Where to buy a Windows XP restore disc.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mana Banana
  • Start date Start date
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Mana Banana

Hello All! I'm going through hell with a laptop...having all sorts of
problems getting it to boot up. I hope my friend will learn never to take a
computer for payment again, lol.

Soo..Computer starts out Loading pretty much normally. Then I get 2 error
messages, letting me know that the DLLs are not loading correctly, and the
only on is to restart. This cycle just continues. I contacted HP (this is an
HP Pavilion N5135) and they told me I need to use my restore disc to
completely restore windows, and that's the only way to repair the laptop.
Okay...that wouldn't be so bad, but as this is a second hand computer, my
friend doesn't have a restore disc. I told the man at HP that, and he told me
that I could use an XP disc from any computer, or just buy a restore disc
from Microsoft. I guess he was getting his info from a bad source, because as
far as I can see, Microsoft doesn't sell anything less than the full version
of windows XP, which is $200, which she can't afford. Also, every person I
know that has bought a new computer recently has Vista, and anyway, from what
I'm reading, you can't use a restore disc from another computer. Soo....This
leads to my actual question....

Where in the world can you buy a restore disc? Or even can you? I REALLY
don't want to tell her that she has to spend $200 to buy Windows
anew...please, give me some semblance of hope??

Thanks!!
 
Hello All! I'm going through hell with a laptop...having all sorts of
problems getting it to boot up. I hope my friend will learn never to take a
computer for payment again, lol.

Soo..Computer starts out Loading pretty much normally. Then I get 2 error
messages, letting me know that the DLLs are not loading correctly, and the
only on is to restart. This cycle just continues. I contacted HP (this is an
HP Pavilion N5135) and they told me I need to use my restore disc to
completely restore windows, and that's the only way to repair the laptop.
Okay...that wouldn't be so bad, but as this is a second hand computer, my
friend doesn't have a restore disc. I told the man at HP that, and he told me
that I could use an XP disc from any computer, or just buy a restore disc
from Microsoft. I guess he was getting his info from a bad source, because as
far as I can see, Microsoft doesn't sell anything less than the full version
of windows XP, which is $200, which she can't afford. Also, every person I
know that has bought a new computer recently has Vista, and anyway, from what
I'm reading, you can't use a restore disc from another computer. Soo....This
leads to my actual question....

Where in the world can you buy a restore disc? Or even can you? I REALLY
don't want to tell her that she has to spend $200 to buy Windows
anew...please, give me some semblance of hope??

Thanks!!
Click to expand...

Look on the computer case (the bottom) for a Windows sticker. Assuming
it's there, you can borrow the same version from someone and reload the
HP using your code.

Then just get the updated HP drivers from the HP website.
 
Mana said:
Hello All! I'm going through hell with a laptop...having all sorts of
problems getting it to boot up. I hope my friend will learn never to
take a computer for payment again, lol.

Soo..Computer starts out Loading pretty much normally. Then I get 2
error messages, letting me know that the DLLs are not loading
correctly, and the only on is to restart. This cycle just continues.
I contacted HP (this is an HP Pavilion N5135) and they told me I need
to use my restore disc to completely restore windows, and that's the
only way to repair the laptop. Okay...that wouldn't be so bad, but
as this is a second hand computer, my friend doesn't have a restore
disc. I told the man at HP that, and he told me that I could use an
XP disc from any computer, or just buy a restore disc from Microsoft.
I guess he was getting his info from a bad source, because as far as
I can see, Microsoft doesn't sell anything less than the full version
of windows XP, which is $200, which she can't afford. Also, every
person I know that has bought a new computer recently has Vista, and
anyway, from what I'm reading, you can't use a restore disc from
another computer. Soo....This leads to my actual question....

Where in the world can you buy a restore disc? Or even can you? I
REALLY don't want to tell her that she has to spend $200 to buy
Windows anew...please, give me some semblance of hope??

Thanks!!
Click to expand...

I ran into a similar problem with an Averatec C3500 convertible a few
months ago. You can not buy at any price a WindowsXP Tablet Edition
disk. The WindowsXPte is tablet specific and tablet manufactures supply
you with a system restore disk which is just an 'image'. It was very
frustrating. I ended up with a solution that worked. This is what I did;

1) Pull the drive from the N5135 and mount it in an external case.
2) Get a WindowsXP CD and copy all the files to a temp directory.
3) Copy the I386 directory from off of the N5135 hard disk to the same
temp directory. Note that it will want to over-write the existing files
when necessary. You want it to do this so tell it yes.
4) look on the N5135 hard disk for directories that contain computer
specific hardware drivers. (Some companies like HP are nice and will
put them in all in one directory with a name like 'sw_ver'.
5) Copy that directory to the main directory of your temp directory
6) Using a program like ISO-Buster, make extract the 'boot image' on
the WindowsXP CD that is in your CDROM drive and place it in the root
of your temp directory.
7) Use an application like Folder2ISO and make your temp directory into
an ISO
8) Use an application like BurnCDCC to then burn your ISO to a disk.
note that your ISO burner must be able to burn a multi-mode ISO for
this to work.

Once you have your CD made, make an 'image' copy of the N5135 hard disk
(it never hurts to back up when doing something as drastic as this)

Once all of that is done do the following;

1) put the N5135 hard disk back into the laptop
2) Make sure that the laptop BIOS is set to boot from the CDROM
3) Put the CD you just created into the laptop and boot up

Just a couple of notes;

1) Averatec like most laptop makers, locks the OS to the machine. Which
means that you need the OEM information. That is why you copy the
standard windows disk to your temp directory FIRST. Then you copy over
the OEM information.
2) In some cases, you may need to edit the boot file so that it will
actually look for the OEM inf file. I did not need to do that with the
full retail disk version, but you may have to for other types of
WindowsXP disk
3) In some cases, the inf make be looking for the CD to have a specific
name. If so, when you name the disk, please be sure to use that name or
the disk will not work.

