Once again, computer issues...

[dehro]

my computer crapped out on me once again. it's most likely that this is due to the hard disk playing up. I resolved to change said hard disk for 2 reasons.
1) to stop this from happening again
2) to be able to recover some of the data from the old HD before/instead of wiping it.
as for point 2, there's quite an issue:
I've made the terrible mistake of deleting my latest backup, confident that the HewletPackard software would allow me to make a new backup..something for which I needed space on my external HD. this however I managed to do only partially.. in that I can select what "sections" of my HD to backup. I managed to backup music, email and a few other things, but not the folder named documents, with it's content..because when I do so, once I get to a specific file it freezes and basically stops there, saving only what files were up to there (luckily it's a file that sits in a folder high in the alphabet, but I don't know for certain what's missing..which is a problem).

I decided therefore to install a new HD with 2TB capacity instead of 1.
before buying said HD I did ask if I could instal windows 7 using only the (3) recovery DVDs. I've been told that yes, I could no problem despite the new HD being completely empty and not having the Windows 7 installation DVD as it came pre-installed.

sadly though, as I proceed to do so after having mounted the shiny new HD, I find that my HP software only allows me to bring the machine "back to factory conditions" rather than letting me reinstall windows.. and when I try to do so, once I get to 30% of the process, it tells me things don't match up (well.. duh, there's a new HD in there now) and stops.

and now I'm stuck.
One option (yet another 30 bucks to spend) is to at least recover my missing data by attaching the old HD to one of those USB fed boxes and plug it into the netbook I'm writing on now...turning it into an external drive but that still leaves me with the problem that I have to cross fingers and, once I've salvaged the data, wipe the old HD hoping I can reinstall everything on that.. or find a way to make the new HD work..
am I missing something obvious? do I have to wipe the old HD and use that since it worked when I performed a first re-boot, loss of files be damned? where does that leave me with the "install a better HD" thing? if I can't do it now, how can I make it so that I can on a later date?
or is there a way to make the new HD work that I'm missing?

[Erloas]

I had thought the system change problems were only after 3 changes, not to just one component.

Not sure if it was you or someone else on the forums were it was pretty much decided the HD was going out. If your HD is going out, which it sounds like, you really wouldn't want to install a copy of windows on it anyway. From the sounds of your errors it could very well be bad sectors on the HD which will make doing anything from that disc have a good chance of getting random errors.
I don't know if HP has any way of downloading an ISO of their recovery disc. If they do it would probably be something you have to call their help desk for, and even then they might just have to send you one at some cost. It would probably be a painfully long time on the phone with the help desk before you could even find out if they could help you or not.

The best option would be to find a copy of Windows 7 and do a fresh install on the new HD and use the CD key printed on the back of the computer. However from what I've found sometimes OEMs like HP get a "special" copy of Windows so only an HP copy of Windows will accept an HP cd-key. I was never able to figure out a way around that on a Dell with Vista I was trying to work on for my aunt.

[dehro]

that is indeed pretty much what is happening now..
that said, I did buy the external case for my old HD, and am in the process of moving stuff from there to an external HD. once I've done that, I may as well wipe the old HD and try to reinstall stuff on that...despite the random errors, it may serve me for the time necessary for me to get hold of some tool with which to install windows 7 on the new HD... once I've done that, I should be able to replace one with the other...and maybe salvage the old HD as extra storage room/partition.

I want to try the old HD first because the best reason for failure to instal given to me by the HP helpdesk was that the recovery DVDs are damaged. their idea is that I pay 36 bucks and wait a full week to get an original recovery disk from them with their settings a.s.o.
if however they're wrong and I manage to use my DVDs to reboot the old HD, then I wonder what else they're mistaken about.. so for now I'm moving stuff around in preparation of wiping the old HD...then we'll see how that pans out. should that not work I'll accept their offer.

[Drumbum42]

Yea, I've dealt with this kind of stuff before. Typically OEM Restore Partitions/Disks only work on the original hard drive, kinda useless. BUT, all is not lost! It is in fact possible to get around this, it's just very unpleasant if you don't work on computers all the time. You may need a computer friend to help you out.

The most important thing is: Does the old drive still work? Can you boot to it? If you can then there are multiple ways to get the data off of it and put it on the new drive.

The best way is cloning the old drive to the new one, but if there are bad sectors on the disk this will not work 99% of the time.

