The O/S files are on a FAT12 partition and you'll not be able to see it without a FAT12 recognition program.
http://www.recoverdatasoft
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recover the vista system restore cd if one was never created
Hi, my sister brought me her laptop asking me "what to do". It was on a black screen, and said something like there was an error on the hard drive, and to immediatley backup data. Press F1 to continue.
I pressed F1 and it didnt do anything. didnt even fail, just had the same screen as if nothing was pressed. I reset the computer manually, and powered it up again. It booted to the same message. I pressed F1 again- no luck.
So I warned her last year to always back up her data, since she lost data last year, so of corse when I said "you backed up all ur data on another drive right" her answer was no. But she was very lucky, when I removed the hard drive (its a laptop sata drive) and plugged it into my adapter, then plugged my adapter into an old computer of mine, it was able to successfully read the data. So it looks like windows is bad, rather then the entire drive.
So I backed up all the data. Unfortionatley however she also did not make a backup cd of windowas. She kept telling me "you can always restore the computer from the hard drive" but I explained if the hard drive isnt working, we cant reinstall vista unless we have the cd".
But I can access the data off the drive if its connected to an adapter. So is there any way I can extract the setup files, and put them on a cd manually? She has an HP pavilion dv6000 searies laptop. Any info is appreciated.
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Answers
If the recovery partition exists (fat12 is floppy disk format, the system can read it) and the only error is that the current windows installation is damaged, AND you have saved her data, just put the drive back in the laptop, tap <F11> as it boots, start recovery, select destructive recovery, and a short time later the system should be back to it's original state. However, if HP will in fact fix it for you, so much the better.
Chris B
nobus,
That is damned impressive. HP even has a name for that extra years service "HP Limited Warranty Service Enhancement"
It's nice to see HP step-up-2-the-plate and truly service the customer.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/
hi sorry for the delay, thanks for all the replies. I backed her data up and I also do see the recovery partition when I go into "my computer" (its her recovery partition, not my computers). I was going to try the f11 option, but I turned it on now the screen is black. All the fans run, and the quicktouch buttons light up- no lcd tho. I removed / reinstalled the memory, no luck with the lcd power though. I would say perhaps her hard drive wasnt corrupted maybe its another piece of hardware, but I installed her harddrive into my laptop (same type) but even with her drive installed I still got that same error on my pc, so it appears this may be a second problem the computer has? so in other words windows is corupt, but in adition something else failed too due to the dead lcd.
Just for kicks I disconneted all drives from her laptop, and powered it up. I should get an error like no hard drive found or no os found, but there was nothing- not even a bios screen. Just black.
Also I checked the service extention to see if its eligable for hp to repair at no charge, and the closese model number hp covers is dv64xx but my sisters is dv6775, so they would not cover this one. Any ideas as to what can cause this problem?
ps when the unit was covered under warranty, she had the problem with the blank screen. She called hp and they had her remove the memory from the computer, then reinstalled it, and that resolved the problem. Didnt work this time though,
UPDATE- I realized I forgot to remove the battery before I removed the memory, so I removef the battery then unplugged it and pressed power (to drain any power in the circuit) then unplugged the memory then put it back in, then I reinstalled the battery and powered it up- the lcd works now!
it appears I was mistaken (after talking to my sister). they told her to remove the battery, not the ram last time it did that.
So f11 may work after all, I just want to show her the files I backed up first, before I do a recovery incase I missed any of them, Will post a follow up later today!
Hi, sorry for the delay, finally got the data verified with my sister- all her data is backed up on a separate hard drive.
I tried to do a system recovery with f11, brings me back to the same menu telling me to backup my drive, then hit f1. (when I hit f1 nothing happens- screen does not change)
So I went into the bios and went to the diagnostics tab, then tested the hard disk. It says the test should take 108 minutes. I hit ok, and about 1 minute later it says test status 10009 replace hard disk .
I do have another replacement drive (also a sata drive, just like the original) so I would just install that, the only problem is since she didnt backup her OS onto a dvd, so I have no way to install the OS if I install a new drive.
Could I partition the new drive and somehow copy the recovery partition from the old drive onto the new one? If so, any ideas on how to copy- I assume I cannot just copy / paste, or can I ?
no - you need to clone the ddrive to a new one
in most cases, Acronis Drive image (my favorite) or Norton Ghost are recommended www.acronis.com
there are free software who do it too http://www.runtime.org/dri
Be aware that you copy the problems too ! and it may fail on a bad disk.
>> so I have no way to install the OS if I install a new drive. << yes - different options available :
-buy xp or Vista CD
-contact HP for the OS cd (normally cheapr)
-use a free linux OS
be sure to backup her data first ! (you can run from a live cd to do so, or connect her drive to a working PC
To do as nobus suggests plugging in the drive to another computer...
...you can buy an inexpensive 2.5-to-3.5 IDE adapter to plug that notebook hard drive into a desktop
computer's IDE ribbon. http://home.graffiti.net/p
When plugged into a desktop you can also run a freeware program to recover the data (if possible)
with PC Inspector. http://www.pcinspector.de/
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by: burrcmPosted on 2009-01-24 at 22:41:14ID: 23459890
It appears that that system ships with a recovery partition. Can you see it when plugged into your adapter? If so we can use it.
Chris B