Guest xtremely poor w/ xtremely bad luck Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 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)?
Guest Carey Frisch [MVP] Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 Re: Hard Drive Died (May it Rest in Peace) Contact the manufacturer of your laptop and request the proper Windows XP restore/recovery/reinstallation CD. -- Carey Frisch Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "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)?
Guest Bob Harris Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 Re: Hard Drive Died (May it Rest in Peace) 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)? >
Guest Patrick Keenan Posted July 20, 2007 Posted July 20, 2007 Re: Hard Drive Died (May it Rest in Peace) "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. http://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
Guest Ron Martell Posted July 21, 2007 Posted July 21, 2007 Re: Hard Drive Died (May it Rest in Peace) 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."
Guest xtremely poor w/ xtremely bad luck Posted July 21, 2007 Posted July 21, 2007 RE: Hard Drive Died (May it Rest in Peace) - 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)? >
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