Hewlett Packard Pavillion Restore

[pappasplace]

Do any readers of this post have a HP Pavillion PC? The computer doesn't ship with a restore disk. The restore software is shipped on the harddrive on it's own partition. I have a HP pc that has a dead HD. Does anyone know if HP will furnish a restore disk?

[B&T]

If you call HP Support with the model/serial number of the PC, HP will ship restore CDs for $15.

[satis]

If I'm not mistaken, I do believe that any vendors supplying Microsoft OSes on their PCs are required by their license with Microsoft to provide an O/S CD. It's not a restore disk, but honestly alot of OEM computers are loaded full of junk that makes the O/S not work quite right... alot of times it's better to just install Windows from a true Windows CD. If you don't have a Windows CD HP should provide you one free of charge.

[RocketJeff]

No, it's the opposite in fact. The deal most computer manufacturers have with OEM's now calls for them not to supply a generic Windows install CD. They can only supply restore CD's (or hard drive partitions).

This gets them the lowest cost rate for Windows from MS and also cuts down on their support costs (no having to talk the customer through a complete install, just tell them to pop in the CD). The restore CD also has a check to insure that it's only restoring the correct model - no using the same Windows CD on multiple machines.

One of the reasons that HP puts it on the HD (besides lower cost) is that most people will never need the restore CD and those that do will probably have lost it anyways before they need it.

There is the 'standard' OEM CD that manufacturers could use, but the license is quite a bit more per machine.

pappasplace: you should be able to go to HP's website and order the repair CD online (That's what I did right after I got my HP computer).

[pappasplace]

I would perfer not to install HP's version of Windows XP. I am almost there now. Just have 2 issues to deal with. Device manager shows 3 problems.The scanner issue has been resolved.http://members.dslextreme.com/users/searchman/hp_scan.jpg

[Raid_5]

could you plz give the details of the model of your pavillion coz it would tell what mother board type you are using. That sm bus controller is usually in intel 845 g chipset for pentium 4 motherboards. so the if im correct the you would require graphics driver from intell website and chipset driver for your sm bus controller on ur motherboard

[pappasplace]

I resolved the Pavillion MoBo driver issue yesterday. Thanks for your post