I ended up getting another laptop for free, Lenovo E420, however it has Professional on it. We will see if it works to repair the drive on the other computer. I really like this computer better than the other one but if it can save it I will probably keep both.
Now to get a flashdrive.
That's great. Hope you at least get one laptop working.
BTW, did you ever reinstall Windows 7 on the old HP laptop. Sometimes that is the only choice you have. That is OK as long as you have the Windows 7 product key.
A year or two ago you could buy new Windows 7 keys online for a reasonable price. I don't see any Windows 7 keys available from any of the usual place I buy Windows and Office keys anymore.
BTW, a few years ago someone gave me an old laptop that they bought of all places an auto salvage yard. It wouldn't even power on but I did get some value out of it. The 250GB HDD was still good so I put it in an external enclosure. I plugged that into another computer. I used a program to scan the drive and look for software keys. It found good keys for Windows 7 Home and Office 2007 Standard.
This shows that even when you have a computer that won't boot then at least save the drive and try to get any keys off it.
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I have the following laptop which is comparable to the Lenovo E420. It came with Windows 7 but currently is dual-boot with Windows 10 because it works better with current software and the Internet.
Dell Latitude E6410 (2010)
Original O/S: Windows 7 Pro
Current O/S: Windows 7 Pro/Windows 10 Pro (dual-boot)
I have and even older laptop that I got free but had to replace the failed hard drive.
TOSHIBA Tecra M7-S7331 (2006)
Original O/S: Windows XP Tablet
Current O/S: Windows 7 Pro (later upgraded to Windows 10 Pro)
Both laptops work with Windows 10 but would be better off running Windows 7 because Windows 10 is so slow on them. Note both laptops have 4GB RAM so that is not a factor.
Hi @torchwood,
My original MS Win 7 was a upgrade disk. It is the same disk as the retail only having a different ei.cfg. A Upgrade disk will look for a Windows folder on the main drive to proceed as an upgrade, even on a clean install. To install on a blank drive all you needed to do was to install twice.
If you delete the ei.cfg you make it universal (all versions) and it will work like a normal retail disk.
OEM upgrade disks could be completely different.
If I am unable to save my files and programs from the old laptop then I will be listing it on eBay or taking it to the recycle. I dislike the laptop and much prefer this E420 even though I loathe Lenovo.
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Aaaaaand Windows 7 doesn't like creating a recovery disk with USB. Never knew that... I guess I will purchase a blank CD
Back in the summer of 2009 I build a new computer. I think I remember installing a beta copy of Windows 7. In October 2009 I went down to Best Buy to pick up a copy of Windows 7. All they had were upgrade disks. I bought a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade. To my surprise when I did a clean install of Windows 7 it did not ask me to prove I had a previous copy of Windows. Later I read online that Windows 7 Upgrade although technically requiring you to upgrade from a previous version of Windows was not enforcing it.
Years later I wanted to upgrade several of my other computers with Windows XP. I did that by buying a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack. It could upgrade up to 3 computers. I started with 3 computers with Windows 7 Home Premiums (32-bit). Since it also included a DVD for Windows 7 Home Premiums (64-bit) I later upgraded all the same computers to 64-bits. Note even though this was meant to upgrade computers with Windows XP I don't remember it ever asking me to prove these other computers had Windows XP previously.
Well I got an extra disk, made it into a repair disk, ran the repair on my computer. Got to the end where it said "Restart to repair" or something alone those lines so I hit Okay. Computer restarted and nothing. Same issue, computer won't start up and says I need to repair.
I am going to take it to a repair shop possibly and if they can't fix it then this computer will find its way to the boneyard.
If anyone has a recommendation for an online service or whoever that they think can get this computer working meaning I can use the programs and files that are still on it then let me know. If I can't use the programs then I do not want the computer.
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Just tried it again and it said "You must login to access System Recovery Features"
Well ain't that bout a b...
I have never found the repair function from the Windows boot to disk to ever work successfully. I ended up reinstalling Widows. If your laptop came with Windows 7 then it should have the product key embedded in the BIOS. If so then why don't you reinstall Windows 7?
BTW, I have lost track of how many time I reinstalled Windows because of a problem with Windows. In fact I have done so on my two laptops at least a couple times.
Windows Upgrade disks before Windows 7 required you to either have a previous qualifying version of Windows installed or insert the CD for that previous version of Windows to prove you were qualified for the upgrade. For example, when I installed Windows XP Pro Upgrade I had to insert my Windows 98 CD.
When I installed from the Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade DVD I was never asked to prove I was eligible for the upgrade. This was a new build so I was definitely not eligible. Over the months after that I saw in various forum postings that a lot of people were seeing the same thing. I never saw anyone say that they ever read where Microsoft ever commented on this. That shows they were knowingly allowing it. Does that means people were crazy to buy the full version of Windows 7 when they could have saved their money and bought the Upgrade version?
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