Re: need info laptop compaq vista non sp1

Paul, thanks for taking the time to reply with all of this.
There's no floppy drive, so couldn't put a driver in that way anyway.
I thought F6 was just for raid controllers.
To bad I was unaware that pressing an F key was the key to
making the restore partition work. I tried to run it from the software
on the system. Live and learn, thanks for that tip!
So, there is no way, at this point, to load a microsoft operating system.
is that correct? And what is needed is a windows driver for the
hard drive. Is that it?
And yet Linux installed with no problem at all.
Al


"Paul" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:h1bbrk$27c$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
~bogus name wrote:
Hi,
A friend gave me his hosed laptop to fix. Found a restore patition on it.
found a restore program. ran it. says only one set of restore cd's can
be burned, and that has already happened.
so:
tried to install xp via optical: nada
ok, pulled drive, installed in my pc via usb 2 adapter.
deleted partions, created new, formated ntfs, made active. tried in
laptop, xp copies files, and when it starts to install xp, it says drive
not found. ntloader not found.
gave up on xp.

Installed linux, no problemw with install. Linus sees the hard drive.

any ideas how to load xp on the laptop?

thanks,

al


It probably needed a driver file on a floppy, and pressing F6
during the install, so that there would be a driver so that
the hard drive could be seen by the install.

There was probably an F key, like F11 that you press during laptop
startup, that would have offered to copy the recovery partition
to C:\, completely erasing C and any data files. That is independent
of how many recovery CDs have been burned. The recovery CD is
for cases where the hard drive is dead, and the recovery partition
is lost. But if the recovery partition was present, you would
likely have been able to wipe C using the software that was already
there. The recovery operation is triggered by pressing a key
during startup, and this would be addressed in the user manual.

With respect to the mode the Southbridge was in, and what driver
to install, you'd enter the BIOS and check the settings. For
example, on Intel, you might have options like

Compatible
Enhanced
IDE
AHCI
RAID

The last two modes need F6 drivers. The others don't.

So there were a lot of questions to ask, before starting
any of this. Like, what chipset is involved, what modes
are available, how is the BIOS set, is the recovery
partition intact, what key do I press to start
recovery...

I consider the whole scheme evil, and your experience
is why I consider it evil. The owner of that laptop paid
for an OS, not half an OS, not a disaster waiting to happen.
And disasters happen like this all the time - some people
use partition software, to "free up" space on their hard
drive, not knowing that the recovery partition is very
important, and part of the value of the laptop.

In some cases, you can contact the laptop manufacturer, and
order a recovery CD. Some companies limit the number of years
they're willing to offer a CD. But at this point, if you want
to give your friend back roughly what he gave you to begin with,
a recovery CD ordered from the manufacturer, may come
closest to doing that.

HTH,
Paul


.

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