[s2006]

a couple of weeks ago, i my hard drive went bye bye. i had a tech buy tell me that there was no data left so i bought a new hd & got it installed. the only disk i have with the laptop is the SYSTEM RESTORE cd so he said to pop that in & it should be fine. Does that seem correct as far as reinstalling the system since the hd was completely fried?

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Hi. Well, I hope so. You may have to access the bios to change the boot order to boot from cd first, then pop in the cd boot up and see if it works. If that restore cd provides for a clean install of the operating system, great. However, I wouldn't be suprised if it looks for some kind of proprietary validation on the hard drive before it will allow you to use it. What kind of computer? (Dell, Compaq??)

[austin_o]

Hi. Well, I hope so. You may have to access the bios to change the boot order to boot from cd first, then pop in the cd boot up and see if it works. If that restore cd provides for a clean install of the operating system, great. However, I wouldn't be suprised if it looks for some kind of proprietary validation on the hard drive before it will allow you to use it. What kind of computer? (Dell, Compaq??)

[s2006]

hi austin, it's a gateway latop & i bought it in january.
what do u mean when u say if it is looking for a proprietary validation from the hd?

[austin_o]

Some manufacturers put some kind of validation key on the hd and it has to be there for the recovery cd t work. My o l d hp that came with Windows 98 on a recovery cd was like that. I have read posts on this forum and others where the recovery cd didn't work after the hd was formatted or replaced. It may not be the case with your system. However, if it is the case just be be prepared to call Gateway support. They may be able to get you going. If you just bought the system in January it should be under warranty! I would be asking them how come the hard drive died?

[s2006]

thanks for the input austin, i'll probably have to give them a call...i dunno maybe i'll sell it on ebay

[austin_o]

It wouldn't hurt to try changing the boot order and running the recovery cd. The worse that could happen is it will fail. It is under warranty so don't hesitate to call Gateway if needed.