HP dv9500t Recovery DVD fails!

Ready to pull my hair out! I have a brand new dv9500t that came preloaded with vista ultimate 64. I wanted to perform a Recovery from the System Recovery DVD that I spent $19 on, but it fails after running for 2.5 hours. The first 2 times it failed with the ctoerror.flg file saying the SKU and Region Check Warning Mismatch and a setup timout. Everything else passed. The latest time it runs for 2 hours then reboots to a ERR2 no hard drive. After booting to a vista disk I am able to see the partitions are all messed up. It is creating a 32gb partition and then a 400mb partition. It sets the 400mb partition (which doesn't have vista on it to active). Long story short the scripts are messing up the installation. This is the second dvd from HP. I have successfully installed Vist 32bit on the system but really want the 64 bit that I bought. I don't have a 64 bit Vista dvd or I would do that.
Any suggestions.

 

HP sent you bad discs, so really you need to call them. Unless you have access to a Vista DVD, then you could do a clean install and forget about the recovery disc. See the guide in my sig.

 

I don't have a Vista 64 bit DVD. Although I ordered the Compusa one from your install guide tonight. That said. I have called HP they sent a new recovery DVD which does the same thing. When I called them to tell them the second disk was bad, they now say it is the laptop not the dvd since both were bad. Good logic but I don't think they are right. I can't get them to send me real Vista OEM dvds. I just think it is odd that I am the only one having this problem if both of the dvd's I rec'd are bad. I am awaiting a call tomorrow from a case manager, but am not holding my breath. I really don't want to send back the laptop.

 

There have been a bunch of reports in the forum from people also seeing problems with the recovery dvds, so it's not just you. Really, the cleanest way to get recovery DVDs is to burn them yourself, but you're already past that part .

 

Yes....never trust the establishment.

That said I just ran the process on your website for clean install (unforturnately with 32 bit ultimate because that is what I have) and it was great and easy. Well written and well done. As I have said earlier, I have ordered the 64 bit dvd and will install that when I either have time or when I upgrade to 4gb ram (currently only 2gb). 32 bit may not be bad since nikon doesn't support 64 bit (and currently has no plan to) in there RAW Codecs. I think I can get everything I need to load the 32 bit drivers except I don't remember seeing the quick launch buttons for 32 bit. Did I miss those?
Thanks for your input and help.

 

From what I have heard about the $19 recovery discs, they are not the same as the ones you would burn. They make them more generic so they work with many systems. If you burn them yourself, you get the same config specifically for your system. I think HP should just include 2 DVD+R discs in the box, and not sell the other recovery discs.

The quick launch buttons are in the SWsetup folder in QLB. As far as I know, they are not on hp's web site.

 

I agree with you on the recovery discs. I should have made them when I got the system, but thought the recovery dvd's provided would work.

Unfortunately the swsetup folder I have is for 64 bit. I now need the 32 bit drivers.

 

Microsoft found them for me under the problems and solutions. It came up with a link to HP's website. Who said Vista was mediocre?

 

I switched from 32 to 64 bit, and I noticed that most of the stuff in the SWsetup folder was smart enough to install the correct version. Not sure about the QLB, but even if you download stuff from HP's web site, the installer files for 32 and 64 bit are identical.

 

Thanks for the info...good to know. Did you ever make a list of the stuff you put back on your 9500?

 

Because of the DVD mess, it's better to just wipe the drive clean and start over with a dual boot system. In October there will be a new version of Linux out that should install better, so that would make it the triple play.

There are articles out there talking about people wanting to downgrade to XP, and Dell is complying. What does that tell you?

People are tired of the bloatware that fills up the hard drive. Plus it's a real bummer people paid for an OS, only to get a bloatware version without the media.

 

I reinstalled quickplay (though i never use it), quickplay buttons, and the hp wireless assistant. Also, I think there are some "critical updates for vista" that HP has on their site. I skipped all of the HP help stuff, the HP system monitor thing, and all of the other software like roxio, etc...

 

I agree with the bloatware. Which is why I have always done clean installs to new computers. Unfortunately HP doesn't make this easy with no media.

I have been using Vista since February. It has been great. This issue is a problem with HP creating recovery DVD's that do not work. I have no interest in going back to XP. XP is stable and great, but after 5 years it should be. When we all understand Vista as well as we understood XP, it will meet or exceed expectations.