Also win7 can make a full backup of itself, it's a software image so it generally ignores bad sectors. This has been hit or miss in my experience.

There are also a few programs that can do software copies. If the OS is running they'll get SOMETHING. Generally it's a good image of the drive, but I'm not sure how much faith to put in them.


If the drive doesn't work there's not much I know how to do. I had this issue on my sister's computer, my fix was installing Linux.....
Also I'd put off wiping the old drive till all other options have been tried. There's no coming back from a erasure if you need to.

[dehro]

I had this issue on my sister's computer, my fix was installing Linux.....lol..this made me laugh..
to my computer semi-literate mind that is a bit like saying "I don't know how to make ice-cream, I'll make steak and fries instead."

but yeah.. when I'm done salvaging the data on the old HD, I should be able to reboot the whole thing on that, which I suppose won't fix the bad sectors..
my current issue is getting the computer back in working order and saving as much data as I can. Once I've done that I'll tinker around and find a way to replace the bad HD with the new one in safety and without those bastard partitions stopping me.
your suggestions to that effect will be explored to see what method I'm more confident in experimenting with.

[Don Julio Anejo]

What I would do would be to completely reinstall Windows on your old HD (even with bad sectors it should still more or less work), then clone it to your new HD. Make sure to activate Windows on it before you do anything else.

There are multiple ways to do it, but the easiest would be to put in your new HD in a case (don't completely close it if there's no way to get the hard drive out afterward), search online for free software that allows you to do it, run sysprep on your computer and then clone contents of your laptop hard drive to your new hard drive.

Then swap in your new hard drive.

This should work in theory. Any problems that arise can be fixed afterward with a repair disc as long as you can boot into Windows with it. A possible way to get a repair disc is to download an ISO of Windows itself (I'm fairly sure Microsoft provides it somewhere) and burn it onto a CD/make a bootable USB.

Anything I've mentioned here can be done by following guides found through Google search and chances are I would say the same thing but in a more confusing and convoluted way if you ask me on how to do it.

[Drumbum42]

lol..this made me laugh..
to my computer semi-literate mind that is a bit like saying "I don't know how to make ice-cream, I'll make steak and fries instead."

Yea, I didn't know about the software image stuff at the time, and the classic Clonezilla approach didn't work because of bad sectors. Did a standard Win7 install from disk and it wouldn't take the Samsung CD key.

She only browses the internet and watches netflix so I gave up and handed her Ubuntu. I dislike being defeated by computers, but I got my sister to use linux, so I'll call it even.


What I would do would be to completely reinstall Windows on your old HD (even with bad sectors it should still more or less work), then clone it to your new HD. Make sure to activate Windows on it before you do anything else.

I was thinking about this too. If C drive won't clone I'd try this. You might get lucky and be able to clone the new install.

[dehro]

I've kinda worked myself in a corner. for some reason windows wouldn't reinstall on the old drive so I either waited for a week (that's how long it takes to get the appropriate recovery disks from the HP helpdesk) and paid 40 euros for them to then do the whole thing myself, or I gave it into generic assistance, who asked for 100 euros but would do the job for me by monday tops.

so I went with the assistance and am now waiting for them to tell me it's done.

[Don Julio Anejo]

I've kinda worked myself in a corner. for some reason windows wouldn't reinstall on the old drive so I either waited for a week (that's how long it takes to get the appropriate recovery disks from the HP helpdesk) and paid 40 euros for them to then do the whole thing myself, or I gave it into generic assistance, who asked for 100 euros but would do the job for me by monday tops.

so I went with the assistance and am now waiting for them to tell me it's done.
For that much money you honestly would have been better off buying a new copy of Windows.

[Balain]

I know here you can find windows 7 oem versions for sale for around $100. When I bought my first intel machine I made sure I had the DOS disks. I paid to have DOS on it I was going to make sure they gave me the disks with the machine. It is not so easy with computers now a days since they sell it with recovery disks only. When ever I get a new computer I make sure I also buy an actual copy of windows (what ever version) It just is less hassles then using recovery disks.

[dehro]

For that much money you honestly would have been better off buying a new copy of Windows.

the problem with that would be that I'm not sure it would work on a HP machine, on account of the partition issue, which is what is stopping my disks from working in the first place. I would have to buy the HP specific windows 7 disk.. which I could get for some 40 €.. delivered in at least a week. I need my 'puter before that. also, not sure about prices elsewhere, but in Italy a new copy of Windows 7 comes in at 94.38 €.... whereas right now I pay 100 € but get the machine set up for me, by a pro, instead of paying roughly the same and having to do it by myself.
I'll still have to re-install all my other stuff... but that was always going to happen..and I have the original DVDs for them.

