COuld you use sony recovery disc on a hp computer??

[ottioyiu]

Do anyone know that will it screw your computer with another comp's recovery disc ? Help ME !!!!!

 

[edfair]

Think you will find that Sony has built in some testing method to kick you out when using it on another manufacturer's machine.
Shouldn't hurt anything except your pride. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[SESaskDFC]

Howdy:

Nope.. Just for the heck of it once, I tried using a friend's Dell recovery cd on my system.. Got a nice little message something to the effect " This program will only work on a certified DELL system"..

Murray

 

[jfhewitt]

I read somewhere that most of the mfgs who preload their systems have a code in the processor chip that ties into the restore package...I don't know how detailed it is (HP to HP, or only particular models). It is for the protection of the customer, to prevent them from screwing up the drivers, etc.

 

[projspec]

No you can't. Recovery would not match the drivers, let alone the specific computer.
You can get a recovery disk from hp if you have the serial number of your machine. I know this works as I have received a disk in the past. The only question is how long they have them.

I suppose you don't know anyone who bought an identical computer in the past. Sure would be nice, though.

 

[jokersmild]

You can try Norton Ghost.

The recovery cd's are nothing more than bootable cd's that have a proprietary image copy program on them. Usually, if you explore the cd with unhiden files, you will see a .bin file, a exe, and a .img. If you are familliar with Ghost you can have it copy the image from the cd to the hard drive. When the computer reboots windows should go through and find new hardware and run throught the wizard and load the drivers.

 

[dbMark]

For the question about HP Windows recovery disks (I think Compaq was similar), from my experience having worked with about a dozen models using Win98se and WinMe, they had at least a few "groups" of models that used different CDs. My impression is that the better, more expensive models had CDs different from the economy models. I assume that the CD contained code that read the mainboard to verify it was really that manufacturer's computer and some BIOS code identifier. If correct, then you're stuck if you replace the MB with one from another source and want to use the company's recovery disk later on.

Every time we had to replace a drive we had to pop in several CDs before we got one to work. Tired of that hassle, I finally took a few hard drives, hooked them up one at a time to a workstation, then ran my most recent compatible CD and copied the install files onto each drive. At the point where it said "Please remove recovery CD and reboot computer", I just turned it off and put in the next drive. That way when a hard drive dies and I need a format/recover, I just pop in one of those "prepared" ones and I am done in a very short time.