HP recovery won't work

[sqzdog]

I added a hard drive to my friends HP Pavilion a384x. The darn drive had files on it so it screwed up the boot off the main drive and the system wouldn't boot. (ntldr is missing)

I want to do a system recovery using the F10 key, but it doesn't work. Here's what I have done to make this worse:

-Removed the additional hard drive.
-Replaced the boot files from a good xp computer (didn't work)
-reinstalled XP.
-after installing XP, realized that I should have just done the F10 thing to reload off of the recovery partition.

Is there anyway to access the recovery partition to reload off of that so I don't have to go through the licensing issues? I am trying to cover all the bases before I shell out $20 for a set of recovery disks. I realize that by reinstalling XP I probably locked myself out of using the F10 key.

Thank you in advance for any advice.

[mazdarx7-64]

You may have killed the recovery partition when you installed XP also. Make sure that it is still there, some recovery disk just access the recovery partition to reinstall, so make sure the partition is still there, with the info on it, before you pay out the cash. If it is gone see if you can get disks that do a restore without the partition there.

[sqzdog]

Yes, the partition is still there "D:\HP_RECOVERY It won't let me open it though.

[PresterJohn]

>after installing XP, realized that I should have just done the F10 thing to reload off of the recovery partition

what happened after you reinstalled xp? is the system working? if so, why bother about the recovery partition.

[sqzdog]

Well, it says that I have 30 days to get a CD key. How do I get that? I guess I can actually wipe the whole drive including the recovery partition, right? Then reinstall XP?

[PresterJohn]

>Well, it says that I have 30 days to get a CD key. How do I get that?

sounds like you used a standard XP cd to do the reinstall. in which case, you need to call microsoft and get an activation key. just tell them you had a virus and had to reformat again. not quite the truth but that should be enough for them to provide you with the key.

[sqzdog]

ok, one last question. How do I remove XP? I want to reformat the entire drive. I want to remove the D: HP_RECOVERY Partition also. How can I boot to a C: prompt without starting up XP?

[sqzdog]

Nevermind, I got it! Thanks a bunch. Happy Holidays.

[mazdarx7-64]

Nothing like posting o TIMO on the hollidays........

[PresterJohn]

if the restore partition is not hidden, you could use a regular windows/dos boot disk and run fdisk to delete the partitions or even the XP cd (during the setup portion).

for hidden partitions, a drive wiping utility from the drive manufacturer or a freeware utility like killdisk will do: www.killdisk.com