BAH!!!

[G!NG3R420]

So tuesday before I went to swear into the army (i'm now officially a soldier) I was laggin hardcore on the servers, losing packets like mad, and I was getting pissed. I decided to restart my computer. Well I did that and during the boot up i got a message saying "disc boot read error, push ctrl+alt+del to restart" well everytime I did that I kept getting the same error. I run the disc diognostics from start up and system memory pass but the run in test detected Hard drive 1 as immenent failure. I think to myself "Reformat time" I start the vista recovery manager from start up by pushing esc then f11. It takes about 48-54 hours to finish and when it was done it took me to a cmd promt with the line "x:windwos\system32>_" I call HP and my product is still in initial warrenty, explain my problem....

 

WELLL....

 

 

It turns out that my Hard drive 1 did fail, EPIC FAIL, and now my computer is sitting waiting for a hard drive to be shipped to me. I was so scared that I screwed my $900 notebook pc up. Good thing this epic failure was due to thier defective hard drive installed in my computer. Talk about lucky right?!?! So this week has been one hell of a week. I'm posting this from my moms lame A$$ accer computer.

 

What should I expect when I do install my new harddrive? Will it already have everything installed and ready to boot or will I have to do a bunch of crap to get my computer running after I install that harddrive?

 

Purpose of this was to get this off my chest lol, so no need to say I'll be off servers for a little bit till a get my new hardware in. Glad my warrenty is still in affect =D Hopefully i'll be back in business soon.

[JoeDirt]

First clue that your hdd failed is "disc boot read error". On the second part you will most likely get a blank hdd and have to reinstall everything, sometimes on rare occasions they will ship an hdd with recovery partition but thats highly unlikely.

[G!NG3R420]

So if they do ship a blank one with no recovery partition how do I get that back, since my last hdd had the partition on it? Or is the recovery portion on a second smaller hdd inside my laptop still, meaning do I have a hdd 1 and a hdd 2, main hdd and recovery hdd?

 

 

[AntiThought]

Unfortunately if it is blank and you have no recovery partition or a Windows install disc, you have no Windows OS. At that point you have 2 options (someone let me know if I am over looking other options).

1) Buy a full version of windows and install that on the HDD or 2) Argue with the manufacturer that being under waranty (not to mention it was their faulty product that caused the failure) that they should supply you with an operating system as well to restore your PC to time-of-purchase functionality. This approach may or may not work.

Edited July 24, 2010 by AntiThought

[Krauersaut]

Or download a non-touched copy of Windows and active it with the key that came with your computer. Normally on a sticker somewhere on it.

As far as I know that's legal as long as it's completely untouched, like MSDN versions.

 

Oh, and better not ask HP for a version with their bloatware. We all know what they supply with newly purchased computers.

[G!NG3R420]

If they do ship blank one can you help me find one of those versions? since I dont know much of untouched OS and how to dl and install properly.

 

I'm just hoping they ship me a HDD with windows vista 64, their hp update services for drivers and diognostics, and the same 465gb sise I bought. If not I'm calling customer service and raising hell asking for a refund since it is not what I bought first hand. Or gonna demand they give me a replacement notebook of the same value. Either way I WILL have justice for their faulty equipment. If all goes to plan HP will provide the wonderful customer service that I've had with all their products i've boughten over the years and make sure that I will have an original factory installed HDD shipped to me. Which in turn I will go through and uninstall all that extra crap I dont need like power shell and tv software =(

Edited July 25, 2010 by Ginger420

[NoGooD]

I believe they should ship you a partitioned one, but I wouldn't hesitate to get on the phone and talk to them about getting a new Windows disc or some type of OS going.

 

Also explaining that your leaving for the military soon may help expedite things. I've had more than a few dealing with gateway, dell, HP and Apple, and out of those I listed HP was generally the worst with the longest wait times. Gateway was a close second.

 

Good luck to you though man. Keep us updated if you can.

[Krauersaut]

Don't expect them to ship it partitioned or even with an OS. It's HP, not Dell.

 

Sure Ginger, just drop me a message on Xfire when you've got it and we'll find you one.

[G!NG3R420]

Well, I contacted HP and the HDD will in fact be blank. I will need to run recovery using discs to get it back, I did not make the discs before the failure, now they are sending me a complete set of disks to recover my notebook free of charge. HAHAHA Gotta love pushing for all you can get on warrenty =D.

 

 

I would still like to try that untouched version of windows so I do not install all the useless features of the factory restore. Will most likely save me alot of space, One more question, how will I be able to boot up with a blank hdd to d/l the OS I need?

 

 

Edited July 25, 2010 by Ginger420

[Krauersaut]

Well, I contacted HP and the HDD will in fact be blank. I will need to run recovery using discs to get it back, I did not make the discs before the failure, now they are sending me a complete set of disks to recover my notebook free of charge. HAHAHA Gotta love pushing for all you can get on warrenty =D.

 

 

I would still like to try that untouched version of windows so I do not install all the useless features of the factory restore. Will most likely save me alot of space, One more question, how will I be able to boot up with a blank hdd to d/l the OS I need?

You download and burn/flash-drive it on a second PC.

[Connection]

or boot with the OS install disc in the drive

[Krauersaut]

or boot with the OS install disc in the drive

The one that he wants to download?

[NoGooD]

Yeah, in your BIOS you should have an option of where to boot from first.

 

If it's not already set, choose to boot from the CD/DVD first, HDD second. Once you have installed the OS, return to the BIOS and switch it to boot from HDD first. It will save you a few seconds when you start up.

[AntiThought]

Glad to hear you were able to wrestle the manufacturer into a corner. Congratz.

[G!NG3R420]

@NoGood-BIOS=Basic Input Output Systems. If the HDD is blank, doesnt that mean I dont have the option to choose where to boot from, since everything on the pc is blank no software installed and no recovery or self diognostics? I know it sounds nubish, but I dont fully understand how you would access that portion and how to change it.

 

 

@Anti-Thank ya! Goes to proove that if you threaten to take your buisness elsewhere, companys will do all in their power to keep you a satisfied and loyal customer. =D (Just dont tell them that I its the first product I bought from them lol)

 

 

 

Thanks to everyone for the interest in the input your giving, As you can imagine this is a very difficult time for me, as I have no life but ET