I really messed up this time

Help!! Real short story... I have am older (5 years)hp pavillion; 450
mghz PIII, 96 mb of RAM. Last year bought a new Maxtor HD, 19 GB 7200
RPM; put old HD back in as slave and used it for backup. Ran recovery
disk on new HD and had , well, not many problems over the year running
Windows 98. Bought a new PC and a wireless router and put old pc in
basement. Tried setting up network, got message about having to set up
network manually because of old os. Got stupid and tried to run
recovery from new pc with Windows XP to no avail, but so close.
Reverted back to running recovery from old pc, whick loads but freezes
up in intial setup. I get right to the progress bar for saving setup
settings and it asks to click ok button to restart and just stops. I
know this is an old pc not worth anything but I can't give up (costed
over $3000!). I called hp and the one "american" suggested deleting
the partition and running the recovery again... same results. The
"indian" tech was clueless and ordered some recovery console disks to
be sent to my home. I really don't want to spend any more $ to fix
this thing, so if I could just get it up and running again. It boots
and it get's to safe mode... Anything?

prigante wrote:

I'm a bit confused lost with the details of your story.

Help!! Real short story... I have am older (5 years)hp pavillion; 450
mghz PIII, 96 mb of RAM. Last year bought a new Maxtor HD, 19 GB 7200
RPM; put old HD back in as slave and used it for backup. Ran recovery
disk on new HD and had , well, not many problems over the year running
Windows 98.

OK. Am I correct in thinking that what you are calling a 'recovery disk' is
a HP specific CD that has the entire OS on it as it was installed and
delivered on that specific machine?

Bought a new PC and a wireless router and put old pc in
basement. Tried setting up network, got message about having to set up
network manually because of old os.

What 'said' this, on which machine, when you were doing what with what? (we
can get into the network setup later but, basically, all you should need to
do is leave the TCP/IP settings for the network card at defaults
[automatically get IP address])

Got stupid and tried to run
recovery from new pc with Windows XP to no avail,

And what is this recovery 'whatever' from the new pc? A full image of the
new PC's hard drive with the O.S. on it? You were trying to install XP on
the old one?

Reason I ask is that these 'recovery CDs', that come with it, are often
nothing more than a means to restore 'settings' but not the O.S. itself.

Dern frustrating for me going on site to replace a failed hard drive and
discover that the 'recovery CD' doesn't do a blessed thing other than let
you pick a restore point since, needless to say, a new blank hard drive
ain't GOT no 'restore points'.

but so close.

What does 'close' mean?

Reverted back to running recovery from old pc, whick loads but freezes
up in intial setup. I get right to the progress bar for saving setup
settings and it asks to click ok button to restart and just stops. I
know this is an old pc not worth anything but I can't give up (costed
over $3000!). I called hp and the one "american" suggested deleting
the partition and running the recovery again... same results.

Well, if the recovery CD contains the entire O.S. then this should work so
I'll have to wait for your answer on what it is.

How did you delete the partition? Question being, are you sure you did?


The
"indian" tech was clueless and ordered some recovery console disks to
be sent to my home. I really don't want to spend any more $ to fix
this thing, so if I could just get it up and running again. It boots
and it get's to safe mode...

What does it do when you try a normal boot?

Did you install a network card in the old PC to get it on your wireless
router? Because, if you did, Windows can appear to 'hang', or 'lock up',
for a number of minutes (seems like years), especially if it's failing to
get an IP, while the network times out.

Anything?

prigante wrote:
The
"indian" tech was clueless

I think it's far more likely that YOU are the clueless one, judging by
the rest of that post.

