I have an HP Media Center computer model 854N. Windows XP Media Center Operating System. I wanted to replace the hard drive. I ordered recovery CD's from HP. When using the CD's, It gets to the last disc(disc 9) and the bar goes to 100% then it comes up and says "creating user partition." Then another box comes up and says "cannot create user partition, recovery cannot continue." I ordered ANOTHER set of CD's and it did the same thing. I have tried different hard drives. Each with the same result.
I tried the CTRL/Backspace 4,5,6 trick to clean and format. The same end result. It goes all the way to the last disc(taking about an hour), the progress bar reaches 100% then it tries to create a user partition and it cannot, what's the deal?

Hello tmadd...

Are you preparing (formatting) the drive before running the recovery? See Step 2 HERE for information on preparing the drive for recovery.

wannabe1

Yes, I think so. I need to FDISK in DOS and make one active partition as large as possible? I have tried that and have taken the hard drive out and reformatted it using another computer. I have tried different hard drives. I have completely ereased one of them using AUTONUKE. Nothing makes a difference. I have ran HP's system utility to check the motherboard, RAM, Video, Hard Drive, Etc... They all check out OK. I am able to load XP with my install disk(not the recovery CD's) on any of the hard drives. But I want to get it back like it was new.



THANK YOU FOR YOUR REPLY!!!

If you look under the heading "Recovering from recovery discs" on This Page, does it describe the way you originally tried to run the recovery operation?

Yes.


I tried it this way the first times. I called HP and they told me to use CTRL/BACKSPACE and hit 4, then 5, then 6. This clears and then formats the hard drive. Then it would start to recover with the CD's. But that doesn't work. They also told me that a smaller hard drive would work(20G). Originally it had a 120G. Rather than buying a new one I have been using some smaller ones that I already had. I have tried a 20G and a 13G.I guess they could be wrong but I am hesitant to spend any money on this computer.

Have you added any hardware since you first bought the computer? Did you add additional RAM?

YES.

The Original Cd Player is gone. The original DVD Burner is gone. The 6 in 1 card reader is gone. The original HD is gone. It has a new DVD Burner, no card reader, and a different Hard Disk Drive. It has one new stick of RAM. It has a different modem. The video card and the TV Tuner card are original. I have tried to restore it with the new modem and the new stick of RAM pulled out. Same thing. "Unable to Create User Partition."

This computer is designed to be upgraded with new and different hardware. It is the same motherboard, CPU, cabinet, keyboard, etc. Would upgrading really shut it down? And how would I know how much to replace towards original?


THANKS FOR YOUR REPLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, I don't see how any of those changes would prevent the Recovery CD from completing, especially since you can successfully install using a XP Install CD.

I seem to remember the HP Recovery CD offering two recovery methods, non-destructive and destructive. Have you tried the non-destructive method after formatting the drive in another computer?

You said It gets to the last disc(disc 9), what exactly does that mean. Are there 9 CDs or are you using Diskettes or what? Please clarify, thanks.

Once the hard drive is formatted, the only option given is the destructive recovery. If there is an operating system present when trying to recover, that is when it would give you the non destructive option. Since I am using a different hard drive, the only option available is destructive.


And yes there are nine CD's. But get this: The first set I ordered from HP were CD's. Then I ordered a second set. For the same computer, the same serial number,etc......When I received them, they were DVD's. Nine of them. Both sets give the same results.


(BRAINSTORM:)


I think I might try to do a Non Destructive recovery of the XP install with the discs. I have the computer up and running with the single disc install of XP Pro(not the desired media center).I just wonder if it will let me recover with the new discs on top of that. WHEN I ACTIVATED THE WINDOWS XP PRO I USED THE MEDIA CENTER KEY. It might just think it's the same computer. THANKS FOR THE IDEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!