PC's

Post by **jtd.75** » Tue May 05, 2009 6:32 pm

Hi all its me again, this time its a pc problem. I have been given a HP 730 Pavilion by my daughter and it originally came with windows XP Home and her husband reformatted it a put Linux (ubuntu) on it, it still has the ms product key label on the side and I want to re-install XP on it but they lost the discs that came with it. Does anyone out there known how I can re-install xp. I rang MS who told me to ring HP this I did and went through all the menues and not one of them was any use to me. I have tried emailing them (twice over the last 10 days) and not had a reply yet!!!

Post by **d_harris** » Tue May 05, 2009 6:44 pm

On the sticker, what type of XP does it say?

i.e. home, professional etc...

Post by **jtd.75** » Tue May 05, 2009 6:51 pm

Hi Dan, I obviously did not make it very clear when I said that it came with windows XP Home sticker on the side

The answer is XP Home

Post by **d_harris** » Tue May 05, 2009 6:53 pm

And presumably it has the license key attached?

download XP home and use a CD burner in Ubuntu to dump it on a cd...

Post by **jtd.75** » Tue May 05, 2009 7:04 pm

Thanks Dan I will give it a try. Have you thought of apply to HP for a job and if so give them a few tips on how to reply to emails

Jimmy

Post by **d_harris** » Tue May 05, 2009 7:11 pm

I already work in customer service. Just not for those monkeys

Post by **jtd.75** » Tue May 05, 2009 7:20 pm

Hi Dan just had a quick look at the ms site but not sure what I am looking for as it did not jump out had it me straight in the eye. I bet your firm does not pay you enough

Post by **d_harris** » Tue May 05, 2009 7:21 pm

Ah, you dont do it via Microsoft, they would want you to re-buy it!

I'll PM you

Post by **bmcecosse** » Tue May 05, 2009 10:08 pm

It's likely it was pre-loaded to your PC - and so there probably were no 'discs' to lose! I was caught with that one. You are supposed to make your own 'recovery' discs when you first get the computer. Needless to say - most don't realise this - or don't bother.

Post by **jtd.75** » Wed May 06, 2009 1:31 pm

Yep your right bmc, i had a word with my son who bought a pc with windows pre installed and they dont come with a disk it seems that there is a way to recover the info by pressing one of the F keys but he could not remember the sequence, and he asked me why did'nt i make a disk as soon as i got it.

Post by **d_harris** » Wed May 06, 2009 11:25 pm

if it helps, my laptop you hit F4 as its booting up....

Post by **alainmoran** » Fri May 08, 2009 1:19 am

EEEEEEK ... why on EARTH would you swap linux for XP?

OK so ubuntu is a bit pants when you compare it to xubuntu, but if you install 'wine' on either then you can run pretty much ALL of the XP software you want without having to deal with all the malware risks that come with XP.

Really, honestly ... give up on the fascination for all things microsoft ... the only reason corporates use it is because the decision makers have been promoted to their level of incompetence - they haven't a clue what ACTUALLY works in the real world, and the majority of 'users' just follow the corporates because they 'must know what they are doing'.

Take it from a geek ... linux does everything you want in a better more stable way than windows ever can .. it even runs windows software faster than windows does!

If you are worried that it is difficult to use then stop fretting .. I talked my parents into switching to xubuntu last time they needed a reformat and a couple of weeks later offered them the chance to go back to XP if they wanted .... they wouldnt touch XP with a barge pole now - xubuntu is both faster and more stable, it also lets them watch more channels on their digital telly card (I'm not entirely sure how, but it does), and photoshop now boots in seconds rather than minutes.

If you *really* want a copy of the XP iso then google for 'rapidshare XP iso', but dont blame me when after six months you need to wipe the chuffer YET AGAIN because it has slowed down to a crawl with all the malware that has installed itself.

Post by **alainmoran** » Fri May 08, 2009 1:23 am

To install wine go to a command prompt and type:

sudo apt-get install wine

Then type your password ... linux will do the rest for you .. to install XP software all you then need to do is stick the CD in the drive, double-click the setup.exe and then hit next, next, next (etc)

