HP Recovery CD's error do not support this pc 1

[Mark59]

Hi,
Last year I was fixing a HP Pavilion A350n in my shop. I needed to replace the hdd. The hp did not come with recovery disks and the customer did not make them with the application recovery disk maker. I ordered disks from hp and they worked fine.
The computer has come in again because of viruses and ad,spy,mal ware. I went to use the disks and get this error. These system recovery cd's do not support this hp pc model. I contacted hp by mail and they said to del partition and create new then format and boot with cd in drive. I am still getting the message. Now they say go to an authorized repair center. Just another way the big box maker screws you with the recovery cd's. can anyone help.

 

[micker377]

Has the customer replaced anything inside the computer (CPU, Mem, Hard drive), or updated the BIOS? Any of these may stop the Restore Disk from recognizing the computer. Can you boot with a Win 98 floppy, use Fdisk, and check for any partitions interfering with the install?

 

[bcastner]

No.

HP used a small, hidden, FAT16 partition to use for the recovery.

At some point you cleaned the hard disk of this partition.

 

[Mark59]

Thank You for your responses. Last year when this pc came in it needed a hdd. It did not have any disks. I contacted HP and they sent me a new set. They worked fine last year but when I went to use them now they said not for this model. I contacted HP and they told me to del partition and create new then format and reboot with disk in and it would work. Guess what.

 

[Mark59]

Also, no new hardware or BIOS flash has occured

 

[mainegeek]

Mark59,
If there was an additional CD-Rom drive added (such as a burner) you need to disconnect it and put the originally cd-rom drive back to the original config (probably master on the second controller) the additional drive can "throw off"
the LASTDRIVE= in the restore process. Restore CD's use to
push out to "M" or "Q" but I don't believe they are configured that way any more. I have had to do this many times with repairs. Also, some/most Restore CD's have a Bios Id check as well so if you swap out a mobo they won't
work either. In this case you can contact the PC mfg. and they can usually give you a string to add at the C:\<prompt>
and before the setup that will by-pass the Bios Id check.