name, a password and user name. Upon reaching the Windows desktop for the first time, you will be presented with the Welcome to RecoverPro dialogue box. (if for some reason you do not see this, click on Start - All Programs - RecoverPro). Click on Installation RecoverPro and you will then be presented with three choices:- Automatic Installation - this will install the Windows element of FirstWare RecoverPro and create your first static restore point in your 10GB HPA. This can be used to recover your software in the event of a system crash User Defined Installation - this will install the Windows element of RecoverPro but allows you to define the size of your HPA. Remove RecoverPro and HPA - select this option if you do not wish to use RecoverPro and would like to remove the HPA to free up the 10GB assigned to it If you choose to install RecoverPro, we advise that you opt for the automatic installation. Click on Automatic Installation and you will be presented with a message box asking if you want to start the RecoverPro setup, click yes. Click ok on the message box asking you to close any running applications, a RecoverPro icon will appear on the desktop and the PC will then restart during which point the first Static Restore Point is created (this may take 10-15 minutes). RecoverPro is now installed and ready to use.


3.	How do I use FirstWare RecoverPro
	Please refer to your RecoverPro User Guide which is on your FirstWare RecoverPro CD (RProUG.pdf) .


4.	In the event of a hard drive replacement, how do I reinstall FirstWare?
	Replacement hard disks DO NOT come with FirstWare and the HPA pre-installed, therefore you need to reinstall it using your FirstWare RecoverPro Recovery CD. This must be done BEFORE the hard drive is formatted and the Operating System (Windows) is reinstalled.
(i)	Boot from the FirstWare RecoverPro Recovery CD and select Run cME Installation Menu.
(ii)	On the cME Installation Suite menu, select "Install FirstWare in case of Hard Disk Change" if you want to accept the default size of 5GB for the HPA. If you would prefer to define the size of the HPA yourself, select Resize "Install FirstWare with user defined size of the static restore point area". We recommend you do not use less the than the default 5GB.
(iii)	Once the HPA has been created, restart the PC and go into the BIOS (F2) and set HDD Host Protected Area to enabled (Advanced menu - Advanced System Configuration). This in effect enables write protection on the HPA, so that this partition cannot be seen, accessed or overwritten by Windows.
(iv)	You can now reinstall Windows using your Windows Product Recovery CD.
(v)	When Windows has finished installing, reinstall the drivers using your Managed2 Drivers & Utilities CD.
(vi)	After the drivers have been installed, install FirstWare RecoverPro for Windows. Within Windows, insert the FirstWare RecoverPro CD (it should auto-run) and click on the install button next to where it says Press 'Install' to add FirstWare RecoverPro for Windows to your system and run through the wizard.


5.	How do I remove FirstWare so that I can use the whole of my hard disk space?
	If you decide that you no longer wish to use FirstWare RecoverPro and would prefer to have the whole disk available to Windows, you can uninstall it by deleting the HPA to free up the hard disk space.
(i)	Go into Add/Remove programs in the control panel and uninstall FirstWare RecoverPro.
(ii)	After the FirstWare software has been removed, go into the BIOS and change HDD Host Protected Area to disabled (under the Advanced Menu - Advanced System Configuration).
(iii)	Back in Windows, go into Disk Management (right click "My Computer", click on "Manage" then select "Disk Management") and you should see that you now have 10GB of unallocated space. You can now create a partition and format it, to make use of this space.


6.	Having removed FirstWare and my HPA, is there any way I can reinstall it again at a later date ?
	It is only possible to reinstall the HPA if you have some unallocated / unpartitioned space on your hard drive, therefore you will not be able to recreate the HPA if you only have one C partition covering the entire size of the hard disk. If you have more than one partition, you can recreate your HPA but all the data in the partition the HPA will be reinstalled to, will be lost. Therefore you will first have to move this data to another partition. DO NOT install the HPA to the partition that has the Windows system files in it, this will make Windows unusable.
(i)	Using Disk Management, delete the partition where the new HPA is to be installed (remember to save the data in this parition elsewhere)
(ii)	Boot from the FirstWare RecoverPro Recovery CD and when you get to the "cME Installation Menu" select option 1, Run cME Installation Menu.
(iii)	On the cME Installation Suite menu, select "Install FirstWare in case of Hard Disk Change" if you want to accept the default size of 5GB for the HPA. If you would prefer to have an HPA of 10GB as was originally shipped with your system, select Resize "Install FirstWare with user defined size of the static restore point area". We recommend you do not use less the than the default 5GB.
(iv)	Once the HPA has been created, reboot and go into the BIOS and change HDD Host Protected Area to "enabled" (under the Advanced Menu). This ensures that the HPA is in effect write protected. Save & Exit.
(vi)	Boot into Windows to reinstall the FirstWare RecoverPro for Windows software. Reinsert the FirstWare RecoverPro CD (it should autorun) and click on the install button next to where it says Press 'Install' to add FirstWare RecoverPro for Windows to your system and run through the wizard.