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[Suicide Junkie]

Why in hell would HP put the reinstall / "recovery" software on the harddrive?!?

That has got to be one of the lamest ideas EVER.
If the user needs to reinstall windows, there is a good probability that they've lost control of the machine to viruses and crapware.
Assuming they still have the ability to run programs at will, there is no guarantee that the recovery software hasn't been eaten by viruses.

Heck, I've encouraged common people to partition their harddrive and keep a backup of their clean install for easy restoration.
They say "Meh, if my disk dies, everything is gone, and its pointless!" Which is quite true.
The backup on harddrive only helps if windows keels over and dies peacefully. Or if you decide to put it out of its misery before it goes completely.