[Drumbum42]

I've kinda worked myself in a corner. for some reason windows wouldn't reinstall on the old drive so I either waited for a week (that's how long it takes to get the appropriate recovery disks from the HP helpdesk) and paid 40 euros for them to then do the whole thing myself, or I gave it into generic assistance, who asked for 100 euros but would do the job for me by monday tops.

so I went with the assistance and am now waiting for them to tell me it's done.

Wow, that's a lot for a disk. I've never made HP send me a disk before but most places only charge a few dollars (US) for shipping. To be honest that should be a free to download ISO you can just drop on a disk, but then you wouldn't have to buy another OS.....

[Erloas]

Well for what it is worth, you can buy a copy of Win7 and install it on *any* computer without issue. (Apple is the only one that puts a special chip in their computers to only allow OS X to be installed on their machines.)

As for the partitions, when you have a copy of a Windows install CD you can add or subtract partitions at the very first step of installation.

As for the cost of Win7, are you looking at a retail copy or an OEM copy? Around the US it is very easy to find an OEM copy for $100, but the retail copy is $170. There is no difference at all between the two, but technically you are supposed to install it with new hardware so some companies may require you to buy some other computer component with it, which I've seen done with a mouse purchase. I don't know if anyone actually requires that any more or not since the only times I have bought a copy of Windows lately has been with new hardware.

And if you are feeling a bit adventurous I'm sure you can find an HP Win7 install CD ISO on a bit-torrent site. (Which isn't suggesting anything illegal, you own a legitimate copy of Win7, as the CD-key tag on the bottom of your laptop attests to, you are just getting something they should have given you in the first place.)

[dehro]

the price I gave is OEM.
retail is probably even more expensive.
yes, I know you can make partitions easily, but I'm not really all too sure as to how to go about doing so, AND this needs to be a partition complying with the requirements of the HP software that is asking for it.. and I have no idea how to do that. in other words, it wouldn't work for me. money is thight enough for me not to want to buy stuff I'm not 100% sure will do the trick
I feel adventurous enough to download stuff I use for leisure... just not the main software for my work station.

[Don Julio Anejo]

the problem with that would be that I'm not sure it would work on a HP machine, on account of the partition issue, which is what is stopping my disks from working in the first place. I would have to buy the HP specific windows 7 disk.. which I could get for some 40 €.. delivered in at least a week. I need my 'puter before that. also, not sure about prices elsewhere, but in Italy a new copy of Windows 7 comes in at 94.38 €.... whereas right now I pay 100 € but get the machine set up for me, by a pro, instead of paying roughly the same and having to do it by myself.
I'll still have to re-install all my other stuff... but that was always going to happen..and I have the original DVDs for them.
As said before, a new copy of Win 7 works on any computer. You can buy it online with a credit card for $100 or so (doesn't matter that you're in Italy) and save yourself 25 Euros. Worst case scenario, use a proxy or a reseller like Newegg in case the Microsoft site doesn't let you.

A pro usually wouldn't have anything beyond an A+ certification and won't do anything special to it. Most likely, he just has an HP disc and he's going to use your product key to reinstall it.

Too late now, though.

the price I gave is OEM.
retail is probably even more expensive.
yes, I know you can make partitions easily, but I'm not really all too sure as to how to go about doing so, AND this needs to be a partition complying with the requirements of the HP software that is asking for it.. and I have no idea how to do that. in other words, it wouldn't work for me. money is thight enough for me not to want to buy stuff I'm not 100% sure will do the trick

I highly doubt there's any HP software you actually need (feel free to correct me) except the actual restore partition, but that's fixed by having actual Windows on CD/USB. About 90% of things that come preinstalled on your computer are drivers and bloatware. The first you can get off their website. The second is just crappier, worse designed versions of programs you can get for free. A lot of it typically exists to sell you stuff, and HP is especially bad in this regard.

I feel adventurous enough to download stuff I use for leisure... just not the main software for my work station.
In this case I'd actually advise you not to download Windows. Even though it's legal, your product key is unlikely to work, so you'd have to crack it, which might be a big hassle.