Compaq presario restore

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ajcstr

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Just throwing this out in case someone can help

I have a Compaq Presario 5461 and when the hard drive crashed I got a new hard drive off ebay (same model the pc came with). When I try to use the compaq restore disk, i get an error that pretty much says restore can't be run on that machine. I realize that these restore disks are somehow keyed to the machine so you can't use them on another machine, but all the hardware is the same except for a little more memory. Only thing I can think of is a bios update that I applied. Did that alter the "signature" of the PC. If so, would it work if I backed of the bios update?

At this point the pc is just a toy, i'm using it to learn more about hardware, etc. I was able to install windows and just used my license key that came with the computer, so thats not an issue. But it bugs me that I can't get this restore to work. I did also notice that PC does not have an asset tag - wondering if the bios update zapped that.

Other notes - there was no extra partition that I know of on the orig hard drive, and there is only one restore CD (no diskette). I was able to do a restore of the pc several years ago
so I am pretty sure the disk is not defective.

Any help or thoughts would be appreciated
 
a different hard drive than the one the pc came with shouldn't alter the restore process.
What error is it giving you?
 
It gives me a red screen and says something to the effect that "Quick Restore cannot be run on this machine". I remember reading that older versions of Quick Restore would not work on larger hard drives which is why I found the exact same model on ebay.
 
You can use other restore software other than the one Compaq gave you. Use partitioning software to create a drive where you can store you audio, documents etc. Then with some other restore software you can get your programs back if something happens to your computer.

Since you bought the drive from ebay, you might as well run a diagnostic software to see how healthy you hard drive is.
 
ajcstr said:
It gives me a red screen and says something to the effect that "Quick Restore cannot be run on this machine". I remember reading that older versions of Quick Restore would not work on larger hard drives which is why I found the exact same model on ebay.

Actually, I think the original HD may have had one of those non-dos partitions that the CD is looking for. It would explain alot. But I was able to bypass the check by going right to the .exe file, I get the screen that says the restore will destroy all data on the machine - I click OK and I get an error saying the image file cannot be opened or read (UGGGGH)
 
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