recovery cd does not work on compact presario

[markbram]

I have a compact presario with windows me. It was running slowly and was cluttered with files that I didn't want. I put in the recovery cd to restore it to the original factory condition. The recovery CD erased everything including the operating sysytem and did not reinstall windows me. When I turn it on, a few screens of wording appear, and then it says no operating system found, and the rest of the screen is blank. How can I restore the windows me operating system? Thanks

[Geekgirl]

Welcome to TSF

I would pop the cd back in and use it again, doesnt sound like it completed its task

[markbram]

Thanks, but I've tried that several times and it does the same thing every time. It askes if I want to reset the computer to factory settings. If I accept, it pops out the cd without recovering the operating system. If I don't accept, I still don't have an operating system. I tried loading a Linus operating system and it doesn't work either. Any other suggestions?

[OldGrayGary]

Hi Mark, Hi GeekGirl


Mark -

You might want to test the hardware a bit -- on an older system, something might be failing: this could cause your restore procedures to fail, and installations of operating systems to fail. It could be something as simple as incorrect Bios settings due to a weak CMOS battery (easily fixed by replacing the battery -- [the 3v coin lithium batteries generally only cost about $1.50 each]). Or it could be a problem with major component, such as the hard drive or the system memory.

To check the hardware, you can download diagnostic utilities that can start your computer from either bootable floppies or bootable CDs. A handy bootable CD that has many diagnostic tools on it is the "Ultimate Boot CD", which is free & quite easy to make --- http://www.ultimatebootcd.com --- Alternately, you can download the utilities individually: For MemTest86+ visit --- http://www.memtest.org --- For hard drive diagnostics, find your manufacturer's tool --- http://tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

To check the Bios, find a system manual for your PC, enter Bios Setup, and check that the settings match the hardware. Check the time/date right away, too, --- if it's several years behind, it's likely that the CMOS battery needs replacing. Here's a general guide for that procedure --- http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...&product=94878
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You mentioned trying to load Linux. A good general idea of your PCs health can be had by seeing if it will boot into a "Live CD" version of Linux, such as Knoppix. Such versions of Linux run entirely from the CD -- so that even if the hard drive has failed, the PC will still be able to boot into Linux. You can download the Knoppix from their main site --- http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html ---
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Best of luck
. . . Gary