Hard Drive Died (May it Rest in Peace)

[xtremely poor w/ xtremely bad luck]

My hard drive died (conveniently on the first day of summer school). My
version of Windows XP SP2 came on my laptop. It's barely 2 years old. I have
my product key, but I do not have a boot cd because, of course, none came
with my laptop.

I'm a poor college student; if it weren't for McDonald's Dollar Menu, I'd
also be a starving. How can I install Windows XP again... (cost effectively)?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Contact the manufacturer of your laptop and request
the proper Windows XP restore/recovery/reinstallation CD.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User

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"xtremely poor w/ xtremely bad luck" wrote:

My hard drive died (conveniently on the first day of summer school). My
version of Windows XP SP2 came on my laptop. It's barely 2 years old. I have
my product key, but I do not have a boot cd because, of course, none came
with my laptop.

I'm a poor college student; if it weren't for McDonald's Dollar Menu, I'd
also be a starving. How can I install Windows XP again... (cost effectively)?

 

[Bob Harris]

PC makers usually provide some way to restore the PC to its original
condiiton.

However, that way may be via a hidden partition.

If so, that will not work, if the hard drive is dead.

In such a case you should contact the PC maker and politely ask for a new
hard drive, with the operating system, and any other pre-installed software
that came with the PC.

Depending on the warrantee (read your contract or sales agreement), they
might charge you for the hard drive, but feel free to haggle about the
price, relative to what a similar hard drive would cost from an on-line PC
store.

Alternatively, you could get your own new hard drive (possibly used, if a
friend recently upgraded hard drive size), buy a copy of XP, and install it.
But, be sure that you download all the PC-specific drivers from the PC
maker. Although XP has pretty good generic hardware support, it may not
have everything required for your particular hardware.

Plan B might be to get a new hard drive and install one of the many free
LINUX operating systems.

As a cheap experiment (maybe as a partial solution), try downloading an ISO
image of KNOPPIX and burn it to CD (or DVD for the more complete version,
also free). Then boot the PC from optical media (may require minor chnages
to BIOS settings) and see whether it detects the hardware correctly.
Chnaces are good that it will work, even automatically configuring any
internet connection. KNOPPIX comes with Firefox, Open Office, and several
nice pieces of software.

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html



"xtremely poor w/ xtremely bad luck" <xtremely poor w/ xtremely bad
luck@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AEF07DA7-247A-4E31-B556-67198896E964@microsoft.com...
> My hard drive died (conveniently on the first day of summer school). My
> version of Windows XP SP2 came on my laptop. It's barely 2 years old. I
> have
> my product key, but I do not have a boot cd because, of course, none came
> with my laptop.
>
> I'm a poor college student; if it weren't for McDonald's Dollar Menu, I'd
> also be a starving. How can I install Windows XP again... (cost
> effectively)?
>

 

[Patrick Keenan]

"xtremely poor w/ xtremely bad luck" <xtremely poor w/ xtremely bad
luck@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AEF07DA7-247A-4E31-B556-67198896E964@microsoft.com...
> My hard drive died (conveniently on the first day of summer school). My
> version of Windows XP SP2 came on my laptop. It's barely 2 years old. I
> have
> my product key, but I do not have a boot cd because, of course, none came
> with my laptop.
>
> I'm a poor college student; if it weren't for McDonald's Dollar Menu, I'd
> also be a starving. How can I install Windows XP again... (cost
> effectively)?

First, check the warranty.

Second, if there was no boot CD, then the means for restoring XP was on the
hard disk, perhaps in a separate partition. Check the manuals and
manufacturer's support for details. If that's the case, the drive has to
be working to gain access to it. If the drive is actually dead, this
*cannot* work - it is the fundamental flaw in a scheme which saves the
vendor less than a dollar in immediate costs. Instead, it assigns a charge
hundreds of times larger to YOU in case of failure.

Third, there is a service called restoredisks.com that may be able to
provide reinstall media.

Fourth, get a replacement hard disk, and an educational-discount or OEM
version of XP. The pair should cost under $200.

Fifth, if you don't actually need to run specific Windows programs, but just
need things like word processing, spreadsheets, etc., consider Linux. The
Ubuntu distribution is very good, and pretty easy to use, but all Linux
distributions seem to need you to learn a bit. For example, you can share
folders with XP systems, but it involves installing SAMBA, configuring it,
and adding users.

www.ubuntu.org

Sixth... well, this is why it's not a good idea to buy systems that use
recovery partitions, or not make create Restore CDs when you can. Be sure
you complain in writing (not email) to the highest-up of the the higher-ups
in the laptop maker if you can't get restore media.

HTH
-pk

 

[Ron Martell]

xtremely poor w/ xtremely bad luck <xtremely poor w/ xtremely bad
luck@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>My hard drive died (conveniently on the first day of summer school). My
>version of Windows XP SP2 came on my laptop. It's barely 2 years old. I have
>my product key, but I do not have a boot cd because, of course, none came
>with my laptop.
>
>I'm a poor college student; if it weren't for McDonald's Dollar Menu, I'd
>also be a starving. How can I install Windows XP again... (cost effectively)?

Microsoft's licensing terms require that computer manufacturers
provide a method by which the operating system can be reinstalled
"factory fresh". Just how this is done is left up to each individual
computer manufacturer. With some computers you are prompted to create
a set of recovery CDs or DVDs when you first start using the new
machine. Others have a hidden hard drive partition and in a few
instances they actually include a recovery disk.

Check the documentation that came with your computer or contact the
manufacturer's technical support to find out how to recover the
operating system.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2008)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[xtremely poor w/ xtremely bad luck]

- I have a Dell Inspirion 600m laptop.
-My hard drive is dead.
-I had a restore (to factory settings) thing on my laptop, but since it's
not working now, i'm assuming it was part of my hard drive.
-I hate dealing with Dell support staff, because they don't speak good
English. Plus, Dell charges to use their no warranty staff support.
- I'm thinking a "restore disk" wouldn't work because I have bought a whole
new hard drive. There would be nothing to "restore."
-




"xtremely poor w/ xtremely bad luck" wrote:

> My hard drive died (conveniently on the first day of summer school). My
> version of Windows XP SP2 came on my laptop. It's barely 2 years old. I have
> my product key, but I do not have a boot cd because, of course, none came
> with my laptop.
>
> I'm a poor college student; if it weren't for McDonald's Dollar Menu, I'd
> also be a starving. How can I install Windows XP again... (cost effectively)?
>