Does HP recovery disk require an exact HP branded replacement?

Hi All,

I have a customer with an HP pavilion and a really bad
hard drive. So bad I had to disconnect it to get my diagnostic
stuff to boot and check out the rest of his system. There are
no other issues with his system.

So, I ordered out the recovery disks from HP. Then, the
customer tried to install them himself. (Bear in mind the
hard drive is still disconnected.) One of the error
prompts he got was that the hard drive was not the original
drive that come with the system.

Question: the replacement hard drive I was going to
install is definitely not a direct HP replacement. Does
anyone know if the HP recovery disk are that picky? Must
it have an exact HP branded replacement?

Many thanks,
-T

Me thinks I will just have to sell him a new copy of W7.
Pro too this time, home is evil, okay I am going overboard,
not desirable in a business network.


..

> Me thinks I will just have to sell him a new copy of W7.
> Pro too this time, home is evil, okay I am going overboard,
> not desirable in a business network.
>

Not necessary

If he has windows 7 home premium download the iso for windows 7 home
premium from this site.

http://www.mydigitallife.info/window...-home-premium/

Burn the DVD

Install on the new hard disk and use the Keys from the computer label
to install windows 7.

I have done that on brand new HP laptop my daughter bought and used my
win 7 OEM
Home premium disk to install a fresh copy of 7 with no HP bloatware and
downgraded from 64 to 32 bit.

It required a telephone call to Microsoft to activate

It is a 5 minute procedure that requires focussed concentration.

FD

Todd wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I have a customer with an HP pavilion and a really bad
> hard drive. So bad I had to disconnect it to get my diagnostic
> stuff to boot and check out the rest of his system. There are
> no other issues with his system.
>
> So, I ordered out the recovery disks from HP. Then, the
> customer tried to install them himself. (Bear in mind the
> hard drive is still disconnected.) One of the error
> prompts he got was that the hard drive was not the original
> drive that come with the system.
>
> Question: the replacement hard drive I was going to
> install is definitely not a direct HP replacement. Does
> anyone know if the HP recovery disk are that picky? Must
> it have an exact HP branded replacement?
>
> Many thanks,
> -T
>
> Me thinks I will just have to sell him a new copy of W7.
> Pro too this time, home is evil, okay I am going overboard,
> not desirable in a business network.
>
>
> .

Have a look at this PDF document, particularly the bit about HP's Hard
Drive DMI Utility.
http://go2techonline.com/Documents/T...uctions_v5.pdf

Ed

On 12/10/2011, Ken posted:
> It is not clear to me if ANY HD is attached when doing the HP recovery.
> Of course if no HD is attached, there will be an error message. Sometimes
> these error messages are generic, and not at all descriptive of what it sees
> as an error.

I read the original post as you did and I share your opinion: the error
message is just reporting the lack of a drive with misleading language.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On 12/10/2011 6:15 AM PT, FD typed:

> http://www.mydigitallife.info/window...-home-premium/

Are those official servers approved by MS and with SP1?
--
"Thanks for giving me the courage to eat all those ants." --unknown
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/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed.
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.

On Sun, 11 Dec 2011 07:53:33 -0800, Ant <> wrote:

>On 12/10/2011 6:15 AM PT, FD typed:
>
>> http://www.mydigitallife.info/window...-home-premium/
>
>Are those official servers approved by MS and with SP1?

The short answer is yes, especially Digital River.

--

Char Jackson

On 12/10/2011 05:55 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
> On 12/10/2011, Ken posted:
>> It is not clear to me if ANY HD is attached when doing the HP
>> recovery. Of course if no HD is attached, there will be an error
>> message. Sometimes these error messages are generic, and not at all
>> descriptive of what it sees as an error.
>
> I read the original post as you did and I share your opinion: the error
> message is just reporting the lack of a drive with misleading language.
>

I finally got through to an English as their first language
tech support guy at HP. (He sounded like an American. The
English as a second language folks kept misunderstanding
what I was asking.) He said that particular rescue build
was custom for that machine and the it had to be used with
exactly the same drive as preexisted before. Geez!

The error about not being the right drive was that even a missing
drive is not the preexisting drive. (Zero is a number.)

Thank you for all the help,
-T

On 12/11/2011, Todd posted:
> On 12/10/2011 05:55 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
>> On 12/10/2011, Ken posted:
>>> It is not clear to me if ANY HD is attached when doing the HP
>>> recovery. Of course if no HD is attached, there will be an error
>>> message. Sometimes these error messages are generic, and not at all
>>> descriptive of what it sees as an error.
>>
>> I read the original post as you did and I share your opinion: the error
>> message is just reporting the lack of a drive with misleading language.
>>

> I finally got through to an English as their first language
> tech support guy at HP. (He sounded like an American. The
> English as a second language folks kept misunderstanding
> what I was asking.) He said that particular rescue build
> was custom for that machine and the it had to be used with
> exactly the same drive as preexisted before. Geez!

> The error about not being the right drive was that even a missing
> drive is not the preexisting drive. (Zero is a number.)

> Thank you for all the help,
> -T

And thanks for the follow-up.

I don't mind being wrong, but I *do* mind that HP seems to have made a
Draconian choice in this situation.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

"Ant" wrote in message
news:...

> On 12/10/2011 6:15 AM PT, FD typed:
>> http://www.mydigitallife.info/window...-home-premium/
>
> Are those official servers approved by MS and with SP1?



All available downloads from MSFT or approved contractor sources
http://en.community.dell.com/support...t_os/3297.aspx

Note: Ignore the Dell (i.e. nothing is Dell unique-OEM). The links are a bit
better organized.

For only Win7 versions including alternate languages see:
http://en.community.dell.com/support...t_os/3297.aspx


--
....winston
msft mvp mail

On 12/10/2011 5:55 PM, Gene E. Bloch wrote:
> On 12/10/2011, Ken posted:
>> It is not clear to me if ANY HD is attached when doing the HP
>> recovery. Of course if no HD is attached, there will be an error
>> message. Sometimes these error messages are generic, and not at all
>> descriptive of what it sees as an error.
>
> I read the original post as you did and I share your opinion: the error
> message is just reporting the lack of a drive with misleading language.

That brings up a question I've been wondering about: could one boot with
a bootable thumb drive when a HD is missing? This could be useful when I
have to send in my laptop for a repair but would want to hold onto the
HD for security reasons.