TOPIC: Daughter needs recovery disk

The odds are very slim here, but my daughter has an old laptop (HP Pavilion ze2000) with XP Home on it. She needs to reinstall everything and tech support doesn't, if you get my drift.

So I'm hoping against hope we can find her an old install CD. She has a valid key, just needs a disk.

If anyone can help please send a PM. And yes, the easiest thing in the long run is just get a new laptop, and she probably will if we can't find a CD. Thanks for looking.

Brad,

You are best off replacing the hard drive and mounting it externally for data retrevial. Put a new OS on the new drive. I know this isnt exactly what you were looking for but it is likley the fastest resolution you will find. Also the new OS will run loads faster than a repaired one.

Just my two cents.

In the meantime I'll see about finding a resorce for a recovery disk.

All the best,
Fizz

Part of the trouble is the drivers. I can't get the new XP install to recognize it has a wireless network. Maybe Win 7 will be smart enough, but I hate to spend $100+ for a new OS on a very old laptop to find out it isn't. At that point it makes more sense to just put that money towards a new laptop. Other than that concern, I agree with everything you're saying. But thanks for trying to help.

I saw a driver disk for that unit on ebay for $4.95 I think.

Just looked it up.

I saw that, too. I may try it if I can't find the full recovery disk. (I have copies of all the driver, I just can't get XP to accept them. I got the other 12 installed but that one stubbornly won't go.)

There were at least 2 different wireless cards that the HP Pavilion ze2000 used. One was Intel and the other was Broadcom. Have you tried both?