H-E-L-P-! New hard drive + full system recovery wipe = good to go right? WRONG!!!
 

Well folks, I think the thread title pretty much sums it up here...like I said, I just installed a new hitachi travelstar hd (identical to factory installed drive that crashed and burned) on my gateway laptop 7300gz ((Pentium 4 h.t.))

Not being a computer genius I was surprised at just how easy this is to do. Started her up an ran the full system recovery from disks, the new hard drive was working perfectly blinky light & all....then 20 minutes later it's finished and prompts me to do the restart, fine,

It gets to the point where it starts windows xp home edition setup(says your screen may flicker while it detects keyboard, mouse, et. al

Then, without any of the aforementioned flickering, it just freezes at 50%. I mean it HANGS, LOCKS_UP, whatever......no keyboard or mouse response, at this point,(even though the keys and mouse had been responsive seconds ago) so no ctrl-alt-dlt NOTHING!

Now before anyone responds with "I think it's your new drive!" let me assure you that's not the problem, remember, I ran a full system recovery on this new drive(actually did it FOUR TIMES NOW!) and the new drive is functioning perfectly.

What we have here is a windows setup issue or detect & install issue (simple --you will next tell me to unplug any & all peripherals) to which I will reply, "there is nothing but the power cord connected to it." AND because it is a laptop, I don't even have the option of unplugging keyboard & mouse temporarily.

I am runniing out of self help options here, have already tried f8 during startup to attampt safe mode. Well guess what?-you can't run windows in safe mode until windows is fully installed! dang! that's what the error msg. told me. What else is there? can I sneak my computer into work and risk crashing my employers network by tapping into their dsl network line and booting from the network?-would that even work at all?-would I get fired?-is their xp pro mainfarme going to somehow boot my xp home machine--why would it? why wouldn't it?

If nobody knows, then I can just take it somewhere, and would appreciate a suggestion there too.

Thanks in advance:thumbsup:

If this involves PATA make sure the jumpers on the drive are set properly, probably to master. Windows doesn't like it when that stuff is set wrong; Ive had it randomly hang and reboot when a hard drive had the jumpers set to master but was on the slave connector of the cable.

are you using the windows that came with your laptop? or are you using a a regular winxp cd?

Plug in an external PS/2 keyboard and USB mouse, if you have them. I bet my bottom dollar the installer is trying to read your laptops "Touchpad" and hitting some sort of error. Go with a keyboard and mouse you know are simple, and work.

nOnsensical...ummm what's PATA ? (sorry)and there are no jumpers on a Gateway laptop, the pins fit as-is. The entire drive slides in and makes the connection when it's fully inserted. As for the master or slave designation I don't even know how to change or find this.

Aro23...this is windows that came with the laptop and it now resides on a group of 5 recovery cd-roms---I should also mention that these are not factory pressed cd's...I am not sure how many other manufacturers are now doing this, but when you get a new Gateway, and start it the first time they prompt you to "create your own"

JinnKai.....I don't have ps2 keyboard or usb mouse, but at this point, if that's all I have to buy to save a 1 year old computer, then it's worth a try. By the way it's a "Synaptics" touch pad, and I know this how?....you guessed it, all the times when windows encountered an error with Synaptics TouchPad and must close, sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks all. I want to wait for some more replies before I do anything, if anyone needs more info about the problem or computer's configuration, I'll be here checking this thread all week! Thank-you!

PATA is paralleled ATA, newer laptops and PC's use SATA serial ATA as the standard for hard drives; only PATA have master and slave settings, laptops should be left as the came, they are set to be used as a single drive, don’t mess with the jumpers, if they were wrong, you would not detect your drive.

If it is the pad, plug in a USB keyboard and mouse, and then go into bios and disable the onboard keyboard and mouse.

And for clarification, you are not using a windows install CD, but a set of restore disks right?

If it's a set of restore disks and not a windows install CD I would try finding a windows install CD (I personally cannot stand the restore disks, and never had much luck with them anyway).

Yes it's restore disks that I am using....do you suggest I might have to buy a copy of windows xp ?

looked in my BIOS settings and did not see anything about keyboards,mice. There is USB Legacy Support [enabled]

Oh dear god. I just re-read your post. HITACHI TRAVELSTAR?

I just had one blow in my Dell after only about 6 weeks of use. Six weeks for a hard drive is fuckin' ridiculous. If you're still under warrany (and I suspect you are, since they sent you a drive) - contact them again. Tell them that your Restore Disks aren't working and you'd like a copy of the CDs. I've had to replace a CD drive and a HDD since I got my Dell, and each time they've sent me:

Roxio Garbage
Win XP re-install disks
Driver Disk
Diagonistic Disk
MediaDirect Disk
System Restore Disk

They should send you those free of charge, as you've purchased a copy of Windows when you purchase a laptop from Dell, HP, etc.

