Hard drive (7 posts)

Ken Staines Posted 3 years, 10 months ago Joined: 12 years, 5 months ago

My Hp computer hard drive has bad sectors and I am contemplating replacing this with a new hard drive. Can I use the HP backup programme disks to install windows xp etc onto a new non hp drive? Thanks for any help. Ken

Chris Burrage Posted 3 years, 10 months ago Joined: 12 years, 5 months ago

Re: Hard drive

Yes. There is no "HP" drive, just whatever they were using at the time. Beware size limitations if yours is an older system. What model? What size is the current drive?

Chris B

Dennis from Largo Posted 3 years, 10 months ago Joined: 12 years, 5 months ago

Re: Hard drive

The purpose of the reinstallation disc or disc set is to reinstall to the hard drive the state that the system was in at the factory when shipped. Some reinstall discs will allow partial reinstall and others will not. Be that as it may, you should be able to install to a new drive without a problem, unless there are other reasons that the old drive failed. Such as processor overheat due to fan slowdown, power supply running too hot due to fan slowdown, etc. You should also check with HP if there is a size limitation built into the BIOS that it might not be able to recognize a drive if it is too large.

ALAN ROSCOE Posted 3 years, 10 months ago Joined: 12 years, 5 months ago

Re: Hard drive

In a word, Yes. HP use different manufacturer's HDDs in their machines so the brand and size doesn't matter. Those HP backup/restore disk/s will work. Be sure you enable large disk support in the machine's BIOS.

Ken Staines Posted 3 years, 10 months ago Joined: 12 years, 5 months ago

Re: Hard drive

My computer is an Hp Pavilion model i860a it has a 30 gig hard drive. Thanks

Michael Garcia Posted 3 years, 10 months ago Joined: 12 years, 5 months ago

Re: Hard drive

If the computer is out of HP warranty yes replace it, no if its in warranty get HP to replace it, is it a desktop or laptop? Be careful with the HDD you buy as power requirements might overload the power supply. HP usually have a boot sector hidden in the drive originating to the computer you need that boot sector on the new hdd for the disks to work

Chris Burrage Posted 3 years, 10 months ago Joined: 12 years, 5 months ago

Re: Hard drive

Can't find that model, but if a 30GB HDD, it must be pretty early. I would replace it with an 80GB drive, still easy to obtain and should be recognized without issue. More than likely you will have a 137GB max limit. If it isn't recognized, bung it into a later machine as a slave and partition it into 2 x 40GB. Then it should be OK.

Hard drive (7 posts)

Hard drive (7 posts)

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