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    HP dv9500t reformatting

    Discussion in 'HP' started by Dabman, Jul 23, 2007.

  1. Dabman

    Dabman Notebook Consultant

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    I recentially read this review from the notebook reviews section on this site

    "I sent my dv9500t back because HP has used a handicapped version of Phoenix BIOS. The system is "locked down," meaning the BIOS interface provides no way to provide access to the hard drive settings. Older Pavilion models such as the dv6000 series give the user the option to turn on or off what HP calles "SATA Nativity" mode (I call it HP Hidden Drives Mode). The dv9500t offers no such possibility. Why does this matter? Well,it means you can't make the machine dual-boot (mine had two 160GB hard drives). It also means you can't ever install any other operating systems. Linux? Forget it. Your own genuine copy of Windows XP? No way! It's totalitarian. I booted a genuine copy of Windows Server 2003 R2 and it reported that there were "no hard drives installed." The excellent freeware utility VistrBootPro 3.3 reported that the hard drives were "hidden." With the way they've locked down the BIOS, there's no way to change this! Worst of all is the liklihood of never being able to install whatever comes after Windows Vista, since only their "factory" installation of Vista can see the hidden hard drives! I figure HP made this decision to lock their users in to only using their specific environment so they could guarantee their third-party software partners that all users would be exposed to their software. The system ships with all manner of extra (junk) software like Vongo and Vonage and AOL and by defeating the user's attempts to use his machine as he sees fit, they guarantee that this unwanted junk gets wide exposure on EVERY dv9500t sold. This is only my guess, but why else would they hide the drives and lock down the BIOS? Also, HP Support was a nightmare. One tech told me to change BIOS settings that weren't there. Another "Case Manager" George McPhee said dual-boot was possible with the dv9500t but refused to tell me how! Another BIOS problem had to do with a boot-up menu delay setting."

    It seems to me that he had a problem reformatting the laptop and starting clean. I like to do this periodicially to make sure everything is clean and running fast. Is this not a possibility with the dv9500t BIOS? or did an update fix the issue? is anyone has tried reformatting with their dv9500t please let me know how it went.
     
    Dabman, Jul 23, 2007
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  2. miner

    miner Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Nah, thats not really true. The original poster has no clue what hes rambling on about.

    As long as you have the necessary drivers for your hardware which can be downloaded from HP's website, reinstalling Vista should not be a problem.

    If you want to install XP, then you will have to slipstream the SATA drivers for XP to recognise the HDD. This is true for many SATA based systems. Ofcourse since HP does not support installing XP on the dv9500t you will have to figure out the drivers on your own.
     
    miner, Jul 23, 2007
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