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Computer gurus, can you help me?

post #1 of 35
11/13/09 at 7:31pm
Thread Starter 
So, my uncle got rid of his hp pavillion a320n. It got a virus and crashed on him, So he formatted the Hard drive. Well he tried his hp recovery cd's and it asks to put in cd 3. Well he put it in and it would get stuck on a file and wouldnt recover. So he stuffed the computer downstairs. Well, I got the computer to see if I can get it running and this file that it gets stuck on. (it gives the option to abort and keep on with the installation but it wont work is what he told me) anyways the file is C:\Preload\Base_12.INP. But it always stops on this file and then it continues on a couple % then comes up with the same error saying it cannot be recovered. Any ideas guys? He said I can have the computer since he got a new emachines computer anyways. So I would really like to get this baby up and running so I can play sims3 because my gf's studio and my aspire one cannot run it well since they dont have a dedicated graphics card and not as much RAM as the HP. (I upped the RAM on the hp to 2gigs about a year back when I lived with my uncle and aunt)
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post #2 of 35
11/13/09 at 7:46pm
My guess is that file is somehow corrupted. But not sure how, since it is on the CD. You can try to load Linux on it instead of Windows. But playing Sims would be a problem.
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post #3 of 35
11/13/09 at 8:15pm
Thread Starter 
I guess the hp a320n has a recovery partition on the hdd.
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post #4 of 35
11/13/09 at 8:38pm
what happens if you boot to the recovery partition?
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post #5 of 35
11/13/09 at 10:10pm
Why use the recovery disc? Just pop in the OS disc and nuke the thing. Are there files you want to recover?
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post #6 of 35
11/13/09 at 11:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tstarn06 View Post
My guess is that file is somehow corrupted. But not sure how, since it is on the CD. You can try to load Linux on it instead of Windows. But playing Sims would be a problem.
Yeah, sounds like the CD's damaged. My original copy WinXP was heavily scratched and the info at a specific location couldn't be read, but I was able to transfer the CD's files to the HDD fully (after much physical cleaning and buffering), and make a working backup copy.

You can usually order recovery CDs from HP, so you might wanna check out their site.
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post #7 of 35
11/13/09 at 11:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by fenixdown110 View Post
Why use the recovery disc? Just pop in the OS disc and nuke the thing. Are there files you want to recover?
Errrr most pre built systems don't give you the oem os disc. All you get is a recovery disc.
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post #8 of 35
11/14/09 at 2:17am
If you can get your hands on a copy of just the OS I would for sure do a format and install the OS. Just did that for Win 7 in fact. If not, perhaps you can download the recovery software from the HP website. My wife's computer's recovery discs were corrupted so I was able to download them from Acer and burn them to CD. Of course, after I did, I was able to get a copy of XP and never used them. But I have them
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post #9 of 35
11/14/09 at 6:08am
Thread Starter 
Okay guys, not much progress I got a copy of xp from my gf's brother. When I pop that in I get the darn 'NTLDR is missing press ctl+alt+del to restart'. I know its not the boot preference in the BIOS because I have the CD drive as the 1st to boot. Im wondering if its the cd as its not origional. I tried my gf's vista disk that came with her laptop and it boots up the cd fine, except I cannot put vista on it since the CPU isn't 64bit. Argh... oh yeah, userlander how do I boot from the recovery partition??? Do I just set up the boot menu in the BIOS to my HDD? My uncle said that it has two HDD one for the recovery, but I cannot see that in the BIOS in the boot screen. I see the CD drive, the floppy drive, and the HDD.
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post #10 of 35
11/14/09 at 6:28am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirosia View Post
Yeah, sounds like the CD's damaged. My original copy WinXP was heavily scratched and the info at a specific location couldn't be read, but I was able to transfer the CD's files to the HDD fully (after much physical cleaning and buffering), and make a working backup copy.

You can usually order recovery CDs from HP, so you might wanna check out their site.
Actually no the CD itself is in great condition. No scratches or anything. My uncle claims that he used it before and it worked and after that he stored the cds away, so they arent scratched or anything. But what I dont understand is how could It work before and then all of the sudden start missing files out of the CD? Its not really adding up to me.
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post #11 of 35
11/14/09 at 7:54am
From my brief experience with dells, the recovery partition is not access and the recovery disc loads the image from the partition. You can give it a whirl, no harm done. Set it above the current hdd in the bios.

As for the cd issue, it has a corrupt file. You said it was working before? You sure?

As for the 64 bit Vista copy, you can use the key to download a 32 bit version. However, if it's a retail version you can install it but since it's already activated . . . If it's oem it is bound to that mobo. .. there are ways to get around this. . .
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post #12 of 35
11/14/09 at 8:27am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MomijiTMO View Post
From my brief experience with dells, the recovery partition is not access and the recovery disc loads the image from the partition. You can give it a whirl, no harm done. Set it above the current hdd in the bios.

As for the cd issue, it has a corrupt file. You said it was working before? You sure?

As for the 64 bit Vista copy, you can use the key to download a 32 bit version. However, if it's a retail version you can install it but since it's already activated . . . If it's oem it is bound to that mobo. .. there are ways to get around this. . .
Okay. I wasnt talking about the dell, I just used the vista cd that came with the dell laptop to use on my hp.

I didnt say it worked before, my uncle claims that though.

The vista cd that came with the dell does have the vista cd-key etc.. Its the windows xp cd thats not the original.
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post #13 of 35
11/14/09 at 8:39am
Hmm if it is what came with the Dell pc, then it's probably an oem version of Vista. You can't transfer the licence to another mobo. It's a 1 time use kind of thing. Haven't exactly done this myself but I'd assume you should be able to install it but won't be able to register it. As said before, you can download the 32 bit os from M$. Not much point though as you can't activate it.

As for the xp disc, I have no idea. All you have to do is set the optical drive above the hdds and it should read from it. If it doesn't, it's fubar.
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post #14 of 35
11/14/09 at 9:38am
Thread Starter 
Ugh, I have no Idea what to do then. Xp is like $120 which I think is quite outrageous.
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post #15 of 35
11/14/09 at 9:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by oakleyguy89 View Post
Ugh, I have no Idea what to do then. Xp is like $120 which I think is quite outrageous.
Yep, time to try Ubuntu. It's free aside from your time, but it will get your computer up and running everything you need.
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