I have replaced my four-year-old HP laptop with a new one. Now I want to
give the old one to a friend, and it seems to me the easiest way to clean
the hard drive would be to restore it to the original factory settings.

I have all the original discs, but I'm unclear how to proceed.

I have a set of four Quick Restore System Recovery CD discs.

In addition to these I have a single disc which is labeled "HP notebook
Operating System CD MS Windows XP Home SP1"

I don't know which of these to use.

The person who is getting the old laptop wants a barebones computer which
will do word processing and get e-mail and occasional internet connection.
She certainly has no need for such programs as Corel Word Perfect and most
of the other original software. I will put in MS Word 97 as her word
processor.

Any guidance appreciated.

On Sun, 28 Jan 2007 15:18:19 GMT, "Ray"
<rayj.balt@DELETETHISverizon.net> wrote:

>I have replaced my four-year-old HP laptop with a new one. Now I want to
>give the old one to a friend, and it seems to me the easiest way to clean
>the hard drive would be to restore it to the original factory settings.
>
>I have all the original discs, but I'm unclear how to proceed.
>
>I have a set of four Quick Restore System Recovery CD discs.
>
>In addition to these I have a single disc which is labeled "HP notebook
>Operating System CD MS Windows XP Home SP1"
>
>I don't know which of these to use.
>
>The person who is getting the old laptop wants a barebones computer which
>will do word processing and get e-mail and occasional internet connection.
>She certainly has no need for such programs as Corel Word Perfect and most
>of the other original software. I will put in MS Word 97 as her word
>processor.
>
>Any guidance appreciated.
>

One thing to consider is that most software that comes pre-installed
on a computer is "OEM" versions and are licensed ONLY for the computer
on which they are originally installed.

I think you should use the Quick Restore system Recovery discs. The
other disc seems to be for a new install of the OS, like if you were
installing a new HD in the old computer. But, if it were me, I'd
simply remove my personal data from the old computer, and leave
everything else "as is".... since my usual policy is if it's working,
don't mess with it. Trying to restore to the original condition might
just mess up something.... of worse case, everything.


Charlie Hoffpauir
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/

On Jan 28, 10:18 am, "Ray" <rayj.b...@DELETETHISverizon.net> wrote:

> I have a set of four Quick Restore System Recovery CD discs.
>
> In addition to these I have a single disc which is labeled "HP notebook
> Operating System CD MS Windows XP Home SP1"

Try booting off the first quick restore disk. If that doesn't work,
then install Windows (bare) off the operating system CD, then insert
quick restore disk 1 and look for a setup program.

My ZE4805 has the same general set of disks - in order to restore it,
you have to install the OS by yourself, then run an installer off the
"restore" cd which reloads all the HP drivers (and bull**** special
trial offer software, etc etc).

Thanks for the good advice, Charlie -- Generally I agree that if it ain't
broke, don't fix it.

The problem is, the laptop seems partly broke -- it's so loaded down with
pre-installed programs and others that have been added over the years that
it runs like a snail.

Mainly, what I'd like to do is to start with a clean installation of the
Operating Sysem ONLY. I can do without all of the pre-installed software
and separately put in just the few programs that we need. Like MS Works,
maybe.

It's possible that I would even need to reformat the HD before I started the
reinstall of the OS.


"Charlie Hoffpauir" <invalid@invalid.com> wrote in message
news:5fipr297uj2p6tvb58clr3quum6fhtcph6@4ax.com...
> On Sun, 28 Jan 2007 15:18:19 GMT, "Ray"
> <rayj.balt@DELETETHISverizon.net> wrote:
>
>>I have replaced my four-year-old HP laptop with a new one. Now I want to
>>give the old one to a friend, and it seems to me the easiest way to clean
>>the hard drive would be to restore it to the original factory settings.
>>
>>I have all the original discs, but I'm unclear how to proceed.
>>
>>I have a set of four Quick Restore System Recovery CD discs.
>>
>>In addition to these I have a single disc which is labeled "HP notebook
>>Operating System CD MS Windows XP Home SP1"
>>
>>I don't know which of these to use.
>>
>>The person who is getting the old laptop wants a barebones computer which
>>will do word processing and get e-mail and occasional internet connection.
>>She certainly has no need for such programs as Corel Word Perfect and most
>>of the other original software. I will put in MS Word 97 as her word
>>processor.
>>
>>Any guidance appreciated.
>>
>
> One thing to consider is that most software that comes pre-installed
> on a computer is "OEM" versions and are licensed ONLY for the computer
> on which they are originally installed.
>
> I think you should use the Quick Restore system Recovery discs. The
> other disc seems to be for a new install of the OS, like if you were
> installing a new HD in the old computer. But, if it were me, I'd
> simply remove my personal data from the old computer, and leave
> everything else "as is".... since my usual policy is if it's working,
> don't mess with it. Trying to restore to the original condition might
> just mess up something.... of worse case, everything.
>
>
> Charlie Hoffpauir
> http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/

Thanks zws --

Are you saying the laptop won't run at all if I don't use the Restore discs?
If I could install just the OS, and then a simple word procesor and IE
Explorer and Outlook Express, I'd be quite satisfied.