I tried fdisk, deleted the partition, but when it started the recovery
I got a warning that the hd was not detected, so I had to go back to
fdisk and initiallize the hd. I ran the recovery off the disk supplied
from hp. It formated the drive and installed all the files for Windows
98. This old pc now starts up but it freezes during the initial setup,
forcing me to hit the power button. The hd is somewhat new, only 1
year old. I even made a copy of the recovery disk, just to rule that
out (scratch or something), no difference. After the recovery is done,
It boots and starts to install all the drivers for the cards, but just
when it is almost done, it freezes and I can't restart without having
to "pull the plug". I haven't even gotten to setting up the network.
The only thing I can do is get into "safe mode", but then I can't
access the dvd rom. Paperweight?

prigante wrote:
I tried fdisk, deleted the partition, but when it started the recovery
I got a warning that the hd was not detected, so I had to go back to
fdisk and initiallize the hd. I ran the recovery off the disk supplied
from hp. It formated the drive and installed all the files for Windows
98. This old pc now starts up but it freezes during the initial setup,
forcing me to hit the power button. The hd is somewhat new, only 1
year old. I even made a copy of the recovery disk, just to rule that
out (scratch or something), no difference. After the recovery is done,
It boots and starts to install all the drivers for the cards, but just
when it is almost done, it freezes and I can't restart without having
to "pull the plug". I haven't even gotten to setting up the network.
The only thing I can do is get into "safe mode", but then I can't
access the dvd rom. Paperweight?


1. how long did you leave it there 'frozen'? Was there any HDD activity
during this time (little red light usually, intermittent)?
2. Have you used the HDD manufacturer's disk testing tools? If not, test
your drive.
3. Have you done any memory testing, like using memtest86 and letting it
go through a complete round? If not, test your RAM.

--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. To jump to the end
of the story, as a result of this I need a bone marrow transplant. Many
people around the world are waiting for a marrow transplant, too. Please
volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/

Hey, numb nuts, what do you know about it? Ever hear of outsourcing,
why do you think I'm here getting free info. I got laid off from my
programming job so some guy in India can do my job for a fraction of
the price. I couldn't understand a word this guy was saying, he didn't
resolve my problem and I got stuck paying $40 just for the call!

In article , prigante says...
Hey, numb nuts, what do you know about it? Ever hear of outsourcing,
why do you think I'm here getting free info. I got laid off from my
programming job so some guy in India can do my job for a fraction of
the price.

Actually, judging by your completely incomprehensible post and your
half assed approach at trying to solve the problem I think you got
SACKED because of INCOMPETENCY.

--
Conor

Normality will be restored once we work out what normality actually is.

prigante wrote:

I tried fdisk, deleted the partition, but when it started the recovery
I got a warning that the hd was not detected, so I had to go back to
fdisk and initiallize the hd. I ran the recovery off the disk supplied
from hp. It formated the drive and installed all the files for Windows
98. This old pc now starts up but it freezes during the initial setup,

I was following fine till the recovery CD supposedly did everything but now
you're talking about "initial setup."

If the recovery CD put it all back on what are you setting up?

forcing me to hit the power button. The hd is somewhat new, only 1
year old. I even made a copy of the recovery disk, just to rule that
out (scratch or something), no difference. After the recovery is done,
It boots and starts to install all the drivers for the cards, but just
when it is almost done, it freezes and I can't restart without having
to "pull the plug".

Are there any cards installed in it that were NOT part of the original PC
that the recovery disk was made for?

I haven't even gotten to setting up the network.
The only thing I can do is get into "safe mode", but then I can't
access the dvd rom.

Well, it's unfortunate but not unusual for the CD-Drive to not work in safe
mode. It depends on the motherboard and whether there is a driver needed
because safe mode is not loading 'special' drivers. That's what makes it
'safe'.

That it gets into safe mode suggests you have a bad card or a bad driver
for some card that's installed in the machine and it's hanging up on that
driver.

Paperweight?

Nah. Just a 'problem'.

Remove any PCI cards in it and see if it'll do a 'regular' boot bare bones.
If not then take out the second drive and CD-Drive(s) and try again.

You didn't answer the question about installing a network card. IS there a
new one in there? If so, did it EVER boot with the new card installed?

When it frezzes up, the hd light is on, I can walk away for 15 -30
minutes and it will still be the same, the mouse is inactive. Btw, I'm
a programmer, not a help desk tech, so ease up...

Actually, I tried using the disk from the hd manufacturer (Maxtor) it
boots to a blank screen; maybe the hd is burnt, but it's new and real
quiet. The original hd that came with this old pc of mine is actually
still working, I use it as a slave for backup; it works even though
it's loud and grinding!