Mom needs a new hard drive.

[sugarplumkitty]

It came up enough for me to check the logs. The system log was completely full of errors that just said "Hard disk" in red. No details about which hard drive but I was able to guess it was her main one.

I did a disk check that only got through the phase where it found and marked the bad sectors, and there were thousands of them. Then it hung.

I did the system recovery and THAT failed because the hard disk is damaged in the recovery sector, too. Mom didn't make recovery CD's because HP computers don't nag people to do that. I tried to order them when I got home only to find HP has discontinued support for her system.

Plan B happens today. I'll buy her a new hard drive and take one of our XP Home CD's over to install her OS again. At least HP puts the license key on the side of the computer so we have her license for it... if it will work. Sometimes the license key will only work with their recovery CD's. Grrr. Then I'll have to buy her an upgrade version of XP since she already has XP darn it! In any case, I'll get her up and running by tonight.

Comments

[amusingmuse.livejournal.com]

Good luck with installing XP. What they want for XP these days is ludicrious, all to push us towards Vista. (Well, haha MS, I'm jumping ship at the end of the year and going Mac and Linux completely.)

Ahh, I had problems with my XP system a couple months ago. It refused to boot. We yanked out the hard drive, put it in the hubs XP system. Still couldn't see it. I booted up my old low RAM LINUX box with it added to it and after hub compiled a kernel option, LIFE! Yeah! It could see everything on the disk that I wanted. It screeched errors in some Windows only directories, but I was able to save everything I hadn't backed up. YEAH! Love *nix!

[sugarplumkitty.livejournal.com]

lol I did a chat session with HP. They had a link to order the recovery CD's. Why didn't they make that findable by search? Sillies.

Mom has opted to wait for the HP Recovery CD installation even though that means SP1. Eric and I are bringing her PC here later today to get the serial number and put in a new hard drive. Since she has dial-up, downloading SP2 will be horrible at her house. We'll get it up-to-speed here on DSL.

ouch

[remontoire.livejournal.com]

Every time my Dad has trouble with his computer I have to remind myself to be grateful for the opportunity to enjoy his company while it lasts. It won't be long before my lessons in patience are not tested by him. You do so well with your Mum. You've helped keep me grateful for my own obligations.

I thought I might have him convinced to move to "DSL" linux with a big demo, but no. I doubt I could even move him to a Mac, but there is maybe greater hope for success from the other siblings.

Have you found a good affordable data recovery software utility?

Re: ouch

[sugarplumkitty.livejournal.com]

There won't be any recovery. Her disk is too damaged. The HP chat person did give me a good link for recovery disks. They're on the way. We'll pick up a hard drive at our favorite computer store probably tomorrow night.

[lilbrattyteen.livejournal.com]

I DID get the one for Jean's working. I want to buy her a touchpad for the desktop, since she can't use a mouse well at all.

[sugarplumkitty.livejournal.com]

touchpads aren't easy either. Trackball might be easier for her. I use one at work.