Compaq Presario CQ56 New Hard Drive Question

Z

Zeno

Member
I have a problem and don't know how to do a search for it.

Here's the situation.

I have a Compaq Presario CQ56 notebook. The hard drive failed completely. So I bought a new hard drive. I put the drive in the notebook and it seems to be working just fine. But it won't boot up.

I have the original restore disks on CD. There is a set of 5 of these. I put those in the CD and it booted up on those and installed all 5 of them on the hard drive. But then when I go to boot up again it just says, "No bootable device".

What am I doing wrong?

Did I need to format the drive as a bookable disk first? And if so how do I go about doing that?

It claimed to have formatted this drive when it re-installed these 5 recovery disks. But it still won't recognize the HD as being bootable?

How do I fix this problem?

Thanks.

P.S. I did a diagnostic test from the BIOS and the Hard Drive tests just fine. It also seems to have had no problem copying the 5 CDs to the Hard Drive. It's just not recognizing the Hard Drive as being bootable.
 
voyagerfan99

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
Recovery discs suck. What version of Windows does the laptop have a license for? (The sticker for the Windows license will be on the bottom of the laptop.)
 
Z

Zeno

Member
voyagerfan99 said:
Recovery discs suck. What version of Windows does the laptop have a license for? (The sticker for the Windows license will be on the bottom of the laptop.)
Click to expand...

Windows 7 Home Prem OA.

It also has a product key number.

But I don't have a windows CD. When I bought the computer new I just made these 5 back-up disks. I thought that they had Windows on them?

This is all I have.

I do have this second laptop that I am currently using. It's very similar compaq computer. It's a CQ57. I bought these at the same time only weeks apart.

Can I make a Windows CD disk from it and transfer it over to the other laptop? It also has Windows 7 Prem OA. But a different product key number.
 
S.T.A.R.S.

S.T.A.R.S.

banned
voyagerfan99 said:
Recovery discs suck...
Click to expand...

I kinda agree with you on that.
I mean they are great since it is super simple to install OS and drivers without doing anything manually,but on the other hand they tend to install a lot of stupid programs also so I guess I always hated them because of that...
 
Z

Zeno

Member
johnb35 said:
If it was 64 bit windows 7 then download and create the install cd from the ISO image here.

http://msft.digitalrivercontent.net/win/X17-24209.iso

If it was 32bit windows 7 then download this and create the install cd from the iso image.

http://msft.digitalrivercontent.net/win/X17-24208.iso

Use the key that is on the bottom of the laptop to activate windows.
Click to expand...

Ok, I'm downloaded the 64 bit version. I'm pretty sure that's what it is although I'm not sure how to tell. It's not written on the computer anywhere and I have no paperwork for it. When I look at the system information in the BIOS it doesn't say anything about 64 or 32. I think it is 64 though.

But now there seems to be another problem. That iso file says that it's 3.1 GB, but it only downloads a 32,768 KB file. It doesn't show any errors. I just did it twice and got the same result both times.

Is that going to work? And what do I do with this ISO file now?

You'll have to excuse me, but I haven't worked with computers for quite some time.

How do I create the install cd from the iso image?

And why is the file only 32,768 KB instead of 3.1 GB? Isn't 32 KB only about 32 MB?

Isn't 3.1 GB more like 3100 MB? Isn't a gigabyte a thousand megabytes?
 
Last edited:
Z

Zeno

Member
S.T.A.R.S. said:
I kinda agree with you on that.
I mean they are great since it is super simple to install OS and drivers without doing anything manually,but on the other hand they tend to install a lot of stupid programs also so I guess I always hated them because of that...
Click to expand...

I thought Windows 7 was on these disks?

What in the world is on 5 disks if not Windows 7?

I guess the computer did come with a bunch of software. I don't need most of that junk. Although there was one program that came with this computer that I would like to get back. It's PowerDirector 8. I was using that a lot before the computer died. And that's over $100 to purchase separately.

So that would be worth recovering if I could do. But right now I need it to boot up into Windows.

I don't understand why Windows wasn't on these recovery disks?

Or if it is on these disks why isn't it booting up?
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Try redownloading the file again, this time change the location where you are saving it. The download seems to be corrupt. Also, what browser are you using to download the file? Try changing the browser.
 
