Cant Install XP Home

[jmltapp]

I have a new HP a520n, due to problems I needed to reinstall the other week, and lo and behold the recovery disks did not work. So I got my XP Pro disc out and worked fine.

Now HP say to get warranty work done I have to have XP home on system, so I have been trying to get home back on.

If I use the XP from the recovery partition it gets to the 1st reboot then says error 14 for the biosinfo.inf file and resets.

So tried installing using a home oem disc I have, this gives a different problem. It will get to the point where you choose the partition, but it does not detect the correct partitions. It gives me one blank partition, and not the 3 partitions my drive has.

Any ideas on what the problem could be. I just want to get the system back up and running so that I have no warranty issues.

IUm not sure if this would make any issues, but I noticed that the last partition I put on was a logical rather than primary one, not sure if this would affect the manner in which XP sees the drive.

Your opinions are appreciated.

Thanks

Jason

[wedor]

If you are taking it in for repair why not just wipe it out and leave it that way, that should be acceptable.

[wedor]

Here's another possible answer to your problem, http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=312569

[calmius]

Since its a computer from a brand name (Hewlett Packard) then you're likely to be in doo doo, especially if its an older model.

Usually such crappy companies as HP or Compaq will mess around with the BIOS of the computer to make it work best with their settings so no matter how you try to reinstall windows it may create some complications such as it did with my old Compaq computer that I bought in 1998.

Is this a windows CD you bought or somethng that was bundled with HP?

[wedor]

Here is a quote from the original post to answer your question.

"lo and behold the recovery disks did not work"

[andyms18a]

your best option as its under warranty is to run the recovery disk when it fails call hp and have them fix the computer or replace the disk which may be faulty

[nr0c]

Try doing it again but anything that did not come with computer dissconnect them and see if that helps. That is the instructions on there web site. Gary

[piasabird]

HP use to use a file on the hard drive for the CMOS settings. Before to fix something like this, it was possible to download a boot disk and wirte the setup file on the hard drive. If you have phone support you may just need to tell them you had a problem with your computer and when you tried to use the restore disk it did not work, so you deleted all your partitions. I think it is bogous that these people make it so difficult to do something like reinstall the OS.

If their stupid emergency disk did not reload then maybe you erased the old drive image that was suppose to be used to load windows. Call them back and if they give you any bologna ask to speek to their supervisor. Then demand your support money back if they dont help you. Perhaps you should have stopped when it did not work the first time, but you just did not know any better so just tell them that and claim stupidity.