Misunderstanding my S/N question ?

[kuluk]

Administrators, don't ban me !

Somebody misunderstood me, I bought a COMPAQ laptop which included only a CD "recovery process", what the matter I don't have any tool for reinstall if I format the disc !

So my question was, what's the better way to recover MY xp version, with MY s/n, when you've formatted the disc and when you have only a CD "recover COMPAQ process" ?

sorry for having been confusing ?

[Conan]

You just stick in your Recovery CD, reboot, then the CD will restore your drive and operating system to a "virgin" state. If you do it this way I don't think you even have to enter any serial number.

[Big Booger]

COnan, he can't do that. The recovery CD provided by COmpaq can only work within windows. You can't AFAIK reformat and the stick the recovery CD in... It's not like a full version CD. It's non bootable. and it wont work without windows. I had this problem with a friends Presario 7200 many moons ago with windows 98se. I tried to upgrade his OS to windows 2000, It wouldn't work, so we thought we could go back to his recovery CD. It wouldnt work. I finally got windows ME to boot onto his Pc, and that is what he is using now.

The only way I can think he can restore it, would be to use a real windows XP CD, and then restore it from within the clean install of XP.
That is what sucks about restore CD's.
BB

[Conan]

I just recently tinkered with my friend's Compaq notebook. First I formatted the disk, then waited for a DOS prompt to install Windows Me, but alas no DOS prompt appeared. So we took his restore CD, rebooted with it and it started to restore his O.S. to the original Windows Millenium.

[Big Booger]

perhaps they have changed. I recall clearly now, it would restore using a web browser interface. If you didnt have windows available the restore CD would reject. It would generate an error if I tried tin install it on a clean partition. I am glad I never have to screw with Compaq again, other than my laptop... which by the way I have no complaints about.

Anyhow, kuluk,
Just install it using your friends windows XP home edition. Or call COmpaq and see what they say.
BB

[zErO]

I dont know if he will be able to run that application under Dos, he would need to to try check dir of the disk and see if there is a boot sector attached. Trying to run it from dos might be like, trying to install the non bootable xp disks which could only be run from inside windows.
If he installs his friends copy of Home then he should be able to boot his disk from inside windows without having to activate the Home addition, I would call compaq if all else failed.

[egghead]

with the compaq installations ive used i had to run it in dos
it would restore the computer to the same state as the original

all the os and files are re-installed using a program similar to ghost or backup partition
i recall that you didnt have to run windows setup
all the files extracted and upon reboot everything was installed and it prompted for user name and cd-key
only took 5 mins or so

i am not a fan of compaq and dont know if the routine has changed

good luck

sorry for the useless info

cheers
eggead

[Blackwar]

my mom had a compaq last year, and the recovery disks they use are bootable, that boot you to a DOS-based blue screen (kind of like how the CMOS-setup looks) which allows you to choose if you want to do a complete restore , and there were some more choices but i can't remember...

Blackwar

[SupaStar]

Originally posted by Conan
I just recently tinkered with my friend's Compaq notebook. First I formatted the disk, then waited for a DOS prompt to install Windows Me, but alas no DOS prompt appeared. So we took his restore CD, rebooted with it and it started to restore his O.S. to the original Windows Millenium.

Conan is right. Most recovery disks are bootable. They restore the computer to the way it was when it came out of the box.
This usually includes Windows and some other software (such as Word Processing or Anti Virus - if it orginally came with your PC )
A serial number is usually NOT required.

BTW - Most of the time PCs with recovery disks are set to boot from the CD-ROM drive by default - but sometimes it may have to be enabled in the BIOS.
Just a tip!

[Big Booger]

Well if you knew Compaq you would know the 7200 series desktop came out around 1994-96 somewhere in there. Back then, the recovery disk was a bit different from today's. I guess they have changed since then. My laptop didn't even come with a recovery disk. hehehe So I obtained a full OS using other means.
ANyway it seems Conan's right, so his method should work flawlessly. Pop it it, reformat and recover your OS.
BB

[drofeel]

hi guys

can clear this up for you i think

on compaq notebooks (could be same on desktops too but dont quote me) a backup of your OS is installed on a 2nd partition, your d_drive, called SYSTEM_SAV. When you use the recovery disc all it does is wipe your c drive, and reinstall OS from d partition.

So if you've reformatted the whole drive then you've lost your backup, cos it aint on the recovery disk, that only contains 'tools' you need to restore with.

But all is not lost.

Talk to compaq, ask for a set of Quick Restore discs, they wont send you just a Windows disk whick I reckon would be better, but the QR discs allow you to replace both c & d patitions on your HD. You will also need to download a softpaq (#20532) which you can get from this addy

http://web14.compaq.com/falco/sp_list.asp

than browse for relevant softpaq

this does your reformatting for you i believe

hope this helps

Lee

[Conan]

Well formatting C drive should leave the D drive intact with the back-up data for recovery.

[drofeel]

as long as both partitions have not been reformatted, otherwise the recovery cd would have worked straight off

[SupaStar]

Originally posted by Conan
Well formatting C drive should leave the D drive intact with the back-up data for recovery.

Originally posted by drofeel
as long as both partitions have not been reformatted, otherwise the recovery cd would have worked straight off

True...true...