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Not how I expected to spend my weekend..

Corazu

Corazu

GO HABS GO
NLC
Yea, so, for anyone who didn't see: http://freewebspace.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2206062

Basically, my laptop decided to BSOD me, repeatedly. So I was naturally frustrated beyond all hell. I had some files on there that I wouldn't particularly like losing, and I didn't have decent backups of them.

So I embarked on a journey, I managed to find a solution to my issue, and it required that I have my install cd. Well great, Compaq/HP is retarded and refuses to give an install cd..only their useless recovery cd (and I had to push for that last time I messed up my computer - normally it's just a crappy partition). So I downloaded an XP 9-in-one cd and burnt it (thank god I have a spare box running linux). Following the steps to load registry settings from the repair backup folder (after spending ~2-4 hours diagnosing the damn problem and figuring it was the registry GG on error messages Microsoft..seriously). Anyway, doing that allowed Windows to actually boot, which meant it confirmed the registry settings being messed up.

So now on to step 2, windows booted...but it looked like ----...it was using basic, very basic, settings. So I had to grab a more recent system restore..I did..and I copied it over and restarted...boom BSOD. So I figured, the one I had copied was broken as well, ok, time to grab a different...no dice.

Now, at this point, I had already backed up my files to my external hard drive, so I decided, screw it, I'll just reinstall. I really didn't have much more of an option..going through and finding which restore point would work manually would probably cause more of a headache than reinstalling.

So I went to reinstall, ran the recovery option there first, no dice of course, so I go to reinstall. All is well with the world I guess.

Windows boots up..and..it's very basic, I then realize, that since I didn't use the HP recovery disk, none of the drivers were installed. Which was a problem...since one of those drivers was the wireless driver, and another..was the RJ45 driver (nForce networking). So I was SOL on grabbing them from the internet on the laptop. So I went to my linux box and downloaded the wireless and nforce networking drivers from HP, and decided to burn them to a CD-RW. Problem: For some reason windows wouldn't open it. Tried plugging my external drive to the linux box: it wouldn't mount..

But who would I be without a USB Thumbdrive? So I got the drivers over, and started installing everything.

Now I'm in the process of reinstalling/copying files back to my laptop and configuring it to work the way I want it again.

The upside to this is that I have been needing to clean up my laptop, it's been running fairly slowly recently, and needed this badly. And as a plus, I was able to partition the drive properly (the HP recovery sets its own partitions..basically reformats the drive and copies its structure over)

So now I have a 25GB Windows partition, 55GB media partition (for music and etc) which is currently being formatted in windows right now :) and roughly 10GB left unpartitioned so I can set it up to run linux. Before I was unable to get it working, but hopefully now I can, since I have the partitions set up prior to.

So it wasn't exactly how I planned my weekend...but it's fairly productive anyhow I suppose. At least I didn't lose any files, just some color in my hair and what little sanity I had left...
 
I didn't expect my weekend, either.

But it involved much different activities and included a bridge, 3 freight trains, Home Depot, the best pizza I've ever had (twice) and sleeping until 4PM.

I'll leave everything up to imagination. No details pour toi.

Oh, and my first two fingers on both hands are numb.

And actually, it's not even over yet.
I'll probably end up underneath that same damn bridge again tomorrow. Er, today.
 
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That sucks Corazu...

Just curious, does your laptop have one of those pesky restore partitions or is it actual physical media?

Mine uses a restore partition which takes up almost 10GB in space... Kind of ridiculous if you ask me
 
Mine used a 10GB restore partition (waste of space) but in November I was trying to install linux and dualboot (and it went to all hell..had to reformat and reinstall) and the recovery partition was ineffective, so I called them and got them to send my physical cds...except it's still just recovery cds that outs the damn partition back in too. I was lucky since I was still in warranty I didn't have to pay for it, otherwise I might have. In any case, you can delete the partition after recovering it, but I wouldn't unless you have the physical cds..

They're trying to save very little money on giving out cds..which is ludicrous if you ask me, by wasting customer's space. Horrible business practice, but it's being used a lot. My next laptop is going to be a Fujitsu tablet PC (either the t2010 or t4220 - but the montevina updated one when it comes out later in the year) and they ship actual install cds.
 
Interesting Corazu...

Yes, the restore partition is a waste of space, but since I dont have actual physical recovery disks I won't delete it.

I have the HP Pavilion tx1320us Tablet and it is awesome... Only complaint is the fingerprint reader is right where my wrist wrests while in tablet mode. Thus making it think I am scanning my finger. I had to disable it it was so annoying.
 
CnR said:
That was rather long
Click to expand...

You don't like long? :p

As an update, the CD I used had non-genuine codes, so when I went to activate, I didn't do activate-by-phone and it used the code that was in the config I guess (never had a chance to enter mine). So now I get the damn WGA nags, and only way to do it on MCE is to reinstall to enter mine in (can't change product key in MCE)

Stupid Microsoft..gonna email em to see if there's any other way by now..don't feel like reinstalling, and the nag isn't too bad.
 
(Hate double-posting but not worth a new thread)

So I reinstalled windows last night, quick and easy, copied most of my stuff to the local drive..so the reinstall was alright, restoring my settings now, slowly since I had to work....except it won't accept my Product Key...

Pisses me right off, I've had it up to here with Microsoft's crappy product management in this regard, I've sent them an email, hopefully they can help, and I'm going to either call / live chat them tomorrow (tonight) to see what can be done...I don't want to use the recovery cd's as I'll lose my partitions :( but I may have to...

In any case, around august I hope to get a new laptop, a tablet one, when the Montevina update rolls around and they release new models :)
 
You *used to be able* to do this to change product key:

Type start run and paste:

%systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a

Then say Activate By Phone and then Change Product key should be at the bottom. Can't try this, because mine is activated, but back in the day of computer repair, I remember doing this.
 
Windows Media Center Edition won't let me change the product key after activation (why I had to reinstall). And that's the screen I'm at..going to telephone..it won't accept my key I enter there..
 
Blah, darn I was hoping that would work. Sorry bud, don't really have an answer for you without doing some research.
 
Yea, I wasn't expecting it to work, I think it's more than likely a conflict with the fresh install and the key being an OEM key.
 
Well, I called MS, and they basically knew nothing whatsoever, so I gave up trying to do this the legit way.

I'm not reinstalling this OS again in the near future, so I hacked the registry to delete the WGA nag files, renamed the tray exe...so I won't receive the notifications.

All the methods to DL updates by bypassing it seem to have been removed though, so I'm not going to end up with WMP11 or Windows Defender...but I'll manage. I'll be getting Vista Business in the summer with my new tablet notebook..until then I'm fine with what I have. I'll be installing Ubuntu or Fedora on the unformatted space (going to partition it) and I may end up using that primarily, only booting to windows to play games or other windows-necessary tasks.

So let that be a lesson (that many have already learned) when it comes to DRM..nobody works..the only thing it effectively does is turn your legitimate users to finding easier ways to use your software - most of which are the illegal ones.

What happened to the good old days when standard practice was to make it easier for the end user?
 
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