restoring XP on computer

[Lost In Space/Woodchuck]

My daughter's old Gateway computer circa 2004 had a HD crash and will not
boot. The problem is she doesn't have the restore disc but does have the XP
home registration number. Is there anyway we can get this going again other
than buying XP new?


regards

 

[Shenan Stanley]

My daughter's old Gateway computer circa 2004 had a HD crash and
will not boot. The problem is she doesn't have the restore disc but
does have the XP home registration number. Is there anyway we can
get this going again other than buying XP new?

Possibly - if you can get ahold of a generic Windows XP Home CD...
Or better yet - call Gateway and see if they have one they can ship you...

 

[philo]

My daughter's old Gateway computer circa 2004 had a HD crash and will not
boot. The problem is she doesn't have the restore disc but does have the XP
home registration number. Is there anyway we can get this going again other
than buying XP new?


regards

Contact Gateway and see if they furnish the restore disk

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Assuming that XP came preinstalled then the product key will only work with
an OEM cd. Check with Gateway to see if replacement media is available. If
you do buy a retail copy of XP then be sure to download the XP drivers from
Gateway and put them on a cd for use after XP is reinstalled. You will need
a full edition (not upgrade) of XP if you buy it.

If Gateway does not have replacement media any more, you might check with
http://www.restoredisks.com/.

 

[R. McCarty]

Not many options without the Restore disk(s). HD crash is a very
catastrophic event. Means the head has lost it's cushion of air and
made contact with the platter surface. Are you sure the disk drive
has failed totally ? Do you see any error messages when you try to
boot ? Message(s) would help to determine whether its failed or
simply has corruption that prevents XP from booting ( Which is
most times fixable ).

As to restoring, if you can locate a Gateway OEM XP home disk
or maybe a "Generic" OEM XP Home you may be able to install
onto a new drive. However, you'd only get the OS and not any of
the OEM supplied applications. You might call Gateway support.
Sometimes you get lucky and speak to an agent that will send you
a replacement disk. However that is somewhat unlikely based on
the age of the computer.

 

[Lost In Space/Woodchuck]

Anyone ever try SpinRite 6.0? On the site they sound like it can fix the
problem.

 

[PD43]

Anyone ever try SpinRite 6.0? On the site they sound like it can fix the
problem.

Didn't even know that Spinrite was still around. Latest version dates
to 2004?

AND IT COSTS $89??

And it doesn't come with a guarantee that it will do what you want it
to do?

You can buy a hell of a lot of new hard drive for that.

 

[Lost In Space/Woodchuck]

I maybe lucky after not trying in over a month to boot, when I booted the
system it did start and go into scandisk and is now trying to fix things.
Looks like has alot of bad clusters. Question, if when I install the new
drive and use the drive copy utility can I then use(if needed) my XP-Home
upgrade disk from my other computer? Or is it going to ask for that key...
which would be a no-no since it's for another system.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

It may ask you to reactivate because of a hardware change. It depends on
what you have done before. If you do not have your own Windows license then
you need to buy one.

 

[Big Al]

Assuming that XP came preinstalled then the product key will only work
with an OEM cd. Check with Gateway to see if replacement media is
available. If you do buy a retail copy of XP then be sure to download
the XP drivers from Gateway and put them on a cd for use after XP is
reinstalled. You will need a full edition (not upgrade) of XP if you
buy it.

If Gateway does not have replacement media any more, you might check
with http://www.restoredisks.com/.

I agree with Colin, except that if you have an old version of any
Windows, you can buy XP upgrade. But here again you had to keep THAT
cd too and losing cd's seems to be the first part of this problem, right?

 

[Big Al]

I maybe lucky after not trying in over a month to boot, when I booted the
system it did start and go into scandisk and is now trying to fix things.
Looks like has alot of bad clusters. Question, if when I install the new
drive and use the drive copy utility can I then use(if needed) my XP-Home
upgrade disk from my other computer? Or is it going to ask for that key...
which would be a no-no since it's for another system.

I've never needed the previous version key to do an upgrade. I've
always just needed the current CD Key to license the current version I'm
loading. Again, if you have an older version on CD you simply put it
in the CD drive when it starts searching. it finds whatever file it
needs to validate and then continues the upgrade. I don't think you
need a loaded running previous version.