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    Restoration Help

    Discussion in 'HP' started by hibbs, Jul 25, 2010.

  1. hibbs

    hibbs Notebook Guru

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    Hey Guys.

    I am my Dads personal computer technician. He has mistakenly reformatted the recovery partition and lost his recovery discs and the PC is ill. I really need to reinstall windows but I have never done this without a means to retain the drivers. How should I proceed? Should I find a program to backup all drivers (can anyone recommend a good one?)? I've heard reflashing the bios but I'm not familiar with what that is or how to do it.

    I would greatly appreciate any help. Thank You so much everyone.
     
    hibbs, Jul 25, 2010
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  2. Archpope

    Archpope Notebook Enthusiast

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    Depending on which model it is, someone has probably started a thread with all the drivers you need. Also, you can get them directly from HP. The only two that are critical at the beginning are video and network. Once you got those two, you can get the rest once you get the computer online.
     
    Archpope, Jul 25, 2010
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  3. deeastman

    deeastman Notebook Deity

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    1. If you have to ask about flashing the bios, and don't know why you are doing it, ABSOLUTELY DO NOT. It will not do anything to bring back your recovery partition, it will be of no benefit, and could turn your PC into an expensive door stop.

    'Archpope' gave you the basic information you need but when asking for help it always helps (should be mandatory) to include the exact Laptop Model number and the OS that you are going to try and install. Recommendations on how to proceed can vary depending on the OS version (i.e. XP, Vista, Windows 7).

    I would at a minimum download all the drivers you can from the HP website for your particular laptop model and save them to an External drive, flash drive, CD, or DVD. Depending on the age of your laptop you can also find the drivers and some software that came factory installed in the C:\SWSETUP folder. I would save that folder to DVD just in case.

    If you are reinstalling Windows 7 the task is simpler as Windows 7 most likely will install good working drivers for most everything. You will have to install the correct Video driver from HP website though as Windows will just install a driver that is adequate but not actually correct.

    Since you don't have the restore discs, I assume you have either an OEM or retail copy of the Windows OS that you are going to install, you will need it to do anything.
     
    deeastman, Jul 25, 2010
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  4. nikeseven

    nikeseven Notebook Deity

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    You can get the drivers from HP's website. It really doesn't matter if you get them before or after you reformat but be aware that the screen resolution will probably be sub-par until you install the correct video driver
     
    nikeseven, Jul 26, 2010
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  5. hibbs

    hibbs Notebook Guru

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    Unfortunately I don't have the model number handy. I will search in the forums to see if someone links the drivers. Sounds like its not too bad to just reformat and acquire the drivers later. It runs Vista ( I believe SP1).


    Thanks again for your help.
     
    hibbs, Jul 26, 2010
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  6. Aikimox

    Aikimox Weihenstephaner!

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    The model number is found on the laptop itself ;)
     
    Aikimox, Jul 26, 2010
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  7. nikeseven

    nikeseven Notebook Deity

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    The model number will be on the bottom, next to the windows vista license
     
    nikeseven, Jul 28, 2010
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