hp pavilion and restore cd's

[Guest]

I have a system I'm working on Hp pavilion.
I have the restore cd's and have used them to restore the restore partition.
The problem come in when I try to boot after using sytem recovery to
reinstall XP, Windows will not get to the welcome screen.
Initially I did the following completely fomatted the hd, wiping out the
recovery partition and the windows partition, then restored the recovery
partition, then tried to restore windows, so far the restore partition is
marked C and active, and the windows partition is D and logical, I thought
these restore cd's were supposed to do all this automatically, NOT
even using an XP oem disc and starting the install, when the system goes to
reboot it just sits there at the black dos screen , cursor blinking and stays.

Currently the windows partition is marked C and active, the restore
partition is marked D and hidden, still no boot into windows.

 

[RalfG]

The recovery discs should recover both the recovery partition and Windows at
the same time, with the Windows partition as C: and the recovery partition
as D:. Formatting/partitioning the drive first could have caused the
recovery to fail.

Reformatting was unneccessary because a destructive recovery (advanced
options) from CDs or DVDs would have wiped the drive and
repartitioned/formatted it anyway. A 'standard" recovery would have just
replaced the OS and software on the drive without reformatting. Rather than
trying to find a way to rewrite partition data to make it boot I'd try doing
another destructive recovery. The computer should boot into Windows
immediately after the recovery completes. If it does the same thing as
before you could try removing all partitions from the harddrive and leave it
unformatted before doing a destructive recovery.

 

[Guest]

Yes I understand the recovery cd's are supposed to do this, however they are
not.
I've tried leaving the hd unformatted, the process gets to the point where
it's supposed to create the user partition, and it stalls saying it can't
create it, so I create the partition and format it, it appears to create the
partition and create windows, however it gets to the black screen with the
blinking cursor and stalls, no errors, just stalls.
I've also tried juct creating the partition and leaving it unformatted, it
again stalls, at the black screen and the blinking cursor, no error displayed.

 

[Doug W.]

When all else fails...Read the "HELP and SUPPORT" that is
provided with the computer.
-
Doug W.
-
p.s. HP.com could be of value.
-

 

[Guest]

of course I read it. not much help, did you have something specific you
wanted me to see?
So far I can create the recovery partition, and it does boot to that, but
fails when it attempts to create the user partition, so I created that, and
left it unformatted, and the recovery partition is currently formatting it
and installing windows AGAIN, we will see if it boots to it after it's all
done.

 

[Guest]

ok, so here is the latest, the recovery partition wouldn't create the users
partition, so I created it, left it unformatted, and it installed windows in
it, however when it came time to reboot, it went back to the recovery
partition, instead of windows, so what now?
The recovery partition is marked as active and primary
the windows partition is marked as primary and logical

 

[Guest]

Well it's a moot point now, as the power supply appears to have died.
when I push the on button and release it for a brief second it lights and
then oges out, I had the side cover off and the fans briefly go on then off,
I didn't get any BIOS sounds to warn of an overheating situation, so I think
it's the power supply.

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

It could be some other component failing that causes the machine to
immediately shut down. Some self-testing performed by BIOS might flag a bad
situation and tell the system to shut down. Unfortunately, replacing the PWS
is the first step in diagnosing the situation.

 

[Guest]

I was working on this for someone else, and now that the powersupply died,
they don't want to fix it, (costs too much), so now the system is mine.
I'm debating if I want to replace the PS, so far the costs is $40 bucks,
there has got to be a cheaper model available for this 5 year old PC, I can't
believe a 250 watt PS is that expensive, then I would still have to resolve
what ever issue is causing this thing not to boot. Hmmmmmmmm!

Well thanks for the tips, I'll get back to whomever after I think about this
some more.

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

You don't have a spare one lying around, huh? How about one you can "borrow"
from another machine? Of course, you need to make sure it's the right kind
and has all the right connectors.

 

[Guest]

I do have a supply of SPARE PARTS however, none seem to fit the HP, dang it.
I will do some looking before I actually purchase one, considering it's a 5
year old PC, even with xp Home and bundled software, and if I can get the
dang thing to boot properly, that baffles me, if the restore cd's are
supposed to take care of all that, then why the heck arn't they doing their
job?? they should be marking the restore partition as nonactive and
invisible, and the users partition as active and bootable after the complete
restore is done, all it did when finally done was boot back into the restore
partition again. and start the restore process all over.

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

Can't help you with HP's restore function. Never personally used it.

You can use BootIt NG to view the MBR and determine what partition is
Active. You can also change the Active partition there. Maybe that will help
you?

 

[Airman Thunderbird]

I've done this before, just connect a standard ATX power supply to test
the system. It won't fit the case, just let it hang 'til you get your
boot sorted, before you spring for the HP power supply. BTW, I just
bought one of those off eBay for 20 bucks.

 

[Guest]

Thanks I'll look into that.
I do have partition magic, but I haven't used it all that much,so Maybe it's
a function I just can't see yet.
I used PM to create the partitions, once the restore cd's gave me the error
that it couldn't create them, but once the restore cd's mark the restore
partition as active and primary, I can't change the users partition to
primary and active, I even once tried to delete the restore partition, and
was able to mark the users part as active, but it still wouldn't boot to it.
just the black screen with the blinking cursor, I think I'm gonna take this
on as a learning project, get the experience just to see if I can get her
done. I also tried booting with xp pro install cd and used the recovery
console to try and fix the boot track and mbr, no joy!