Post by **pfgiz** » Fri May 08, 2009 7:19 am

Being a man with 'some' knowledge of PC's I'd have to agree with Alainmoran. Linux is infinitely better than Windows and, as more people have been using it of late, is now better stocked as a viable replacement than it was a few years ago.
I've was recently Vista'd on my laptop but after waiting over 2 minutes for a directory listing I rebuilt using SUSE 11.1. It now boots in half the time and has all of the functionality of the old system.
Since then I've found myself 'linuxing' almost everything that moves. I've got an old PII333 (yes a Pentium II - obsolete and useless in today’s standards) retrieving my mail quicker than the Vista machine could. It has never crashed and it doesn't complain about 'security fixes' every 3 days. Most of the apps are free too having been developed using ‘open source’ by the users themselves.
So why change back to Microsoft. Is it for originality? Like getting a '58 Minor that's had a 1300 lump put in it and swapping back to a 948 because “that’s what it came with”? If it’s the thought of change think about this;
With the introduction of Windows7 Microsoft will be retiring XP and soon the fixes and support will be gone, as it is with ’98, forcing you down the route of Vista and 7. The icons will all move, the windows will change, buttons will not be where they were on XP, so you’ll have to re-learn a new OS sooner of later. Why choose Windows with its malware, bugs and endless updates when you can choose Linux, an OS so stable that Apple used it as a base for MAC OS X.

Just my thoughts…….

Post by **alex_holden** » Fri May 08, 2009 8:11 am

pfgiz wrote:Linux, an OS so stable that Apple used it as a base for MAC OS X.

A slightly pedantic point, but OS X's XNU kernel is actually based on Mach and BSD Unix, not Linux.

Post by **pfgiz** » Fri May 08, 2009 9:41 am

alex_holden wrote:
pfgiz wrote:Linux, an OS so stable that Apple used it as a base for MAC OS X.
A slightly pedantic point, but OS X's XNU kernel is actually based on Mach and BSD Unix, not Linux.

It would appear that Steve 'kept it in the family' when he looked for the NeXT version of his OS for the MAC. Choosing to go with NeXT's 'openstep' OS as a base instead of say Sun's Solaris or Windows NT. They liked it so much they bought the company. The history of MAC OS is shown here for those who are interested or find it hard to get to sleep at night: http://osxbook.com/book/bonus/ancient/w ... story.html

The point I was making was that they are based on an OS capability that is a lot more mature than Microsoft’s, and if your going to have to learn a new OS sooner or later due to upgrades and forced obsolesces why not go now and choose Linux. It may be worth mentioning that a lot of the new ‘web books’ run a light version of Linux to give them sub-minute boot times. Although you can get Windows versions of them if you want to pay out extra on a license for the Microsoft OS and don't mind waiting for them to boot.

It's not like I have a preference, I run everything, and being a retro nut that means lovelies such as RiscOS, Atari TOS and Amiga Workbench.

Use whatever you feel more comfortable with.

Post by **MarkyB** » Fri May 08, 2009 6:23 pm

I was going to chip in and say give Ubuntu a chance but I've been beaten to it

Unless you need to run some very specialised Windows software it will do everything you need. And the price is right

Drag the tool bar to the bottom of the screen and pick a blue and white colour scheme and just use it!
If you should have a problem there is plenty of help available on-line.
You'll even save money on anti-virus software. You wont need it.

Post by **jtd.75** » Sat May 09, 2009 2:09 pm

just load the bt BB disc on the pc and it will not accept it it is only sitable for MS MAC & Mac. I rang the BT so called help desk somewhere in India who told me that the only systems that they support is MAC APPLE & MS.

sorly that can't be right can it. and in case you are wondering how i am able to put this on the forum, i am using my wifes pc while she is out

Post by **pfgiz** » Sat May 09, 2009 8:50 pm

I'm at a loss.. What's on the BT BB disk that's so important?

I have BT BB and have never used either their Hubs or Software. My router uses the user-name and password given to me by BT to connect to the BB service and everything else just works. I have Mac, WinTel and Linux machines all hooked up to the net and, if I really feel daring, I can get the Acorn to see the web too.
My Wii uses it as does the iPhone and PSP. All without the use of the BT BB disk....
It should just be a case of joining your wireless network, by using your security codes which can be found on the back of your home hub if you use one, or plugging it directly into the back of your hub with a network cable.
Set your machine to automatically detect its IP address and all should work.

It may be worth trying to match the settings on your laptop with the working machine.

Good luck…..

Post by **tonicaek** » Mon May 11, 2009 11:42 am

pfgiz is right - as long as you've got your settings to detect the IP and have the router password on hand you should be able to connect without the disc.
We recently changed our broadband provider to BE from BT, and it was only the MS machines in the household that needed to use the disc(s) provided by the ISP, Airport on my Macs picked up the wireless and only asked for the password provided on the back of the router.