--

Sincerely,
C.Joseph Drayton, Ph.D. AS&T

CSD Computer Services
Web site: http://csdcs.tlerma.com/
E-mail: (e-mail address removed)
 
As long as the OEM sticker is intact on the bottom of the machine, you
can obtain installation media for your version of XP (Home or
Professional) but it will need to be OEM media. Try giving Microsoft's
customer support line a call, and explain that you have a license, but
no media.
 
Hello All! I'm going through hell with a laptop...having all sorts of
problems getting it to boot up. I hope my friend will learn never to take a
computer for payment again, lol.

Soo..Computer starts out Loading pretty much normally. Then I get 2 error
messages, letting me know that the DLLs are not loading correctly, and the
only on is to restart. This cycle just continues. I contacted HP (this is an
HP Pavilion N5135) and they told me I need to use my restore disc to
completely restore windows, and that's the only way to repair the laptop.
Okay...that wouldn't be so bad, but as this is a second hand computer, my
friend doesn't have a restore disc. I told the man at HP that, and he toldme
that I could use an XP disc from any computer, or just buy a restore disc
from Microsoft. I guess he was getting his info from a bad source, becauseas
far as I can see, Microsoft doesn't sell anything less than the full version
of windows XP, which is $200, which she can't afford. Also, every person I
know that has bought a new computer recently has Vista, and anyway, from what
I'm reading, you can't use a restore disc from another computer. Soo....This
leads to my actual question....

Where in the world can you buy a restore disc? Or even can you? I REALLY
don't want to tell her that she has to spend $200 to buy Windows
anew...please, give me some semblance of hope??

Thanks!!
Click to expand...

XP Restore Disk are not sold bt Microsoft but are sold by the laptop's
manufacturer. Contact HP again.
 
Mana Banana said:
Hello All! I'm going through hell with a laptop...having all sorts of
problems getting it to boot up. I hope my friend will learn never to take
a
computer for payment again, lol.

Soo..Computer starts out Loading pretty much normally. Then I get 2 error
messages, letting me know that the DLLs are not loading correctly, and the
only on is to restart. This cycle just continues. I contacted HP (this is
an
HP Pavilion N5135) and they told me I need to use my restore disc to
completely restore windows, and that's the only way to repair the laptop.
Okay...that wouldn't be so bad, but as this is a second hand computer, my
friend doesn't have a restore disc. I told the man at HP that, and he told
me
that I could use an XP disc from any computer, or just buy a restore disc
from Microsoft. I guess he was getting his info from a bad source, because
as
far as I can see, Microsoft doesn't sell anything less than the full
version
of windows XP, which is $200, which she can't afford. Also, every person I
know that has bought a new computer recently has Vista, and anyway, from
what
I'm reading, you can't use a restore disc from another computer.
Soo....This
leads to my actual question....

Where in the world can you buy a restore disc? Or even can you? I REALLY
don't want to tell her that she has to spend $200 to buy Windows
anew...please, give me some semblance of hope??

Thanks!!
Click to expand...

Talk to HP again.
I had theis same problem about 18 months ago.
HP sent me a restore set -Overnite!- at no cost to me.
Be extremely polite and nice to the service rep.
 
Derail said:
As long as the OEM sticker is intact on the bottom of the machine, you
can obtain installation media for your version of XP (Home or
Professional) but it will need to be OEM media. Try giving Microsoft's
customer support line a call, and explain that you have a license, but
no media.
Click to expand...

Microsoft will tell you in no-uncertain terms that OEM means it is not
their problem. Support of the media is totally the responsibility of
the manufacturer of your computer.

If you even have to do a phone activation and they need to change your
machine ID they will tell you they can't do it. You have to call the
manufacturer, they give you the new machine ID then you call back up
Microsoft and they will do the activation.

--

Sincerely,
C.Joseph Drayton, Ph.D. AS&T

CSD Computer Services
Web site: http://csdcs.tlerma.com/
E-mail: (e-mail address removed)
 
Mana said:
Hello All! I'm going through hell with a laptop...having all sorts of
problems getting it to boot up. I hope my friend will learn never to take a
computer for payment again, lol.

Soo..Computer starts out Loading pretty much normally. Then I get 2 error
messages, letting me know that the DLLs are not loading correctly, and the
only on is to restart. This cycle just continues. I contacted HP (this is an
HP Pavilion N5135) and they told me I need to use my restore disc to
completely restore windows, and that's the only way to repair the laptop.
Okay...that wouldn't be so bad, but as this is a second hand computer, my
friend doesn't have a restore disc. I told the man at HP that, and he told me
that I could use an XP disc from any computer, or just buy a restore disc
from Microsoft. I guess he was getting his info from a bad source, because as
far as I can see, Microsoft doesn't sell anything less than the full version
of windows XP, which is $200, which she can't afford. Also, every person I
know that has bought a new computer recently has Vista, and anyway, from what
I'm reading, you can't use a restore disc from another computer. Soo....This
leads to my actual question....

Where in the world can you buy a restore disc?
Click to expand...

Restore disk for your computer can be had at

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...n&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3245032&os=228&lang=en

I have used them several times. Cost is $15

Frank








Or even can you? I REALLY
 
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