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General discussion (archive)Computer Question(31 posts)solved(31 posts)solved
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This is my favourite topic
Posted July 03, 2014
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OldFatGuy: Oh, sorry, I guess this means any disc may not work and you may need the original disc (or another Compaq one) after all.

My bad.
Actually any Compaq OEM Windows 7 disc will work, doesen't have to be the original one for the specific computer. Also no serial key is required for OEM versions if it adheres to the conditions described by JMich.

EDIT: Ninja'd by JMIch, is there an echo in here. :P
Post edited July 03, 2014 by stg83
Posted July 03, 2014
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JMich: Any disc will work. If the disc+BIOS combo is correct, the activation process is bypassed completely (as in most laptops). If the disc+BIOS combo is incorrect, a working serial is needed, and Windows need to be activated (either online, or through phone).
Oh, sorry, I misunderstood bypassed originally. I thought you meant the BIOS may look for a specific disc and bypass installation if not found, but you meant it would bypass activation.

Okay, I get it now. Any disc would work, it's just depending on which one determines whether a valid code is required or not. Hopefully, the one available is valid.
Post edited July 03, 2014 by OldFatGuy
Posted July 03, 2014
Again thanks for all the help. I did some research and I should be able to just get the right disk from HP for a fairly low price if it comes to that.

edit: You all have been so helpful I don't know who to actually put down as solved lol. Ill probably leave it open for a while longer and pick someone after my dad gets off of work and we decide our best course of action.
Post edited July 03, 2014 by coxdr
Posted July 03, 2014
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coxdr: Again thanks for all the help. I did some research and I should be able to just get the right disk from HP for a fairly low price if it comes to that.
Good luck, I hope it works out okay.
Posted July 03, 2014
Do you know if the disk has a recovery partition? I know that many computers from HP/Compaq had the disk pre-loaded on the hard drive.

In Windows Explorer, check to see if there are other drives other than C:. Usually, it will be labeled as a separate drive, something like "Recovery".

If so, you can boot directly to this partition and do a repair or recovery. Worst case scenario, this will format the drive to factory settings, so make sure any files & programs are backed up first.
Posted July 03, 2014
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chadjenofsky: Do you know if the disk has a recovery partition? I know that many computers from HP/Compaq had the disk pre-loaded on the hard drive.

In Windows Explorer, check to see if there are other drives other than C:. Usually, it will be labeled as a separate drive, something like "Recovery".

If so, you can boot directly to this partition and do a repair or recovery. Worst case scenario, this will format the drive to factory settings, so make sure any files & programs are backed up first.
I did check this but the original owner did a complete hard drive wipe :(
Posted July 03, 2014
That's unfortunate. I agree with the others. You'll need to see if the seller has any of the disks. However, don't hold your breath. Compaq & HP stopped shipping disks years before your computer was manufactured. They instead had that data on the HDD which could be burned to a cd at the user's option (though I wonder how many people actually did this.)

I think it more probable that you will have to order a recovery disk through HP/Compaq for a nominal shipping fee.
Posted July 03, 2014
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chadjenofsky: That's unfortunate. I agree with the others. You'll need to see if the seller has any of the disks. However, don't hold your breath. Compaq & HP stopped shipping disks years before your computer was manufactured. They instead had that data on the HDD which could be burned to a cd at the user's option (though I wonder how many people actually did this.)

I think it more probable that you will have to order a recovery disk through HP/Compaq for a nominal shipping fee.
I did some research the disk I need plus shipping would cost me about 17$. I may go with that as its not really that bad.
Posted July 03, 2014
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chadjenofsky: They instead had that data on the HDD which could be burned to a cd at the user's option (though I wonder how many people actually did this.)
And very likely it's a hidden option somewhere. Plus i could never make sense of the recovery partitions.
Posted July 03, 2014
Meh, just throw a Linux distro on it.

Coincidentally, a friend gave me his HP Pavilion laptop today since he doesn't want it anymore. It has Win7 on it, but I'm putting some flavor of Linux on it instead. Not sure what yet, but I'm leaning towards LinuxMint.
Posted July 03, 2014
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Coelocanth: Meh, just throw a Linux distro on it.

Coincidentally, a friend gave me his HP Pavilion laptop today since he doesn't want it anymore. It has Win7 on it, but I'm putting some flavor of Linux on it instead. Not sure what yet, but I'm leaning towards LinuxMint.
Its for my computer illiterate dad so Linux may not be the best idea.
Posted July 03, 2014
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coxdr: do you know any site that gives a good tutorial on how to do this? depending on how our chat goes with the guy later I may have to attempt something like that and I just don't understand ow to change OS's so well as I have never had to do it.
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Coelocanth: You can get Win7 ISO files Here, if you need to.
Not sure if it will make a difference if the OS on it currently is an OEM or not.
It shouldn't be a problem. I had to download that ISO for my Lenovo laptop because they didn't include a disc and neglected to mention that the procedure for creating a recovery DVD left out all of the actual recovery stuff. Which is a bit strange seeing as the laptop didn't have an optical drive at all.
Posted July 03, 2014
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coxdr: Its for my computer illiterate dad so Linux may not be the best idea.
Yeah, that was kind of tongue-in-cheek. Although if all he's after is checking e-mail and cruising some web sites, Linux isn't hard to learn at all for that stuff.
Posted July 03, 2014
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Coelocanth: Meh, just throw a Linux distro on it.

Coincidentally, a friend gave me his HP Pavilion laptop today since he doesn't want it anymore. It has Win7 on it, but I'm putting some flavor of Linux on it instead. Not sure what yet, but I'm leaning towards LinuxMint.
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coxdr: Its for my computer illiterate dad so Linux may not be the best idea.
Just use Linux Mint and he'll be fine. My Dad's barely computer literate and he handled the switch quite well. Once he accepted that IE wasn't an option.
Posted July 03, 2014
I'm a little bit late to the party, but everything the others suggested is correct. The only additional advice I can give is if you want to install win 7 without burning the image to a DVD is to put it on an USB stick and install it from there. It's very quick and quite easy. Just look it up on this article from how to geek.

Hope it helped
Post edited July 03, 2014 by plex0m4n
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General discussion (archive)Computer Question(31 posts)solved(31 posts)solved
(31 posts)solved