So......I got bored between the last time you and I talked and after trying to run the recovery disks and the seatools a couple times, I used seatools to erase the hard drive. Now the recovery disks still wont work and the computer won't do anything now. What do I do now?

 

Replace the hard drive. It's unfortunate that you erased the drive. Hopefully, your recovery disks aren't bad.

I would have said something, but editing your post didn't trigger the subscription notification or bring the thread back up top.

 

Is there anywhere to get a copy of xp and try to load it before I get a new drive? Sorry about erasing it, I just didn't know what to do and it would work. What else could I have done?

 

Xp legally? Since they can't sell it in stores anymore some websites still carry it including my favorite being eBay.

 

If the drive HAD bad sectors, toss it. All Seatools did was lock out the bad sectors, and once sectors start going bad, it only gets worse. It's like cancer.

If you want to try loading XP from something else as a test, you can "borrow" any generic copy of XP (except some other OEM's recovery disk - however, a Dell CD *will* work). See how far it gets, if it gets to the point where it asks for a key, stop there, the chance of the key that's on the case working is not good. A Dell CD will not ask for a key, but you won't be able to activate it.

Try this before you buy a legal or illegal copy of XP.

 

You have one you could send me to use?

 

Let's take this to private messages.

 

Just for some closure - we were able to get a fresh copy of XP loaded on the original hard drive and legally activated using the key on the Sony case without spending a cent.

 

Good job man, I was gonna send him a pm with some info on how to obtain it through other sources but I'm glad you were able to get it done legally.

 

Great! Didn't have to re-license over the phone ? The case license still activated that copy? I usually had to call it in,- w/XP PRO on a 2005 HP FF. Until I partitioned a fresh copy correctly, -that came with the comp. After I set it up perfectly, - or the way it ran the fastest.

Dells are about the easiest aren't they ? Well they use to be anyway. - Default to "D" @ boot and start over. From the day you brought it home.

Acronis (paid for version) is awesome as well. Most of the time, you end up needing more than just one resource, - depending upon what your trying to accomplish of course lol.
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Hard drive failure. I noticed you can have one fail upon boot, "bad sectors", - obvious noisy failure, at times a slow death w/the instability disease.

Replace it, but never chuck it. I can tap that old drive externally and retrieve all fills for some reason. Not sure why, but it's nice have that regardless.

At times you won't know what exactly is on the hard drive until running thru an external set up, or adapter. That was a nice surprise that made it worth hanging onto.

 

Oh, good job!

 

Surprised the hell out of me when he told me it activated online. Sony PC, Dell CD.

 

Thanks again for all the help glc. I played with it for a while last night and got everything updated and loaded. Seems to work great now. Thanks for all your time and advice.

 

x2.