I'd especially like to avoid all thos junk special trial offers, including
Microsoft Office.


<zwsdotcom******.com> wrote in message
news:1170002624.041614.27370@m58g2000cwm.googlegro ups.com...
>
>
> On Jan 28, 10:18 am, "Ray" <rayj.b...@DELETETHISverizon.net> wrote:
>
>> I have a set of four Quick Restore System Recovery CD discs.
>>
>> In addition to these I have a single disc which is labeled "HP notebook
>> Operating System CD MS Windows XP Home SP1"
>
> Try booting off the first quick restore disk. If that doesn't work,
> then install Windows (bare) off the operating system CD, then insert
> quick restore disk 1 and look for a setup program.
>
> My ZE4805 has the same general set of disks - in order to restore it,
> you have to install the OS by yourself, then run an installer off the
> "restore" cd which reloads all the HP drivers (and bull**** special
> trial offer software, etc etc).
>

On Sun, 28 Jan 2007 17:09:38 GMT, "Ray"
<rayj.balt@DELETETHISverizon.net> wrote:

>Thanks for the good advice, Charlie -- Generally I agree that if it ain't
>broke, don't fix it.
>
>The problem is, the laptop seems partly broke -- it's so loaded down with
>pre-installed programs and others that have been added over the years that
>it runs like a snail.
>
>Mainly, what I'd like to do is to start with a clean installation of the
>Operating Sysem ONLY. I can do without all of the pre-installed software
>and separately put in just the few programs that we need. Like MS Works,
>maybe.
>
>It's possible that I would even need to reformat the HD before I started the
>reinstall of the OS.
>
>

Given those considerations, I'd try still another approach
(understand, I'm basically very conservative).

I'd get a new or used notebook hard drive. The smaller used ones are
available very cheap from people who've upgraded to a larger drive....
and install the OS and software on that drive, keeping the original
drive intact until I was sure everything worked right. Then, if need
be, you could "clone" the small drive over to the old larger drive
using something like Acronis TrueImage and a hardware adapter..

The use of a device like

http://www.newertech.com/products/usb2_adapt.php

to connect "any" drive via a USB port will work well for this, and
it's handy to have an extra drive around later as a neat backup
device.
Charlie Hoffpauir
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/

Good idea -- I'll look into that.

"Charlie Hoffpauir" <invalid@invalid.com> wrote in message
news:9o0qr2lgj64h61vsd7k5u8pmakrb10eo6d@4ax.com...
> On Sun, 28 Jan 2007 17:09:38 GMT, "Ray"
> <rayj.balt@DELETETHISverizon.net> wrote:
>
>>Thanks for the good advice, Charlie -- Generally I agree that if it ain't
>>broke, don't fix it.
>>
>>The problem is, the laptop seems partly broke -- it's so loaded down with
>>pre-installed programs and others that have been added over the years that
>>it runs like a snail.
>>
>>Mainly, what I'd like to do is to start with a clean installation of the
>>Operating Sysem ONLY. I can do without all of the pre-installed software
>>and separately put in just the few programs that we need. Like MS Works,
>>maybe.
>>
>>It's possible that I would even need to reformat the HD before I started
>>the
>>reinstall of the OS.
>>
>>
>
> Given those considerations, I'd try still another approach
> (understand, I'm basically very conservative).
>
> I'd get a new or used notebook hard drive. The smaller used ones are
> available very cheap from people who've upgraded to a larger drive....
> and install the OS and software on that drive, keeping the original
> drive intact until I was sure everything worked right. Then, if need
> be, you could "clone" the small drive over to the old larger drive
> using something like Acronis TrueImage and a hardware adapter..
>
> The use of a device like
>
> http://www.newertech.com/products/usb2_adapt.php
>
> to connect "any" drive via a USB port will work well for this, and
> it's handy to have an extra drive around later as a neat backup
> device.
> Charlie Hoffpauir
> http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/