Recovery disks

I have a pavillion 3300z It is giving me the fits.pulled harddrive and formatted
with vista based computer. First time around recovery disks were burned about 4 years ago. I observed it go through bios then cd rom spun up and PRESTO:flames: bootmgr is missing. Went to hp website and purchased recovery cd`s. reformatted drive and then started with fresh new cd`s presto bootmgr is missing. Tested harddrive through diagnostics in bios tested ok.
I have a xp laptop with a dead battery I plug power cord in when using it.I stuck in # 1 cd to read boot mgr. Laptop will run for a few seconds then shut down then I realize I need to plug it back in. When I turned it on cd rom spun up and I was loading files with boot manager. It appears the disk is ok. any ideas?

Have you tested the ram? If it is an IDE drive, check the jumpers as well. Caps look ok?

Board looks good, Sata connections I do not have any ram to check with.

Do you have a UBCD to boot up and run memtest? Had a Pavillion while back doing the same thing. It did turn out to be the Ram as Guts3d suggested.

One way I test to see if there is a hardware issue with a PC is I try to install ubuntu on it. 99% of the time if there is an issue with the hardware ubuntu will flake out on the install. The added bonus is the Ubuntu CDs have a built in memory test you can use. Just a suggestion though and not something you have to do for troubleshooting.

I think that just about all the glitches reinstalling/installing Windows are due to memory problems, with bad MOBOs a distant second place. I also believe that there isn't any memory diagnostic that can consistently detect some of the memory problems that can prevent Windows installing and running, no matter how many hours they are run. I'd try changing the memory, and if there is still a problem, I would assume there is a problem with the motherboard even if there aren't any obvious physical signs like leaking caps.

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Originally Posted by Niclo Iste

One way I test to see if there is a hardware issue with a PC is I try to install ubuntu on it. 99% of the time if there is an issue with the hardware ubuntu will flake out on the install. The added bonus is the Ubuntu CDs have a built in memory test you can use. Just a suggestion though and not something you have to do for troubleshooting.

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I put ubuntu and it came back read disk error ctrl-alt-delete to restart

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Originally Posted by Zonie

Do you have a UBCD to boot up and run memtest? Had a Pavillion while back doing the same thing. It did turn out to be the Ram as Guts3d suggested.

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I reformatted drive and used xp for formatting. put in xp pro in and I get disk read error. Is that also ram or cdrom not reading?

I believe your cd rom is bad...

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Originally Posted by MobilePCPhysician

I believe your cd rom is bad...

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Ditto! :thumbs:

Thank you guy`s for your input. I have a few DVD writers but they are IDE,
I have no SATA`s They are pretty fair in price on net.

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Originally Posted by xpuser357

Thank you guy`s for your input. I have a few DVD writers but they are IDE,
I have no SATA`s They are pretty fair in price on net.

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You might want to look at the motherboard as there is usually one IDE still on them.

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Originally Posted by Zonie

You might want to look at the motherboard as there is usually one IDE still on them.

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Alot of New boards no longer have IDE ports. I've had to invest in both cheap pci and 1X pci-e expansion cards with built in ide connectors to test random older ide devices.

Welll I guess I learned a few things. This pc is one of the guy`s at work.
He told me he had to go to a computer place to have cd rom fixed. this was before me way before 2 years. It is a Rosewill E-sata 1.5g 1+1 port pc adaptor. I bought a dvd writer sata for nothing, Well I have one for later:thumbs: Disk errors was corrected when i plugged sata cable to mother board. Bios still saw that drive connected to card. but would not function.
Then I started recovery harddrive sang out brrrrrrt clangggg:uke: WTF
I also learned sata fits I have a few laptop drives I am using 120 gig to load to until he gets another drive and then I`ll use Acronis to transfer. Thank you guy`s for input:wave:

Is there anyway to uninstall Vista, I am a novice and don't understand the technical terms. I need uninstal Vista for Dummies.

Welcome Midgen. There isn't an uninstall of any operating system. What you want to do is format a drive. This can be done in many ways. If you're installing a new OS on the computer the CD should cover the formatting and installation for you. You can also choose to just blow away the drive and use a formatting utility or wiping disk. I personally like a full wipe and use dban which can be downloaded off of the net.

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Originally Posted by Midgen

Is there anyway to uninstall Vista, I am a novice and don't understand the technical terms. I need uninstal Vista for Dummies.

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Welcome to Windrivers Midgen. Suggest you post this as a new topic thread since you are posting in an older thread not related to your question.

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Originally Posted by Midgen

Is there anyway to uninstall Vista, I am a novice and don't understand the technical terms. I need uninstal Vista for Dummies.

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Do you have a different operating program other than Vista to work with?

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Originally Posted by cookin chef

Welcome to Windrivers Midgen. Suggest you post this as a new topic thread since you are posting in an older thread not related to your question.

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ooops I noticed your post after I posted, I agree they should start new thread.