pc restore disc question

patchy987

hi

ok so my friend has screwed her laptop up and needs to reinstall windows. she didnt make any restore discs when she got the pc, but if i llet her use mine will that work or do they have a special code that only lets them work on one pc ??

thanks for any advice

Donnie

Be sensible. How can we know what you have, compared to what she needs? You need to tell us both. What does the COA of the bottom of her laptop state?

patchy987

i honestly have no idea what a COA is.

im not very clued up when it comes to pc's all i know is we both run windows xp and thought maybe my system restore discs would work on her machine. sounds like it might be more confusing than that ?

diable

If you have a Dell and she has a Lenovo then it won't work. What makes are the laptops?

Rich99

It all depends on the way the restore disk is made. If it's a plain, standard windows cd, then it will work fine - they are the same for every machine. However if it's an image - i.e. rather than an install disk, it's just a copy of your hard disk - then it may not work quite so well because the wrong drivers will be on there.

Either way, if windows needs re-installing, you've not got much to lose, so you may as well try it. If it installs OK, you may have to change the serial number from one for your make of laptop, to hers, and you may have to find some new drivers. Try it & see!

robredz

Does she have a "Rescue" disk? many lappys have a hidden partition with drivers and other essential restore files on it, and the rescue disk is not a fukll windows it relies on access to the hidden partition to reinstall windows. Several people I know, with Dell lappys have these, and you have to be careful if you use FDISK, not to wipe out the hidden partition, rendering the rescue disk a coaster. If not you could try another disk but be prepared to hunt online for drivers for her hardware where it is different.

SimbaSimon

Usually restore CDs are specific to the manufacturer. E.g. Dell discs will work on other Dell's, but not HP's. HP discs will work on other HP's but not on Dell's.

totalsolutions

Entering the BIOS, is there a new screen, accepting factory restores ?

Sorry, if you are not a techie then this might hurt a little.

Donnie

patchy987 wrote: »

hi

ok so my friend has screwed her laptop up and needs to reinstall windows. she didnt make any restore discs when she got the pc, but if i llet her use mine will that work or do they have a special code that only lets them work on one pc ??

thanks for any advice

Start again by stating the brand and model numbers, as well as what you mean by "screwed up".

patchy987

hi guys, ok so reading all your comments, i think im in way over my head,

i have told her to take it to our local pc repair centre. hopefully they can sort it

thanks for trying to help us though

JasX

SimbaK2K wrote: »

Usually restore CDs are specific to the manufacturer. E.g. Dell discs will work on other Dell's, but not HP's. HP discs will work on other HP's but not on Dell's.

Not true in my experience

I had an old Dell xp install disk dating from 2003 and used it for years on the other machines in my parent house, medion desktop, compaq laptop, custom built PC... never had any trouble tho it did install some extra dell junk you had to remove each time and it wouldn't auto activate windows on the non-dell machines, you had to put in the windows 'key' manually froom the COA but all worked fine, as it got old you had to manuallly install the latest service packs before connecting to the internet too.

->forgot once and the machine lasted about 9 seconds before being torn into by malware.....