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Cant install recovery disks after a hard drive reformat!
I have a Compaq C304NR laptop computer that had a virus on it, I could not remove. So I reformated the HDD. Now I can not Install the recovery disks. I've tried HP , with no help. All steps that HP told me to try did not work (turn sata off, new boot order, reset factory defaults, ect....) . They (HP) want me to install sata drivers, but can only find the ones that run on or open onto 3.5 floppy disks, since my PC doesnt have a 3.5 floppy on it, so I bought a USB external 3.5 floppy drive. No luck. When the PC boots Doesnt see the usb floppy or the recovery disks in the CD bay. The CD's do spin up at first, then stop. Help please!
Re: Cant install recovery disks after a hard drive...
The recovery disk is designed to repair or restore a system to its previous factory condition and is not a full installation. the formating of your hdd would have erased all the data required for this process to be completed. you can try a recovery utility that may be able to help you at this link. the disk might not have been saved in an .iso format to tell the computer to run it before starting an OS. if this disk is recognized and runs on your system then you will need to attempt a recovery, which is unlikely since the drive has allready been formated many necessary system files may not be able to be restored. at this point a complete new install will be necessary.
Good Luck!
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Why are you trying to reformat the drive ? The entire operating system and all files will be destroyed if you do this. To reformat the drive requires an external program on a disk that would allow you to reinstall windows from scratch. Most Bios chips can do a reformat but accessing these low level programs is for pros only and varies widely from machine to machine. Unless you have a nasty Trojan, virus or worm that can't be removed any other way I would not do this. You will need a working copy of a boot disk to get the machine up and running after the reformat. Then you can reinstall the Operating System. If you had been successful in your reformat you would have found yourself with a DEAD MACHINE unless you had a boot disk ready.
ATTENTION! Reformatting a computer will reset it to the factor image, all data must be backed up or it WILL be lost. There are several reasons to reformat a hard drive. A few reasons include but are not limited to: driver issues, virus, cleaning up, getting rid of the computer, etc.
RECOVERY DISKS! Every new windows 7 owner should know that the new computers are not supplied with recovery disks anymore. The manufacturer allows the user to create one set of disks upon the purchase of a new machine. It is important to create the disks early as driver issues and viruses may arise. In order to create recovery disks on windows 7 you want to click on the start menu. Next, type in recovery in the Start Search option area. Next, click on recovery disk creation and follow the process. It will require that you have about 3 dvds or about 7 cds to create the recovery disk.
REFORMATING HARD DRIVE! Once the recovery disks have been made reformatting windows 7 is quite simple. Insert the recovery disks into the cd/dvd tray on the machine. You are now going to want to turn the computer off. When the computer has turned off, go ahead and turn it back on. A screen should pop up asking you whether you want to boot from Hard Drive or Disk. Choose the disk option. After you make it this far it is a downhill process. Next you follow the on-screen instruction make sure you reformat the machine, not recover it.
If HP/Compaq cannot supply you with a recovery disc, then you can get around this. Install Windows XP then download the device drivers for your model laptop and install them on your laptop. You can use a another computer with Internet access then copy and install them on your laptop.
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You can download the drivers from the Compaq/HP WEB
support/download page. Make sure you select your model laptop and the XP or
Vista Windows version of the drivers you require and install them. Click on
this link to download the drivers: - www.compaq.com/country/cpq_support.html
Put in your recovery disk and restart the computer a clean install of windows will format the hard drive automatically! If you don''t have the recovery disk you'll need a windows disk to do the same.
Do you have it set to FAT32 or NTFS? If it's FAT32 you can pop in a windows 98 rescue disk and restart the computer with CD support type in A: and enter then you type in like this A:\ format C: /s
and it will prompt you to carry on by selecting Y for yes hit enter and start formatting.
You then have to remove the floppy put in your windows disk or rescue disk(which has windows XP on it) and restart and select install at the following prompts etc
You can reboot to Safe mode alternatively(restart and hit F8 when POST messages are displayed) and scroll up to safe mode and enter. If you have an anti virus software program installed you can run a scan and remove any possible viruses that way or if you know what the virus is use the search function and find and delete the infected files!
You aren't using the correct install disk . The generic XP install disk can't recognize a SATA disk.You will have to load the appropriate driver during install. Here it is ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp32001-32500/sp32492.exe
Or you could create a custom install disk as explained here http://news.softpedia.com/news/Install-Windows-XP-On-SATA-Without-a-Floppy-F6-47807.shtml
Reformatting your computer, save everything. You will loose all of your DATA. I found this on the web.You can click on the link to see it more in view. http://www.ehow.com/how_5039946_reformat-windows-vista-computer.html Step 1ATTENTION!
Reformatting a computer will reset it to the factor image, all data must be backed up or it WILL be lost. There are several reasons to reformat a hard drive. A few reasons include but are not limited to: driver issues, virus, cleaning up, getting rid of the computer, etc. Step 2Recovery Disk Creator Every new windows vista owner should know that the new computers are not supplied with recovery disks anymore. The manufacturer allows the user to create one set of disks upon the purchase of a new machine. It is important to create the disks early as driver issues and viruses may arise. In order to create recovery disks on windows vista you want to click on the start menu. Next, type in recovery in the Start Search option area. Next, click on recovery disk creation and follow the process. It will require that you have about 3 dvds or about 7 cds to create the recovery disks. REFORMATING HARD DRIVE!
Once the recovery disks have been made reformatting windows vista is quite simple. Insert the recovery disks into the cd/dvd tray on the machine. You are now going to want to turn the computer off. When the computer has turned off, go ahead and turn it back on. A screen should pop up asking you whether you want to boot from Hard Drive or Disk. Choose the disk option. After you make it this far it is a downhill process. Next you follow the on-screen instruction make sure you reformat the machine, not recover it. Good Luck :0)
When you turn it on, watch the screen carefully. Many times recovery is contained on a small partition of your hard drive. When your computer begins booting, watch for a short message that says something like, "For recovery press F11". It could be another F key. You will only get a couple seconds to choose it. Choose an option that does a full restore which will reformat the drive.
Hp and Compaq usually have drives partitioned into 2, second is used for recovery. What I'm thinking happened here might be that when you re-install your windows, you might have picked the smallest size(2nd partition). The only way out is to re-install your windows and when you do that, you kust delete the biggest partition or try partiton magic.
hmmm its seems your HDD is of SATA interface and XP is not able to detect the HDD interface. you can solve this problem by making SATA Disabled in BIOS setup.
Try to make disabled SATA from BIOS, and then make install.
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