Hell - if you've got a Dell, I can send you the disks. As-is, I have 4 copies of Win XP MCE 2005 that work on Dell machines (since their Windows install is SLP).

Well, It's a Gateway and I have tried to contact them via e-mail......just got their response so I will try it.

Here is a copy of the response I just got////

paste from e-mail:

Thank you for your e-mail. Regarding your 7300gz computer freezing up
during the restore process, I would recommend that you run fdisk on
your
system to delete partitions. This will be very useful for those error
issues during a restore.

To access FDISK, boot up to the first restore CD. Choose option 2,
which is to boot to DOS from CD-ROM. From the A: prompt, type FDISK.
Delete the partitions as normal using FDISK.

You must be in MS-DOS to run Fdisk. You can enter MS-DOS by:
1. Restarting the Computer in MS-DOS mode
2. Selecting Command Prompt from the Windows Startup Menu
3. Booting to the Windows Recovery Diskette
4. Booting to the restore CD and exiting to DOS

At the DOS prompt type, (without the quotes) "Fdisk" and press the
enter
key. Choose "Y" when asked if you wish to enable large disk support.

Select Option 3, "Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive" and press the
enter key.

For Windows XP select Option 4, "Delete Non-DOS Partition" and press
the
enter key.

Verify that "1" is selected in the, "What primary partition do you want
to delete...?" field.

Re-enter the volume label exactly as it appears underneath the volume
label field (top center of the screen) and press enter. If the volume
label field is blank, just press the enter key.

When asked, "Are you sure (Y/N)" type (without the quotes) "Y" and
press
the enter key.

Once the partition has been deleted, press the ESC key to return to the
Fdisk menu.

Although not necessary, it is recommended that you reboot the system
prior to creating a new partition.


You may now retry running a full system restore. For your convenience,
I have enclosed the steps on how to properly run a full system restore.

Then it goes into detail with a cut-n-paste description of how to run a system restore (which I let them know I have done 4 times already)......anyway I am going to go try this now and let everyone know what happens after the smoke clears!

Fdisk would just clear the whole drive of any "bad" partitions created during previous restore attempts. If you had a windows Xp disk, you could do the same things during install.

And no, you don't need to buy a new copy of Win Xp, nor do you have to wait for Gateway to send you a CD. If you're in a hurry, and have access to friends with official (or not-so-official) Windows XP CD's, you could try using those. As long as it's the same version you've got a license for (Home/Pro), it's going to work just fine. Of course, I'd still ask Gateway to send the discs regardless; they might contain specific drivers for your laptop's hardware.

Thanks Dragonlich, I tried the Gateway Tech's (automated?) response help answer and got nowhere with it...namely because I was unable to get into MS-DOS mode, (anyone know how to do that? is there a key combination I have to press or something??)

F8 should give you the boot choice........... i suggest using a different xp cd rather than those recovery disks since you probably have a license key given by gateway anyway

Another reply from Gateway, Igot a different tech person this time and I am trying this now. Here is the advice they sent:

Thank you for your reply. Upon reading your previous email, you
mentioned that during the restoration process, it lockups on the
detection and installation process in Windows Setup, I have provided
here steps that you may do to help resolve this issue:

Use the following steps to disable SpeedStep in the BIOS Setup Utility
and then run the System Recovery again.

1. Turn on the computer and begin pressing the F2 key in one-second
intervals. If you perform this step correctly, you will see the BIOS
Setup Utility menu. If Windows loads normally, repeat this step
2. In the BIOS Setup Utility, press the RIGHT ARROW key to select the
Advanced menu
3. On the Advanced menu, change the Intel SpeedStep setting from
Enabled to Disabled
4. Press the RIGHT ARROW key to select the Exit menu
5. On the Exit menu, select Save Changes and Exit
6. Restart the computer and run the System Recovery
7. After completing the recovery, download and install the Critical
Update for Windows XP (KB885626) package from the Microsoft Web site:
The Internet address above will open a Web Site not controlled by
Gateway. Since we are not responsible for maintaining the information
there, please use it only at your own discretion after reviewing it
carefully to be sure it is appropriate for your situation.

8. Once the KB885626 package is installed, re-enable Intel SpeedStep
in
the BIOS Setup Utility.

I hope you find this information helpful in resolving the issue.


can't wait to see what happens this time (groan).

:| F8 didn't work by the way...can't enter ms-dos in the computer's present condition...or anytime I did there was no prompt available.

Praise Jeebus It Worked..my computer is saved!!!!!
The last e-mail help from Gateway did the trick, the part where you go into BIOS and disable Intel SpeedStep...then attempt another drive recovery(full)as it was doing this it looked like it was just about to hang again in the exzact same place as it had so many other times, then after a few seconds it picked right up and finished installation, now I get to install about a hundred other things and delete/remove some of the pre-bundled shit they try to force onto a "new" system.

Thanks for everyones support & advice:thumbsup: Thread Closed.