currys want me to pay £55 for recovery disc

[UK26]

Nope, they will just resintall it at TechGuys

What make is this laptop?

now i see it has 2 Partitions which would mean it has a recovery partition which could save you some money

like i said before.

turn the laptop on, press F10, or F11 Immediately

Keep pressing the key and within 6 seconds should go into recovery mode

Regards

Dave

[labrat]

quick thing if this doesnt work, get the pb boot disk creator off the website (forgot the exact link), burn it by double clicking, reboot with the disk in the affected computer, it will load up a dos window, if you run the comand switcher /? it should display an error code that says weither the recovery partition is there or not, if it is there ring them up and explain the partitions there and not active.

alternitally use the f11/f10 to install vista if that gives a blue screen with 0x0000021a then you may have norton go back installed reboot tapping the space bar and disable it.

alternitavly get pccheck 6.00 (NOT 6.05 i dont trust that) and run the smart hdd check it nearly always says fail for one reason or another and if it does they have to replace the drive AND re-create the recovery patition

take it from someone who does still work somewhere inside the company.

[ForestChav]

Originally Posted by labrat

quick thing if this doesnt work, get the pb boot disk creator off the website (forgot the exact link), burn it by double clicking, reboot with the disk in the affected computer, it will load up a dos window, if you run the comand switcher /? it should display an error code that says weither the recovery partition is there or not, if it is there ring them up and explain the partitions there and not active.

alternitally use the f11/f10 to install vista if that gives a blue screen with 0x0000021a then you may have norton go back installed reboot tapping the space bar and disable it.

alternitavly get pccheck 6.00 (NOT 6.05 i dont trust that) and run the smart hdd check it nearly always says fail for one reason or another and if it does they have to replace the drive AND re-create the recovery patition

take it from someone who does still work somewhere inside the company.

Hmm, I always thought the boot disk didnt work on post-Honeymoon builds. Unless they released a later one.

[labrat]

hmm i honestly cant rememeber use pccheck then

[shayna32]

Originally Posted by benwell

Nope, they will just resintall it at TechGuys

What make is this laptop?

now i see it has 2 Partitions which would mean it has a recovery partition which could save you some money

like i said before.

turn the laptop on, press F10, or F11 Immediately

Keep pressing the key and within 6 seconds should go into recovery mode

Regards

Dave

Hi mate like i said in previous post by pressing f10 i get the follwing message

Edit windows boot options for windows vista home premium (recovered)
Path: \windows\system32\winload .exe

Partition: 2
Hard disk: 2c372cdf

Followed by a command prompt.

Last night i tried burning a disc from the packard bell site to a cd-r disc and it refused point blank even though my daughter has a pc that has a dvdrw drive so i'm going to ask a friend to do it on there pc.

Don't think returning it to currys is going to get me anywhere really is it so might just have a go myself.

[patdavies]

You need a re-install of Windows.

As you already have a valid licence (the sticker on the bottom of the machine), there is no problem whatsoever with borrowing a disk and using it (but with your CD key - again on the sticker), This will not in any way void the warranty as the software is warranted.

Once you have it working make the back-up disks!

[shayna32]

Thanks for all your help and advise.

I have found the following link and have sent it to my friend to burn it on his computer as for some reason my daughters pc wont do it can somebody please check and tell me this is the right disc i need to be burning.

http://http://support.packardbell.co...p?i=6945490100

[ForestChav]

Originally Posted by shayna32

Thanks for all your help and advise.

I have found the following link and have sent it to my friend to burn it on his computer as for some reason my daughters pc wont do it can somebody please check and tell me this is the right disc i need to be burning.

http://http://support.packardbell.co...p?i=6945490100

As I said, Im not sure bootdisk16 works on the newer builds, but it is always worth trying - and it does have access to comprehensive diagnostic tools.

Originally Posted by patdavies

You need a re-install of Windows.

As you already have a valid licence (the sticker on the bottom of the machine), there is no problem whatsoever with borrowing a disk and using it (but with your CD key - again on the sticker), This will not in any way void the warranty as the software is warranted.

Once you have it working make the back-up disks!

That wouldn't work - Not only would booting from a Vista DVD and reinstalling using the product key wipe the machine (and consequentially, the recovery disk creator), removing the facility to do so anyway; it would also fall foul of the EULA which states that an OEM install of Windows is only genuine if both the media and the key are genuine and supplied with the machine, in other words the resultant install will only be legal if you use the key supplied with the machine AND media from the OEM (in other words, the recovery partition, discs created from the recovery partition, or discs from the OEM - PB). You can do it, of course, but if MS decided to use that as a criterion for WGA and enforce it then it would probably result in a deactivated install. AIUI, the situation with retail copies is slightly different.

