PC hard drive died. Please help

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Badart

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Luckily I recently saved most of the pictures that were on it. I have bought a new hard drive my desktop 500 GB, but the issue is that in the move to our new house I have lost the startup disc for my 7 year old Sony Vaio. Now what do I do? Don't want to go and buy a new PC, because there is nothing wrong with it, other than the hard drive. I have found this company and the disc is like $26 for my model and windows XP. Anyone use these guys before? Edit: http://www.restoredisks.com/default.aspx
 
Found what company? Did you forget to post a link?


"Startup disk."

That is not what you want. You either need a Windows XP CD that matches the type of system you have, IE OEM XP Pro, or home, l or else you need to buy a copy of Windows 7 with a license. A machine that old may or may not be worth it.

Or, you can thrash around and find a legit copy of XP and do a reinstall, or.....


what you need is a factory RESTORE CD/ DVD for that particular model. Is that what you found with "this company?"

This is why its critically important, that when you buy a new PC, you BUY the FACTORY restore discs, and most brands will not SELL them to you after the machine is out of warranty.
 
John,

My brother builds and programs computers all the time. I am sure he can help you.
 
67Dart273 said:
Found what company? Did you forget to post a link?


"Startup disk."

That is not what you want. You either need a Windows XP CD that matches the type of system you have, IE OEM XP Pro, or home, l or else you need to buy a copy of Windows 7 with a license. A machine that old may or may not be worth it.

Or, you can thrash around and find a legit copy of XP and do a reinstall, or.....


what you need is a factory RESTORE CD/ DVD for that particular model. Is that what you found with "this company?"

This is why its critically important, that when you buy a new PC, you BUY the FACTORY restore discs, and most brands will not SELL them to you after the machine is out of warranty.
Click to expand...

So I can buy a new copy of windows 7 and install it. Will that work? I am just kicking myself for losing the startup disc somewhere. :angry5:
 
yes...you can buy a window 7 disc....but how old is your computer?
 
Jmacsmopar's brother called me and he is going to fix it for me for a little work on his truck (media blasting some wheels). He repairs computers for a living. This is out of my area, so I am leaving it to the experts, plus I don't have the time. Computers make me want to pull my hair out. Hopefully he can recover some stuff off the old one, but not holding my breath.

Thanks everyone for your help. :prayer:
 
Unless you have mult licenses, another os disc will not work. MS checks your os when going back on-line, if it doesn't match the original os; nada, bootleg.
 
Badart said:
Jmacsmopar's brother called me and he is going to fix it for me for a little work on his truck (media blasting some wheels). He repairs computers for a living. This is out of my area, so I am leaving it to the experts, plus I don't have the time. Computers make me want to pull my hair out. Hopefully he can recover some stuff off the old one, but not holding my breath.

Thanks everyone for your help. :prayer:
Click to expand...

This was a PM deal?
There are no posts about it.

Basics for Windows 7 are 2 gigs of RAM minimum and a decent processor.
Hardware drivers and such are a concern also.
Depending on your hardware you might not be able to get Win7 drivers for it. (although 7 is pretty good about that kind of stuff)
The brand model you mentioned gives me the impression that it is a couple or more years old.
To be fast, see if it's going to be XP when it's done.
If it's Vista now, Win7 should be good to go if you want to go that route.
 
My brother does this for a living. I am sure he'll get it all taken care of. :)
 
"Windows Genuine Advantage" update download installs it.
Then it decides that a reused copy is just that.



green1 said:
Unless you have mult licenses, another os disc will not work. MS checks your os when going back on-line, if it doesn't match the original os; nada, bootleg.
Click to expand...
 
Originally Posted by green1 View Post
Unless you have mult licenses, another os disc will not work. MS checks your os when going back on-line, if it doesn't match the original os; nada, bootleg.

THIS IS NOT TRUE. There ARE different versions of disks, IE if you have a license for OEM XP Pro, then your disk can NOT be "home" or "retail", the CD must be for "OEM XP pro"

But if you have 10 boxes of XP with 10 product keys, and 10 CDs, AND they are all the same version, you can take ONE CD out of one box, and install all 10 copies legally, using all 10 product keys

THERE IS NOTHING on individual CDs that ties them to a specific product key.

This computer should have a license, and a product key, glued to the (bottom of) machine. You can find an XP disk with the same version, use the key on your sticker, it will install, and activate, and BE completely legal.
 
70aarcuda said:
then run Remove WATS....and it kills Windows Genuine Advantage..
Click to expand...

Then they do the next thing to verify the authenticity and there ya go.
Best for the normal user to stay legit.

That way they don't call you six months later saying "It's telling me that I could go to prison".
Which Windows really likes to tell people in thier little pop up warnings.

Windows suks with all it's threats and warnings.

For down to it web searching and email I prefer the Ubuntu OS, since it's pretty much infection safe and faster than Windows.
 
TrailBeast said:
For down to it web searching and email I prefer the Ubuntu OS, since it's pretty much infection safe and faster than Windows.
Click to expand...

I had been running Ubuntu, but I finally had to upgrade, long story.

But I HATE the new Ubuntu "Unity" and thrashed around for the last couple of weeks with different distros. I had determined to use Suse, but there were too many issues

I'm for the present using Mint, and it's OK.

Would'ha stuck with Ubuntu, but that Unity, uh, no.
 
The sad part is you can buy a brand new machine with legit copy of Windows 7 for less that the price of the software alone. You wouldn't believe it was time for a upgrade unless you bought a new machine with Windows 7 and ran it a day or two. I love it.
I wasn't prepared to retire my noisey tower and buy a new laptop but I'm glad I did.
 
TrailBeast said:
Then they do the next thing to verify the authenticity and there ya go.
Best for the normal user to stay legit.

That way they don't call you six months later saying "It's telling me that I could go to prison".
Which Windows really likes to tell people in thier little pop up warnings.

Windows suks with all it's threats and warnings.

For down to it web searching and email I prefer the Ubuntu OS, since it's pretty much infection safe and faster than Windows.
Click to expand...

Ok...LOL

I started switching to Ubuntu about 3 1/2 yrs ago....also tired of the windows ****...
 
RedFish said:
The sad part is you can buy a brand new machine with legit copy of Windows 7 for less that the price of the software alone. .
Click to expand...

This might NOT quite be true, but it is a VERY good point. A couple/ 3 years ago I bought an Acer (junk, no support) laptop on sale for only 350. I think a Whensoz 7 copy is around 200 bucks

The thing that really pisses me off about microshit, though, is that they expect you to pay TOP PRICE for software that is right at the end of it's life. If you had bought Whinehose98 or Shista that last day you could buy them new, they were the same price as they were when they were in "prime" use.

And just like the OP, between Microcrap and the OEMs they all make it almost impossible to get replacement MEDIA at reasonable prices after the warranty is gone.
 
Good news. Got a call from Jmacs brother. He was able to recover everything on the hard drive and transfer it to the new one. Wahoo. He said it's like nothing ever happened. Amazing.
 
Badart said:
Good news. Got a call from Jmacs brother. He was able to recover everything on the hard drive and transfer it to the new one. Wahoo. He said it's like nothing ever happened. Amazing.
Click to expand...

Hey, like, cool. Now LEARN TO DO BACKUPS so this does not happen again.

With todays high capacity DVD's and USB connected external storage devices, there's not much excuse
 
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