Vista Recovery

[Kickstart]

Hi

Neighbour has an HP laptop on which the hard disk has just gone phut.

Replaced the hard disk and the recovery disks refuse to install. My guess is that they are keyed to some internal components, including the (now replaced) hard disk.

Short of buying a copy of Vista (silly money for something they have already paid for), any suggestions? There is a Vista licence key so we should be able to install from some generic Vista install disks.

All the best

Keith
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[map]

What flavour of Vista?
There's so many I loose track.

I'm guessing on laptop Vista home?
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[Kickstart]

Hi

Vista Home Premium on a laptop. Not sure if the disks are actually different or if it just works it out from the serial number.

All the best

Keith
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[Scotsman37]

I've had to recently replace my hdd on my hp laptop, and yes the recovery DVD did re-intall that I ordered from HP before hand (for that potential hdd failure) and it formatted & partitioned the hdd by re-installing all the original software as and when it came out of the factory.

That HP dvd installation comes with Vista pre-activated i.e. it's OEM software!

There's Vista sticker underneath the laptop which can be used with any copy of Vista Home Premium, and I've tried and it works on my desktop, but remember Microsoft only gives you so many tries at activating except it will work!

Then goto HP's website and download all the drivers, etc, but you won't get added programs ex. Cyberlink software, Works 9 and 60 days use Microsoft Office.

So, either he spends a few pounds and order the DVD installation for his laptop or go without the above mentioned software!

There's a key to press just when the laptop starts to boot-up instead of the normal BIOS option and so select that one for when you want to re-install from a backup discs/partition. So, if it doesn't work then there must have been a flaw when the discs were written or there is something wrong with the disc(s)

[Kickstart]

Hi

HP don't seem to admit to selling replacement installation disks as the machine is an ancient 15 months old now. Tried and the option is not on their site for this model.

Might need a replacement disk, but noway is it worth splashing out £130 for a replacement Vista CD.

Pile of cack. Poxy hdd life and recovery disks that refuse to work.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Scotsman37]

Whats the model no. and I know that the European technical support is based in Ireland, but if you give me the model no. and p/n I will have a look for it!

[Kickstart]

Hi

HP Pavilion dv6500

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Scotsman37]

You can still get recovery DVD discs through their US website, but it's not listed on the UK site. So, two options are open to that person either pay for it with visa and have it shipped to someone they know in USA/Canada or kick up a stink with technical support because usually HP fully supports their product from 5 years of coming out on the market place.

You can customise it as normal for keyboard and language, but instead of potential links for setting up a UK isp provider it will list the US equivalent of it. A very minute difference between a UK disc and the US version of it.

If he can ask someone to make a copy of Vista home premium from someone and just use his own vista serial on his laptop, then download all the appropriate drivers from HP UK as another possible solution.

[Kickstart]

Hi

Kicking up a stink might be an option, but likely to take a while.

My preferred option is a Vista installation disk with his serial number, just don't know anyone with an appropriate disk.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[JonB]

Download Home Premium on a torrent, I found the 32bit version for you https://torrents.thepiratebay.org/4882730/Windows_Vista_SP2_(32-Bit)_RTM_Retail_DVD_MSDN_REZMAN1984.4882730.TPB.torrent

Then just use the appropropriate key on the HP machine.

Or, you could just download the Windows 7 Release Candidate which is as good as final and you get a key when you download and it doesn't expire until July 2010, but then obviously you will have to pay for a copy of Windows 7.

For what it's worth Windows 7 is very good. Runs a lot quicker than Vista.
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[Kickstart]

Hi

Cheers. Downloading that now.

If it was my choice it would never have had Vista on it.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[JonB]

Windows 7 has an "XP mode" that can be downloaded for it.
____________________
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[bEN_]

The reason the manufacturers don't give out the discs anymore is because they now say it's 'your' responsibility to create your own recovery/backup disc so will charge you £40+ for one off them ( Packard bell charge £55! ) , which still isn't bad for a legit OS really.

can i ask where he bought it from?

if he purchased it from either Dixons, Pc world or Currys then if the hdd failed and it's still within warrenty you get the recovery cd free

edit: just checked you said 15 months old

some HP/Compaq laptops will have 2 year warrenty because of 'known' issues
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[JonB]

[Kickstart]

Hi

The recovery disks were created. They bought 3 laptops at the same time and I have all 3 sets here. They all say that they cannot be used to repair that machine. My guess is that when you create the recovery disks they record the serial numbers of various components and refuse to recover if they have changed. And suspect one of those components is the hard disk.

Think they bought them from PC World.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[bEN_]

Thats right, you may have to do a HP 'tattoo' with it

if it's like the packard bell one it's all done in cmd and can be a nightmare
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[Kickstart]

[Tarmacsurfer]

Keith, are you just doing a straight forward re-install of the OS?

If so then it should simply be a case of install off the disc you downloaded, shove the license key they have into it and then phone M$ to confirm activation as it will probably ask you to do so. As you rightly point out "core hardware" has changed, although you may get away with an HDD swap, it seems hit or miss. Drivers, as you probably already know, are HERE.

I'm not entirely sure what bENN is talking about, done quite a lot of ground up rebuilds on mainstream notebooks and never found one that required prompt level entries to sort out. The only real problem was with an old Acer system and a reinstall from XP pro original media, had to burn a slipstream disk with SATA drivers on it as there's no floppy to preinstall the drivers from. Well, that and my recent battle with another Acer over BIOS passwords

For future reference, if you're ever caught short and need an OS at very short notice then you've got my mobile number. I've got pretty much everything here.
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[Scotsman37]

[Seb]

Hi, reinstalling from scratch is your best bet, HP have a habit of filling machines up with bloat anyway plus they have a good driver download service.

Download an OEM Vista DVD (If your near Plymouth I'll give you one), doesn't matter which version as any OEM release can be used with any OEM key*, you can reinstall a Vista Ultimate key with a Vista Home Basic DVD with no issues whatsoever. Just install away with the key on the bottom of your machine.

My personal recommendation is to set the machine NOT to automatically activate itself once it's online, install Vista and sort your drivers out first before you activate it just incase you mess up along the way.

The Vista activation process has a bit of a bug with OEMs where it will frequently claim your key is invalid right off the bat, just select the option to type in a new license key and then just click next without actually typing one in, it'll then go ahead and activate your key properly.

*I've had a couple of Toshibas with OEMACT style genuine keys that wouldn't activate for me, but we are talking 2 laptops out of hundreds of laptops and PCs that I've refurbished and reinstalled.
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[Kickstart]

[Seb]

[Kickstart]

Hi

Have access to quite a few, including a retail high spec version and several OEM versions (just no HP OEM for home premium). Will give them a try.

Cheers.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Jamrock]

When I worked at a Computer Repair shop we dealt with a lot of HPs, half of the time customers would try and use the recovery thing just for it to bluescreen pointing towards faulty motherboard drivers. I think HP just pump them out with every model and then have huge grins when people phone up asking to pay for them to repair it.

We stuck to the plan of doing a format reinstall with the OS of the sticker on the bottom, then downloading all the drivers manually. It's usually better that way because it doesn't come with all the bloatware as well. Install some DVD codecs and presto, back to normal!

[Scotsman37]