Vista sp1 won't load. drive won't restore

sv9779

My computer is about a year old now. At first it worked fine. Now it won't do a system restore. It won't install updates. I ordered the recovery disks from HP and it won't even load those. The computer still works, I just can't update or reformat and restore the hard drive. I called HP and thier sollution is to send it in for repair. I have a 5 yr warranty at the store I bought it from. They think it's probably the hard drive. But might be the main board. I stuffed an old ATA drvie in there and the revovery discs start to work. Which makes me think it is the heard drive. My problem is I have to ship it out for repair. About the same cost as just buying a new hard drive.
So, my question is... anybody had this before?
Can virus software cause this?
Can I format the hard drive like I did with 98 nd XP from a boot disc?

nayslayer

Wouldn't be antivirus software. If you have installed windows 98, or xp, this is much easier. The problem is that you will lose any think you have saved on the old drive. If your up for it, just buy a Western Digital serial ata drive and install it on there, you could slave the old drive later on and try to get some of your info off of it. So if you have the disks, i'd just buy a drive and install with the hp disks, and after its up, i'd run pc decrapifier, great app to clean all the bloated apps off

nayslayer

well, after re-reading you post, you probably should take advantage of the warranty. They are really never a great idea, but use it if you get it, don't usually get your money back from those pos

rgsgww

Its the hard disk, must have failed. I'd use the warranty.

sv9779

Thanks, I think you're right. Just have to decide if I want to ship it off or just buy another drive. Cost is the same. I leaning tward just buying a drive.

rgsgww

Do you have sata ports? (Kind of stupid I know, the computers only a year old.)


Buy a sata drive. What do you do on this computer? high end tasks lean towards 10k rpm hardrives, normal tasks lean towards 7200 rpm drives.

Western digital and seagate are some of the good brands to look at.

sv9779

Yes it's SATA. 7200 is what it has now. We don't do anything special on it. 200 to 300 gig is around $60.00

crawdoogie

If your computer runs from the hard disk then the disk is probably fine. Don't send the PC into HP, you "have a 5 yr warranty at the store you bought it from.", take it there. If they can't fix it then it's their responsibility to send it out on their dime. Ask them what procedures/protocols do they follow to diagnose/ repair systems under warranty. You should also read the warranty as well so you know what is expected of them.
Some things that you can do:

1. uninstall any third party firewalls or turn off windows firewall if thats what your using. reboot

2.Take a look at this HP website and follow directions to get restore to work or do a full system recovery.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...0850095&dlc=en

3. Run Disk Clean UP. See

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...139d91033.mspx

In the Disk Cleanup Options check all files
In the Disk Cleanup: Drive Selection select drive usually "C"

In the Disk Clean up tab select everything except "compress old files" if shown
In the More Options tab:Programs and Features uninstall any programs that you don't use.

4.Run System File Checker. For more info go here:

http://vistasupport.mvps.org/system_file_checker.htm

5. Run Checkdisk .

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...41f811033.mspx

6. It's very likely that virii or spyware is causing the problem.
Download and run SuperAntiSpyware free edition here:

http://www.superantispyware.com/download.html

and Malwarebytes Anti-malware

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download5756.html

It say $25 but that's if you want to buy the real time protection using it as an on demand scanner is free.

If any of the above freeze reboot the PC (alt-ctrl-del) or hold the power button down for 5 seconds.

Post back with updates on your progress (or lack of )

Other thoughts:
-is system restore service enabled?
-drive full
-loose SATA/IDE cable
-any error codes
-look in event viewer
-enable adminstrative access to run system utilities like Restore
-do a HP System Recovery as a last resort. HP System Recovery restores the entire software configuration back to way it originally came from the factory.You will have to reload all updates and software installed after initial start up.

sv9779

Thanks for all the help. I'll let you know how I make out. Unfortunatly the store I bought it from is 200 miles away. That's why I would have to ship it for repair. I bought a sata to to usb adapter. I was thinking I could save all my info to an old hard drive then take the sata drive out and put it on my old pc using the usb port and try to reformat the disc on that pc (running XP). Then put it back in the HP and see if the restore disc will work. I think you might be right about the drive being ok. Seems funny that everything works except restore and recovery and updates.

rgsgww

I usually ditch that hp software pre loaded on the disk. I would get an adapter (like you said) and copy to some sort of storage device and reformat your disk to a fresh install of any operating system. Then copy the old data back to the drive.

sv9779

[
-do a HP System Recovery as a last resort. HP System Recovery restores the entire software configuration back to way it originally came from the factory.You will have to reload all updates and software installed after initial start up.[/quote]


I can't get the restore discs to work. They start to load then the computer just sits there with a flashing curser. I slipped an old ata drive in there as the c drive and installed the restore discs and the menu came right up ready to format and restore the drive.

I just did a scan with SuperAntiSpyware and just found a bunch of cookies. I disabled the firewall and antivirus still no luck.

My fear is that if I reformat the drive in my other computer and there really is something wrong with it I won't be able to get this computer up again. Maybe I should wait until I'm ready to buy a new hdd or to ship it off if all else fails.

crawdoogie

Actually the disk is spinning but your optical drive is not reading anything, that plus you cannot access the hard drive indicate that your disk drivers are corrupted.
You need to uninstall all of the disk drivers in Device Manager and then reboot your system. Window will automatically reinstall those drivers as it restarts.

To uninstall the drivers go to Control Panel > System >Then click the Hardware tab > Device Manager.

In Device Manager find:

"IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" and click on the + next to it. It should expand a bunch of "Primary/Secondary IDE Channel" and several "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller" listings. You will need to right click on each, then choose uninstall and click OK. Do this until all drivers are removed.

Next go to DVD/CD-ROM drive > click + to expand > then right click / uninstall/ OK for all the drivers listed.

Next go to Disk Drives > click + to expand > the right click / uninstall / OK for all the drivers listed here.
Reboot system.

As your system restarts you will see notifications that Windows is finding and installing new devices which are the ones that you just uninstalled.

Post back with results.

rgsgww

What he said...your optical drive drivers are not working...try reinstalling them with his steps...

If that fails you might need to try a new drive.

sv9779

I just finished the System File Checker. the report came back.

"Verification 98% complete. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files unable to fix some of them. "

???????

sv9779

[quote=crawdoogie;183119]Actually the disk is spinning but your optical drive is not reading anything, that plus you cannot access the hard drive indicate that your disk drivers are corrupted.

The drive will run other discs ok. I can load other programs. I can burn a cd or dvd.