Vista, unlike XP, does not have the facility to repair from the media by essentially installing over itself (like XP does) - which I consider personally to be a step backwards, as there are occurrences where a repair install would fix the machine without needing to wipe the disk.

It would not affect the hardware warranty on the laptop itself, which is independent of OS. However, if you were using non-standard settings (in other words a different OS, or introducing non-supplied hardware [which we all do]) then it isn't unreasonable to expect to test on the factory settings (which are set up by the manufacturer to work with the hardware) to be sure it isn't a software problem - in this case, the discs may be needed anyway.

OP - Provided you are categorically sure that you can NOT start the recovery by any other way, it looks like you'll need to buy the CDs... If you spoke nicely to Currys - it's a long shot - they might reimburse you as a goodwill gesture but I suspect not.

[shayna32]

OP - Provided you are categorically sure that you can NOT start the recovery by any other way, it looks like you'll need to buy the CDs... If you spoke nicely to Currys - it's a long shot - they might reimburse you as a goodwill gesture but I suspect not.

I have tried everything mate repair, safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt last known good config.

Then tried f8 f10 f11 f12 and absolutely nothing working.

One of them threw up the message blah blah system recovered does this mean it has previously been through a recovery as my daughter has now said that she seems to remember it coming up on screen about packard bell revovery but she turned the laptop off not realising what it was

Think i might try giving them a ring tomorrow and see if i get a different chap on the phone that i can sweet talk into sending me the disc for free.

If not like i said my friend has now told me he has burned me the recovery disc so i'll try that.

[ForestChav]

Originally Posted by shayna32

OP - Provided you are categorically sure that you can NOT start the recovery by any other way, it looks like you'll need to buy the CDs... If you spoke nicely to Currys - it's a long shot - they might reimburse you as a goodwill gesture but I suspect not.

I have tried everything mate repair, safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt last known good config.

Then tried f8 f10 f11 f12 and absolutely nothing working.

One of them threw up the message blah blah system recovered does this mean it has previously been through a recovery as my daughter has now said that she seems to remember it coming up on screen about packard bell revovery but she turned the laptop off not realising what it was

Think i might try giving them a ring tomorrow and see if i get a different chap on the phone that i can sweet talk into sending me the disc for free.

If not like i said my friend has now told me he has burned me the recovery disc so i'll try that.

That would explain it - an aborted install would result, on trying to boot, in it thinking the install wasn't finished.

Try TTG again and see what happens - you might get the 1 person left who knows what they're talking about.

In honesty I don't think Currys have any obligations here.

[labrat]

ask for second level if your lucky you might get my old team leader hes on the "second level" now, ask him to book it to the laptop workshop, explain youve used pccheck and on the smart error check its brought up errors saying 2190 errors, 21h error and you feel that its a hard drive fault, this should get a booking. ask which code its being booked under and hope its a code u20 this goes to the mansfield workshop, from friends there i understand they have boxes of recovery media they will check the drive and if non faulty they will usually just recover, only put a note in saying your ok with the data loss otherwise they may not recover.

probably shouldnt have said that but i feel that the current level of staff at the call center is a few iq levels short of a gcse.

the stores dont care if its over 28 days old under there current systems its says its out of there responcibilitys, at which point the room level iq's kind of kick in and stop them from helping

im sorry if i kind of sound annoyed at them but after alot of wrangling with the call center and team leaders they by my reconing still owe me around £500 in unpaid wages

[shayna32]

My dad has just offered to take it back to curry's to see if they can get it repaired for me so i'll let you know what happens guys.

Thankyou all for your help much appreciated watch this space lol.

[blue4ever]

i`m waiting in antisipation

[UK26]

Hi, they may just give you an 0870 number to call, which will arrange collection from your house


Dave

[shayna32]

Great news everybody my dad took it back and they have offered to send me out the necessary discs out in the post so all round a superb result.

They did ask why we hadn't done the back up disc like it prompted but they told them it was a 12 year olds laptop and that she simply hadn't done it.

[labrat]

good news thou i would chase up on disks often they come direct from pb which i think is in the netherlands, so unless tinkerbell does deliveries (sorry little play on words there) then thye may take a while, also they may charge the store for them so some stores get a little "forgetful"

worst comes to the worse read the scripted answer to the call center above

[blue4ever]

I`m So Happy For You, A Result, I May Have Been Right All