Looking for Compaq Presario C799TU Recovery CD ISO Images

Hi.

I've inheritied a Presario Notecook C799TU (P/N FF406PA).

It's 160Gb HD had fully died.

It's had it's driver replaced with a 320Gb one. Which, obiously, is totally blank.

It does not come with the supplied recovery CD's.

It originally came with a Vista install. Compaq/HP are not able to assist me in obtaining replacement CD's. Microsoft (correctly, I think) refers me back to HP.

So, would anyone have a copy of the original recovery CD's, that I could get an ISO image of?

As otherwise, the issues I've had in recovering this laptop (SATA driver issues under XP and Windows 7 boot CD's) is probably looking at having this consigned to the scrap heap.

Thanks for any assistance that anyone is able to offer,

-Chris

I've tried that.

I'm in Australia, so I can not order via the US web.

I called support and it was either a 4-6 week wait (something that is not acceptable) or simply not available.

Hence, why I was looking for someone who already had them.

-Chris

No I don't have Vista Images, but it's looking like I might have too.

Given that Windows 7 does not see the HD, I'm wondering if I really do need the Compaq specific one that came with the pre-loaded HD.

Which is the other reason why I was looking for the recovery cd's - to get the *rest* of the pre-loaded software.

-Chris

Thanks for the reply.

Yes I can get into the bios. It's recognised. It also succesfully managed to run and complete the quick test. The long test is running now. The 320Gb was the smallest that I could purchase.

I put the SATA drive into IDE mode (Disabled the SATA mode), well, I've tried both options.

I'll try Vista soon.

Windows 7 does not see the drive at all.

With XP, it performed the initial install (the text mode one) but then would not boot from the HD. The odd thing here was, that when the XP CD booted again, it did see the drive, and recognise that the files were indeed there.

So I'm kind of lost...

-Chris

Ok. So here's where we're at.

XP Professional. SATA Disabled.

Can see the disk. Can partition (to 128Gb, XP (no service pack)). Can copy files to it (the text portion of the install).

*BUT* upon reboot, it gives a disk read error.

Vista. SATA Disabled.

Vista. SATA Enabled.

Windows 7. SATA Disabled.

Windows 7. SATA Enabled.

None of them can see the disk.

I don't get it.

I'm almost at the point of setting up Linux and running windows in a VM... :-)

-Chris

Quote:

Originally Posted by qhn 

XP requires a SATA driver to be slip-streamed in order to complete the installation on SATA drives.
Give Vista a try, I still think that you might need to try out with a smaller size drive. Any BIOS update for this model?
cheers ...

The problem with that, is that I am not exactly sure of *which* drivers to install!

Although I've gotne through a multitude of Intel SATA/chipset drivers, matrix managers etc. Some of them load. some don't. None of them allow me to see the disk.

The bios rev of this machine is F.33. The latest that I can see is F.35. The only stated difference is an improvement of battery life.

Which brings me to another issue? How does one do a boot floppy BIOS update on a diskless machine? There is an option to update the bios from windows, but I'm not getting that far...

-Chris

Quote:

Originally Posted by qhn 


Take a look at your chipset and download the driver from Intel direct
Let's wait until you sort out the OS installation first before tackling the BIOS update then
cheers ...

That's the problem! I cann't find accurate or detailed information on the machine, even from the compaq/hp site.

I'll try to find a smaller disk.

But it's a long shot. I'm not sure why the BIOS and XP can see it, and then nothing else can.

-Chris

Isn't the 965 a graphics chip(set)?

Or does it do more?

I think that is why I'm a little confused on this.

-Chris

PS: Thank you for all of your help, it's appreciated.

Solved!!!!!!

:-)

I used a copy of Hiren's Boot CD (14.1) and in it was a freeware parition editor that I used to create a partition.

Once that was done, it worked.

Vista worked. Windows 7 also worked.

*NOW* my memory comes back, that this is not the first time that a totally brand new drive has refused to be recognised and needed some real low level stuff to start it off.

I'm still very surprised that Windows 7 (of all things) still can not do this.

I went back and wiped all the disk fully.

And now, it can still be recognised! SO I do not know what initial condition was that was preventing this from working. Previously, I didn't see that the Advanced>New option was available (but hey, most of this has been done very late at night...)

Sigh. Shrug.

SO, many, many thanks for your willingness to help.

-Chris