PING: GROUP! Please PLEASE Help with System Recovery!

[frustrated]

PING GROUP!

I am hoping a few of you in here can (and will) help me!

Here my situation:

I am simply trying to run a System Recovery (NOT Restore) on my HP
Pavilion 563w desktop.

An error message comes up as soon as this process begins:

"The file minute\system32\biosinfo.inf could not be loaded. The error
code is 14."

I am not an expert, but have been using computers with WINDOWS for
over 10 years. I CAN NOT figure this out at all!

I first searched for the biosinfo.inf file and found 7 on my computer.
I copied one of them and pasted it into a system32 folder in WINDOWS.
This did not seem to do anything at all.

I do NOT have any Recovery CDs (they didn't come with the computer)
and I can seem to be able to make any (there are no programs that I
can find to do this.)

I called HP and they are NO help at all. (surprise surprise!)

I am running WINDOWS XP Home Edition with SP2.

I have already backed up everything I need to back up.

Just need to get past that error code 14!



If anyone in here has ANY ideas as to where to go next... it would be
GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks in advance for any help you provide!

 

[Michael Jennings]

Well, it's an HP trick you're trying to turn, so looking
to XP to perform HP's trick is blowing off the manual.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...=en&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=242024&lang=en

Page xxiii of the Pav 563w Quick Start Guide says:
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Consumers who wish to have recovery CDs may purchase
those CDs for a minimal shipping and handling charge.
Based on HP's contractual agreements with its software
partners, there are three approved scenarios in which
customers may wish to order Recovery CDs from HP:
* The original hard drive has failed and the customer
does not want an imaged hard drive from HP (for
example, out-of-warranty).
* The original hard drive has been replaced by a larger
capacity hard drive.
* The original hard drive has been reformatted or
re-partitioned.
Important: This recovery CD set is a complete image of
the original HP Pavilion home PC hard drive contents and is
matched to your model number. When using the recovery
CDs to recover the hard drive, any files or software that you
created, saved, or installed on the computer will be
overwritten. Therefore, please remember to back up your
files prior to using your recovery CDs.
To order recovery CDs, contact the
HP Customer Care Center at 208-323-2551.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
After your computer was made, HP allowed consumers to
burn one set of DVDs from the HP system recovery partition.
If you get a more recent HP computer, you will get this.
If you insist on not getting a newer computer, make the long
distance call, tell HP you have formatted or replaced your
hard drive, offer to pay for the CDs and see what happens.

 

[frustrated]

Thanks SO much for your prompt reply!

Another question:

A friend of mine has the same exact model computer that I have. Would
it be possible to burn Recovery CDs from that computer to do a System
Recovery on mine? (I just thought of that while reading your reply.)
Or would it be better (safer?) to just go through HP?

Thanks again!

 

[Michael Jennings]

What you could do is to replace your recovery partition with a copy
of your friend's recovery partition. That might be more than you're
able to tackle, but the best way to get what you want, theoretically,
if his hidden partition is an identical Pav 563w except for being uncorrupt.
You'd need drive imaging software, time to learn to use it, and your
friend would need to be able to forgive you if you screwed his box.

Otherwise, to restore the System Recovery feature, I think you'll
need to blast your computer back into the past, then fix the mess.

If you like your Pav 563w with XP, you can get it back to as-shipped,
crapware included, with the recovery CDs. You would then need
to do extensive updating - for instance: did it ship with SP2? Get the
recovery CDs from somewhere, read the manual, consider things.

Thanks SO much for your prompt reply!

Another question:

A friend of mine has the same exact model computer that I have. Would
it be possible to burn Recovery CDs from that computer to do a System
Recovery on mine? (I just thought of that while reading your reply.)
Or would it be better (safer?) to just go through HP?

Thanks again!

<snip>

 

[frustrated]

Thanks again for your help! Just for future reference, the HP Customer
Care Center Number you gave me is no longer in service! The *new*
number is: 800-474-6836. Not that it matters anyway! HP was
absolutely NO help at all! (They don't carry the disks any longer
because it is an "old" machine!) In other words, what they are saying
is "RUN OUT FOOLISH MAN AND BUY ANOTHER HP COMPUTER
FOR $800-$2000 TO KEEP US HP PEOPLES EMPLOYED!)

I went to www.restoredisks.com and ordered an 8 CD Recovery Set for
only $34.99 (including S/H.) It looks like they have over 100
different CD Sets available. When I called them to make sure it was
what I wanted, they were polite, friendly, and very *very* helpful! So
I'll wait and see what happens! Thanks again for your help!

 

[Michael Jennings]

Thanks for passing along the information about the Atlanta
airport area outfit that's shipping restore disk sets - it looks
like you can get a replacement or refund if it doesn't work.

Buying a new computer is unavoidable in the long run. You may
be able to keep the Pav 563w going, but you know it can't be
kept going forever. I think you're right to balk at being rushed,
but your never getting a next computer seems quite unlikely.

The phone number was on page xxiii of the Pav 563w Quick
Start Guide. I guess you never looked at that. The link I gave
leads to a pdf of the manual. I got the number from the manual.