COmpany wiped laptop, boot record AA55 not found

[floppybootstomp]

Your second laptop probably has a 40Gb Hard Drive. Parted magic will see all drives and partitions.

40Gb is still a respectable size for a laptop intended only for light duties.

Use the same procedure on laptop # 2.

Let us know if you eventually get XP installed though the fact of the progress you've posted tells me problem is solved.

That means it's your round gal and mine's a pint of draught Guinness extra cold and a coupla quid for the jukebox

 

[Abarbarian]

Where am I indeed ! I think I am in the HELL that is AOL? Car Phone Warehouse Support.
Trying to connect to the internet at the moment is like a very bad case of russian roulette.

Glad the Parted Magic worked. I only use it because it has a cool name and great graphics.

The fact that it is free, does it's job easily and made by penguin lovers is just by the by.

 

[cinders]

Fixed, sort of, new questions

So, I have windows running. Apparently I am missing drivers.

I have no network card or adaptor it would appear, yet I know I did, because when I was running PartedMagic off of the RAM I was able to connect to the internet with no trouble. Now I can't.

This is an HP?Compaq machine nc6000. It found hardware for an hp bluetooth device, but wanted a driver, which I don't have.

I clciked on "printers and other hardware" and it says SMC-IrCC Fast Infrared Port, that is working properly, don't know what that is.

Device Manager has a ot of "other devices" with question marks
base system device
bluetooth by hp
ethernet controller (twice)
mulitmedia audio controller
PCI modem
unknown device
VIdeo controller (VGA compatible)

THis site lists a lot of things I can download......How do I know which to download?

I happen tohave an unused linksys wireless-G network adapter card, that slides into a slot, I think it will fit, so I can at least install that to use to download the drivers. I just don't know WHAT HARDWARE I HAVE!!!

I connected the ethernet wire from my router to the laptop, and it didn't recognize it.

I'm going to try this wireless card. Meanwhile, any idea on how I figure out which hardware I have and which drivers to get???

Thank you all A LOT. You have been really helpful and kind.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Google/search for your laptop's specs.

There's a program, named, I think, Winsys, which is free and will diagnose your computer's hardware.

You will need drivers for the ethernet ports and other items to work if Win XP doesn't recognise them.

Looks to me as if you'll need:

Video drivers (although as your video is working these aren't critical)

Ethernet drivers (definitely and these will enable both connections)
Bluetooth (only, really, if you're going to use Bluetooth connection though it would be desirable to enable that function).
Audio drivers to enable audio.
The modem is probably not needed, is likely for dialup only, your net connection is likely through ethernet port though I can't be sure.

It's probable HP/Compaq will have all these drivers available for download at their site and you can probably get them if you know the model number of your machine.

 

[TriplexDread]

A word of advise, Don't buy a HDD of of ebay unless its from a reputable company!

 

[Abarbarian]

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Info/Everest-Home-Edition.shtml

This will tell you nearly everything you need to know about your pc.