I have an HP laptop and it is sunning very very slowly. I put it on sleep when I went to bed and woke up and it had a light blue screen that said I needed to restore the computer. So I turned it off and brought it to the Best Buy I bought it from and had the Geek Squad look at it and it turned on like it usually does. They said it would cost $130 for them to restore it and to put all my documents, pictures, and music back on from my external hard drive. I dont have that kind of money right now. Is there any thing I can do to make it last about 2 months? When I open the "my computer" folder it shows that the HP Recovery is very very full. I had a back up disc made for it but unfortunately cant find it. I need this laptop to last for 2 more months cause then I will have my fishing money and I will be moving onto a Mac. Any help is very very appreciated. Thanks!!

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Do a disk cleanup then a defrag

start-programs-accessories-system tools

you cant do anything with out the disks for the system restore i believe.

if you dont have the disks you can get them from HP or a torrent (advanced user)

also what you might be able to do is, what i have done, is download the OEM version of the operation system from a torrent and install it, search like HP OEM and see what comes up.

I did it to a friends computer and it took 2 trys to get it working different builds of the software i guess of the OS (operating system) but i got it working and it activated and updated perfect.

1 try the serial code at the bottom of the computer dident work redownloaded another version and it worked fine.

Make sure you have a 2nd computer to redownload and burn if need be

the other nice part of the HP OEM windows download was that it wasent bloated with all the software that comes with it makeing your computer run a tad better.

also Make sure to download the Wireless interent drivers from the HP website. so you can get the interent working right away, then the video drivers, sound drivers etc....

 

You can do a system restore without the CD's.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...cname=bph07145

 

well i guess you can but i havent tryed. do a recovery without disks.

it all depends on what you want to do.

My buddy was about to throw it out till i got my hands on it now he says it works better then when he first bought it.

Theres a handfull of ways to do the same thing just personal preference.

 

Blue screen of death.... always a fun situation.

Anyways, a system restore is basically going back in time to a previous point in your computers life. If you go to this website, it will tell you how to use XP's system restore, if your OS is XP. Since you have all of your files backed up on an external hd, you can be a little more aggressive using the system restore since you do not have to worry about loosing files.

I think the geeksquad guys and shroville were talking about a system reboot, where you basically take everything off the computer and start from the beginning. Doing this is annoying and can take alot of time.

 

How easy would the system restore be for me? I took a CIS class last year and didnt learn a thing so everything that has been posted does not make sense lol. But I do appreciate the input. Should I use the link posted with very minimal computer knowledge?

 

Also My computer sounds like it is running really hard if that makes sense. Almost like it is loading a CD the whole time.

 

how old is it?

i can get a computer reformated and all drivers installed in under 2 hours.

is the sound coming from the cddrive? or the HD (harddrive)?

 

I bought it when I left for my freshman year...so Aug 07 I think. And the sound is coming from the Hard Drive I believe, Its coming from the oppostie side if the CD Drive so I am assuming that's the hard drive.

 

If you can press F8 and boot up Windows in Safe-Mode then you are golden. From there you can back up your documents and stuff.

 

Wait what does F8 exactly do? Do it while I'm booting up the computer?

 

Not sure id probably have to look at it

Geeksquad is a joke try to find somebody local.

its cheaper you support the economy by going to a mom a pop shop and turnaround time is alot better.

 

There is a good chance your hard drive is failing - and no kind of restore is going to fix that. Follow the link I provided and do a "nondestructive" restore and see if that helps.

You may want to run some diagnostics on the hard drive first just to determine if it's failing. This will require that you download diagnostics from the hard drive manufacturer (if you can determine the brand) in CD .iso format, and burn a bootable CD. The Hitachi Drive Fitness Test can test all brands as a fallback.

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/suppor...2_v415_b01.iso

CD image?2,720 K)
Creates bootable CD for Linux, Windows and other operating systems ( requires CD-RW drive and software).

The way to burn an iso is with burning software - the built-in burning in XP cannot do it. You use the software (Nero, Roxio, etc.) and you open and burn it "as an image", you can't just copy it to a blank CD.

 

I like to do clean installs of XP. Just format and install...

Downside is that most people don't have all their original software...

 

Your a good man