Like Ben says, it could be just about anything, including corruption of
the system.sav partition. Unless you have a bootable floppy or CD with
Scandisk.exe on it, it will be tough.
Even if you put in a new HD, the recovery disk would not work because it
must see an intact system.sav partition in order to restore the PC.
You might check around and see if anyone has the full QuickRestore CD set
for your model. This does not require the system.sav partition and can be
used on a blank, formatted hard drive. Unfortunately, Compaq stopped
providing these for pre-XP machines years ago.

Good luck,

HH


"Bruce Varney" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the reply HH. This PC will be used for word-processing only.
I have a COA for ME and also for W2K but If I install W2K on it then it
will be illegal as I have already installed it on another PC. Going to XP
just seems a waste on such a low spec' PC.

I would still like to know why the PC is hanging when it reads the
Recovery Disk.

Bruce.

"HH" wrote in message
news:r9qdnQwo1bxSpHzbnZ2dnUVZ_tWtnZ2d@metrocastcab levision.com...
Bruce,
Do yourself a huge favor and dropkick Windows Millenium out the front
or back door (your choice). WinME is absolute crap and the worst OS MS
ever produced, IMHO.
XP drivers for the 5116EA can be found he

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...30 56&lang=en

You can get an OEM full install version of XP home he

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...2182&CatId=306

Once you see how well XP runs, once you up your RAM, you won't want to go
back. Here is a link to purchase RAM for your Prsario:

http://www.crucial.com/store/listpar... del%205116EA


HH


"Bruce Varney" wrote in message
...
I have a Presario 5116EA that will not restore from the recovery disk.

The OS is ME and is totally screwed, lots of blue screens of death,
freezes up etc. I did swap the hard drive and loaded W2K and the PC
behaves normally so no hardware problems. I have swapped back the hard
drive.

Unfortunately I cannot make an Emergency Disk due to ME being screwed.
When I try to use the recovery disk from rebooting as per the manual,
the PC just hangs with a cursor flashing in the top left hand corner,
also ALT, CTRL, DEL has no effect at all, I have to turn off the PC and
then back on again after removing the recovery disk.

The SYSTEM_SAV partition is still on the hard drive and as far as I can
tell is not corrupted. The drive is partitioned up as follows: -

C: Primary
D: Data Extended
E: SYSTEM_SAV Extended

Any ideas anyone please?

Bruce.