[dana]

i tried to recover my laptop was having lots of problems, used the recovery cd 1st one theres 2 it went fine then it said insert disk 2 welllll coulndt find it until next day in the mean time my laptop got shut off and now it wont do anything except a blinking cursor in dos try to boot from start up but nothing is it too late? i already baought a new one but was hoping to fix this one for back-up, thanks in advance, dana

[Wainui]

Dana,What is the Make and Model Number of your Laptop. The Model number will be underneath somewhere.What version of Windows are you using ?What problems were you having ?

[dana]

wainui, its a great quality from frys electronics model 536s with windows xp home,before i tried to recover it would shut off by itself, window errors(MULTIPLE), it would run real slow sometime not at all, it all started when my son down loaded a music program, i saved all my files to an external hard drive before i tried to recover so at least i didnt lose those, i really dont want to throw it away i would like to fix it myself or cheap and donate it to a school or kid that needs one... anyway if you have some ideas i would apreciate them thanks danap.s. i already bought a second for back-up, i bought 2 hp compaq presario v 6000, are they good?

[rgreen4]

Dana - what has happened is that the restore was interrupted in mid process. The restore process cleans off the old installation and then puts a fresh imagage of the drive back on.Turn the computer back on and once it starts to try to boot, put disc one back in the cd drive. When the computer halts, press the power button until it stops. Then release the power button and then press it again to restart the machine. If it boots and starts reading the cd, ignore this next section.If it won't reboot from the cd, you might need to go into the BIOS to change something called the boot order. When you first turn on a computer, there are some choices displayed at the bottom of the screen for about 2-4 seconds. On should say press XXX for setup. XXX can be <delete>, F1, F10 or another key depending on the BIOS version. This will take you to a screen where various information is displayed. You may have choices going down the left side or across the top bar, but look for one called advanced, select it and hit enter. Somewhere in this will be the boot order. Change the boot order to CD Rom first and HD second.Then start the machine again.When it asks for the second disc, open the drive and swap discs.This should work.As to the Compaq's - they are a good mid-range computer. The v6000 is a fairly new frame and while it does not have the bells and whistles the hp dv6000 would, it does share one thing with the HP line - support and parts availabliity. Even years after the sales, HP will stock many of the parts, and then when closing out their parts, sells them to third party companies like Impact Computers where you can still get parts for HP machines that are truly ancient. I recently had occasion to buy some parts from Impact for my old HP laptop and their service was very good.You can also call their support line for a year or get e-mail and chat support.

[Wainui]

Dana,What is the Make of your faulty Laptop ? Is it HP, Compaq, Dell, Acer ?????That model number you gave me 536S I cannot find any computer with that model number ? Check again please.

[dana]

rgreen4, THANK_YOU!!!!!!!! it worked everything is back up and running, i apreciate your help very much, dana

[rgreen4]

Dana - you are welcome.Wainui - it a private branded computer bought from Fry's electronics. They are a regional electronics store in the South Central U.S. They have a large store in the northern part of Houston, Texas that I have been in, and other locations. That why we couldn't find any real support.

[Wainui]

rgreen4,Thanks. 8)