Is There Any Way to Get an OEM OS CD/DVD?

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BobH
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Is There Any Way to Get an OEM OS CD/DVD?

Post by BobH »

I'm visiting my BIL in NC. His computer skills are not very advanced; so when he purchased his HP desktop some years ago he failed to follow HP's recommendation to burn recovery disks. Now his system is so corrupted that I cannot connect to his ISP even though his connections through his router and cable modem work well for all types of wireless connections. I've tried using each port in his router and used several different ethernet cables. I even spent a couple of hours with his ISP's help desk. Because I cannot go online to download diagnostic tools, I downloaded Malwarebytes and MES to this laptop and used a thumb drive to install them on his desktop. This doesn't work. Both programs seem to require an active Internet connection in order to get their latest updates (at least that was the case with MES; I cannot get Malwarebytes to run at all probably because of the OS or virus problem). I do not know how to download the definition files that MES and Malwarebytes to the laptop (if it is possible to do so) in order to use the thumb drive to deliver them to the desktop. I have concluded that the most direct solution is to reformat his hdd and reinstall the OS.

All of my tools (software and hardware) are in Texas. I will be here for another week or more and have ordered an external USB hard drive to back up his data which should be here by Monday. The lack of back up disks is the problem. I am reluctant to purchase a copy from eBay as I cannot be certain that the seller will not send me an upgrade disk which requires that I have an old disk for the upgrade install process to use to verify the validity of the upgrade.

I posted a question on the HP user forum and await a response. It then occurred to me that one of my Lounge friends might have encountered a similar situation and could offer advice.

TIA
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viking33
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Re: Is There Any Way to Get an OEM OS CD/DVD?

Post by viking33 »

Have you tried to run sfc /scannow from the command prompt? Maybe that will at least get you going.
No local computer stores in the NC area for a cleanup utility prog?
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stuck
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Re: Is There Any Way to Get an OEM OS CD/DVD?

Post by stuck »

HPs usually have a recovery partition on them. If I remember correctly you press F11 at boot to access it and use it to role the machine back to factory defaults.

Ken

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StuartR
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Re: Is There Any Way to Get an OEM OS CD/DVD?

Post by StuartR »

I think it might be F10 rather than F11
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jonwallace
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Re: Is There Any Way to Get an OEM OS CD/DVD?

Post by jonwallace »

Maybe have a look at this thread, which suggests that you can use any xp disk (as long as it's an OEM). OEM XP disks might be obtained from a neighbour or the local (hopefully friendly) computer repair shop.
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stuck
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Re: Is There Any Way to Get an OEM OS CD/DVD?

Post by stuck »

StuartR wrote:I think it might be F10 rather than F11
Possibly but what I should have added is that the HP 510 laptop that was used by stuckling2 until recently always, without fail, gave a message along the lines of 'Press F1? for emergency recovery' the instant the laptop was powered up. We never had to use the feature but I've no reason to doubt it wouldn't have rolled the laptop back to a clean slate.

Ken

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Claude
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Re: Is There Any Way to Get an OEM OS CD/DVD?

Post by Claude »

From memory, in XP, if you boot in safe mode, it gives you the option to do a system restore. Select an early restore point I guess. :shrugh:
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BobH
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Re: Is There Any Way to Get an OEM OS CD/DVD?

Post by BobH »

Thank you for the suggestions!

There is, indeed, an F10 option at startup that takes one to an HP partition for recovery. I ran that and got all the way through to opening windows XP HE and received an error message saying that there was a system configuration error, Code Purple, that should be reported to HP by phone. I haven't tried that yet and the system is well beyond any warranty; so I don't expect that avenue to be fruitful.

I tried booting to the BIOS settings and checked all of them finding nothing unusual. I have not found an option to boot in Safe Mode.

I cannot try any RUN commands because I cannot get Windows to load and there is no DOS on the system.

Again, thank you for all your help!
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DaveA
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Re: Is There Any Way to Get an OEM OS CD/DVD?

Post by DaveA »

Check out http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/docu ... e=bph07143" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Near the bottom, is instructions on downloading.
Last edited by DaveA on 18 Jul 2013, 15:55, edited 1 time in total.
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stuck
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Re: Is There Any Way to Get an OEM OS CD/DVD?

Post by stuck »

Googling 'code purple' suggests the motherboard has gone bad BUT don't give up hope...

According to this post by 'Vidya', an "HP employee" as long as the mob is an HP mobo and not a third party one, "They will support even if the product is out of warranty".

Worth a phone call and seeing what they say when you quote that at them.

Ken