arent those just images of the hard drive at the time it ships? and dont they usually wipe the harddrive, and then install the os again?
Don't run a recovery process and don't listen to anyone who says format. The first thing to do is to back up your data. From what you are saying, there is lots of that, which means you need a second hard drive. That can be provided by taking your HD out and putting it in to someone elses machine and copying your data across, or getting a new hard drive for your PC so you have two. You must be satisfied you have backed up your data before running any sort of process which could write over your data as it makes recovery so much harder.
I'll just wait till I get a new computer which should be kind of soon. Then i'll do the hdd swap. I was really hoping the startup disk would repair the OS. It's not a brand name computer. It was bought from a website that custom builds the computer. The parts are brand names, but the computer isn't. It doesn't have a serial code anywhere on it. I'm also almost certain I didn't get a Windows XP Cd. I'll try to find the one for my laptop, since it also uses Win XP Home. Do you think that would work? Well if that doesn't work, I'll have to be patient, and wait for a while.
sorry for the double post, but I was wrong there is a lil windows xp sticker on my computer, but I'm pretty sure I never got a Win XP CD
well I tried to repair Windows, and at 50% it said please insert the Windows XP SP1 Home Edition CD in the disk drive. My restore disk was in the drive. So....
i will on my laptop.....hold on....ok I put it in and it autorunned and wanted to install windows xp, I explored the cd, and it has folders for DOCS, DOTNETFX, I386, SUPPORT, VALUEAD, it also has a bunch of other files, notably a setup file. I guess it is a Windows XP CD also, though I don't know why it wouldn't work in my desktop.
