Compaq XP Home Recovery Disks 1-5

[andrena]

Compaq Presario 7500 came with Windows XP Home Recovery Disks 1-5. Getting a message that the hard drive needs replacing. My question is: Can you reinstall the complete OS on a different hard drive, and can you boot from these disks and instal like you do from a normal XP OS CD, or does it take special instructions?

I'm asking because I know other kinds of these types of CD's only help recover your OS and won't do a fresh install.

Thanks in Advance

 

[Osiris]

Usually there is a recovery partition. You can give it a try.

 

[Inaris]

The compaq way is to do a full reinstall back to the moment you got the machine out of the box. You will want to get everything off that machine before doing anything to it if you can. Compaq's are not nice when it comes to your data...

Good luck

 

[EricB]

Compaq Presario 7500 came with Windows XP Home Recovery Disks 1-5. Getting a message that the hard drive needs replacing. My question is: Can you reinstall the complete OS on a different hard drive, and can you boot from these disks and instal like you do from a normal XP OS CD, or does it take special instructions?

I'm asking because I know other kinds of these types of CD's only help recover your OS and won't do a fresh install.

Thanks in Advance

yes it will let you replace the hard drive, but not much else.

 

[andrena]

Correct Answer

Thanks for the response people, but just in case someone else has the same problem I thought I'd better fill you in:

I was talking to Compaq (now HP) and I can not use the Recovery Disk to completely reinstall the operating system and programs to a new hard drive. Like the name says, it "recovers" the state of the computer when you got it. If the hard drive is bad and needs replacing the Recovery Disks are of no use.

I need to order a Quick Restore disk to completely install to a new hard drive. They are $10-$15 and you need the computer's serial number to order at either:

https://www.orderz.com/qrcons/page1.asp
or
800-841-2761 press option 2

 

[EricB]

I just fix somebody compaq computer about a month ago (spyware and virus infected). it let me burn a dvd and a cd disc recovery disc and told me not to lose them, because it wouldn't do it anymore (I assumed that he had the original cds at home somewhere). I then install the system and programs on a bigger hard drive.