system recovery failed

i tried to restore my operating system with the recovery disks i ordered from hp and in the middle of the creating partition feature it stopped due to a read error. now i have no operating system and continue to get the read error about 20 secs into the process. is the disk the problem?

Yes, it does sound like you have a defective disk. You did get 20% into the
recovery. That tends to indicated that the drive is OK.

Contact the computer manufacturer. They can send you a new set of recovery
disks for your particular computer, usually at a nominal cost.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!



"threekids" wrote in message
...

i tried to restore my operating system with the recovery disks i ordered
from hp and in the middle of the creating partition feature it stopped
due to a read error. now i have no operating system and continue to get
the read error about 20 secs into the process. is the disk the problem?




--
threekids

if you have a c:/I386 folder then you can run winnt32.exe or winnt.exe which
ever one will work...

another things is that you might have a hidden partition that has the
program that will install your recovery disks from the mfg. Some systems use
the f10 key that must be pressed and held immediately after the cmos screen
in order to access and engage the hddn partition. Your pc's mfg site may
have info about this if it applies to your system. But my guess is that if
you were provided only with recovery disks and not a oem or retail version of
windows, then it is likely you have a reserved space on your hard drive for a
restoration process....

--
~~~~~~~~~~~
"To be a 0 or is it to be the 1 ?
That is the data".......W.Gatespeare


"threekids" wrote:


i tried to restore my operating system with the recovery disks i ordered
from hp and in the middle of the creating partition feature it stopped
due to a read error. now i have no operating system and continue to get
the read error about 20 secs into the process. is the disk the problem?




--
threekids

Originally Posted by Richard Urban

Yes, it does sound like you have a defective disk. You did get 20% into the
recovery. That tends to indicated that the drive is OK.

Contact the computer manufacturer. They can send you a new set of recovery
disks for your particular computer, usually at a nominal cost.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!



"threekids" wrote in message
...

i tried to restore my operating system with the recovery disks i ordered
from hp and in the middle of the creating partition feature it stopped
due to a read error. now i have no operating system and continue to get
the read error about 20 secs into the process. is the disk the problem?




--
threekids

Thank you for the reply. I guess my disks must have gotten scratched since my last install about 2 months ago. My 2 1/2 year old got the disks and must have damaged at least the first one (there are 8 in all). Im thinking hp wont replace those as defective.

Originally Posted by databaseben

if you have a c:/I386 folder then you can run winnt32.exe or winnt.exe which
ever one will work...

another things is that you might have a hidden partition that has the
program that will install your recovery disks from the mfg. Some systems use
the f10 key that must be pressed and held immediately after the cmos screen
in order to access and engage the hddn partition. Your pc's mfg site may
have info about this if it applies to your system. But my guess is that if
you were provided only with recovery disks and not a oem or retail version of
windows, then it is likely you have a reserved space on your hard drive for a
restoration process....

--
~~~~~~~~~~~
"To be a 0 or is it to be the 1 ?
That is the data".......W.Gatespeare


"threekids" wrote:


i tried to restore my operating system with the recovery disks i ordered
from hp and in the middle of the creating partition feature it stopped
due to a read error. now i have no operating system and continue to get
the read error about 20 secs into the process. is the disk the problem?




--
threekids

The problem is that I cant get to the f10 (recovery) screen anymore because ive lost my whole operating system. When I started the recovery process the first time (using the disks I ordered for my specific unit) it went through the first step of creating a new partition, and I guess after it formated the drive and got ready for next step...it failed. After re-booting I got a black screen with the msg no operating system found and/or corrupt partition.
Ive since bought a scratch repair kit and am hoping this will fix the read error im getting from the disk. If this does not fix it, is there ANY way to retreave hidden revovery info? Maybe through a command promt? In which case I have no clue how to get to that point. LoL...

threekids wrote:

-The problem is that I cant get to the f10 (recovery) screen anymore
because ive lost my whole operating system. When I started the recovery
process the first time (using the disks I ordered for my specific unit)
it went through the first step of creating a new partition, and I guess
after it formated the drive and got ready for next step...it failed.
After re-booting I got a black screen with the msg no operating system
found and/or corrupt partition.
Ive since bought a scratch repair kit and am hoping this will fix the
read error im getting from the disk. If this does not fix it, is there
ANY way to retreave hidden revovery info? Maybe through a command
promt? In which case I have no clue how to get to that point. LoL...

The quickest and most efficient thing to do is to call HP and order a
replacement set of disks. The last time one of my clients did this the cost
was around $25USD. Your alternative is to purchase a retail operating
system which is around $200 for XP Home full. Then put the recovery disks
in a safe place away from toddlers.

Malke
--
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic"

it's not easy to delete a hidden partition. It can be deleted but it takes
special steps that i don't think were processed. It does sound like you have
been experiencing a number of problems before, hence the subseuent formatting
and restoration processes, which failed as well. It may be that you simply
lost the hard drive, maybe a mechanical failure or maybe a boot virus. The
message you get does say corrupt partition, but this would likely be your
accessable partition and not the hidden one.

If one of the disks has an \I386 folder then it will have a file called
winnt32.exe and it may help launch the recovery console. Let us know if
you find this on your disks.

Another possibility is to obtain a windows cd from anyone, anywhere and
utilize the tools on it to bring some functionality to your system. Of
course the installation of windows from someone elses cd will be registered
to another system. But it will give you something like 15 uses before
windows stops being functional. I think that you will only use it once and
to help diagnose your system.......
--
~~~~~~~~~~~
"To be a 0 or is it to be the 1 ?
That is the data".......W.Gatespeare


"threekids" wrote:


databaseben Wrote:
if you have a c:/I386 folder then you can run winnt32.exe or winnt.exe
which
ever one will work...

another things is that you might have a hidden partition that has the
program that will install your recovery disks from the mfg. Some
systems use
the f10 key that must be pressed and held immediately after the cmos
screen
in order to access and engage the hddn partition. Your pc's mfg site
may
have info about this if it applies to your system. But my guess is
that if
you were provided only with recovery disks and not a oem or retail
version of
windows, then it is likely you have a reserved space on your hard drive
for a
restoration process....

--
~~~~~~~~~~~
"To be a 0 or is it to be the 1 ?
That is the data".......W.Gatespeare


"threekids" wrote:
-

i tried to restore my operating system with the recovery disks i
ordered
from hp and in the middle of the creating partition feature it
stopped
due to a read error. now i have no operating system and continue to
get
the read error about 20 secs into the process. is the disk the
problem?




--
threekids
-The problem is that I cant get to the f10 (recovery) screen anymore
because ive lost my whole operating system. When I started the recovery
process the first time (using the disks I ordered for my specific unit)
it went through the first step of creating a new partition, and I guess
after it formated the drive and got ready for next step...it failed.
After re-booting I got a black screen with the msg no operating system
found and/or corrupt partition.
Ive since bought a scratch repair kit and am hoping this will fix the
read error im getting from the disk. If this does not fix it, is there
ANY way to retreave hidden revovery info? Maybe through a command
promt? In which case I have no clue how to get to that point. LoL...




--
threekids