Z

Zeno

Member
johnb35 said:
Try redownloading the file again, this time change the location where you are saving it. The download seems to be corrupt. Also, what browser are you using to download the file? Try changing the browser.
Click to expand...

I'm using Firefox 28.0

I also did some searching and troubleshooting on Firefox resetting all Download settings and it seems to be downloading now.

It says it's going to take 2.5 hours to download this. It's up over 200 MB now and still downloading so I must have fixed that 32 MB problem.

So this should be downloaded in 2 hours or so.

What do I do with the iso file then? How to I get that onto a CD? Just copy it to a CD? Or does it need to be "installed" somehow?

~~~~~ UPDATE

I just now noticed that if I right-click on one of the previous 32MB files I have an option to "Burn Disk Image". Is that it? Just put in a recordable CD and click on that?
 
Z

Zeno

Member
Darn it. It's still not working. It only got up to 432,128 KB. It's not reporting any errors. But I know that can't be the whole file.

The only other browser I have is Internet Explorer which I have never used. But it won't even try to download the file. It just brings up an error code saying that it can find the page.

This is a bummer. I might have to go over to the town library to see if I can download it on one of their machines. It might go a little faster over there. I never had a problem downloading a file before. But I confess that I typically don't download files this large.
 
voyagerfan99

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
You're going to need a DVD-R to write it to (the Windows 7 ISO is about 3.7GB). But yes, you can just right click and select "Burn to Disc"
 
Z

Zeno

Member
Ok, thanks for the information.

I guess I have all I need. It's just a matter of getting this file downloaded. I just tried it again and it stopped at 434,136 KB this time.

So I'm going to need to go over to town to download this. Once I get this file I should be set.

After I burn this to the DVD-R, it should boot up on the CQ56 and just install itself right? Or prompt me for installation instructions?

And then I should have a bootable hard drive?

If I get that far I'll be happy.

I just want to get this computer back up and running again.
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
You'll want to boot to the dvd, the bios may be not be set to where cdrom drive is first boot device. You will go through the installation procedure and it will install windows. Afterwards you will need to install a few drivers most likely. Go to HP website for your specific model of computer and download and drivers needed.
 
Z

Zeno

Member
This is frustrating.

I finally got 2,619,392 KB before it quit. No error message or anything. It just quits like as if it was done. I know this isn't right because it should be at least 3,100,000 KB.

There's no way to pick back up where I left off. It doesn't even say that it was terminated before it downloaded.

If I try to use that image it will probably crash and cause all sorts of problems. Or not run at all.

I'll try it again tonight. When I go to bed I just start the download and see if I have it by morning. If not, it's off to the library. This is a bummer.

Is there any way I can order an actual CD like this without having to pay through the teeth?
 
johnb35

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
The only thing you can do is order recovery cds from HP but will cost $15-$20 and will take about a week to get. I would say you have network issue if your downloads are stopping before finishing. Try using a different browser or computer on your network. Also, try installing a download manager, not sure if it would help or not.

Also, try this link.

http://msft.digitalrivercontent.net/win/X17-58997.iso
 
Last edited:
Z

Zeno

Member
My "network" sucks.

It's just a Verizon wi-fi box connected to an ancient rural phone line. So it's not the greatest network interface. It's probably just one step up from dial-up.

I'm trying it again for the umpteenth time. It's coming in at about 344 KB/sec whatever that means. Probably pretty slow?

It says it will take 2.5 hrs to download.

I wonder if the servers are just kicking me off because I'm too slow?

I typically haven't had problems downloading things like videos etc. But those are seldom over 250 MB at most. This 3.1 GB is the largest file I've ever tried to download.

Almost had it too!!!!

So close!

That's what keeps me trying.
 
Z

Zeno

Member
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! SHOOT!

I didn't have any luck at all last night. Today I got 2,619,392 KB downloaded again before it died. That is exactly the same place it died the last time I got that far.

What about download management software?

Is there any program I can download and use instead of a browser?

It seems to me back when I had Windows XP it would restart a failed download from a particular place where it had left off previously.

This Firefox wants to start all over again from scratch every time.

Are there any good FREE programs that will do a better job at downloading this file?

After I get 2,619,392 KB of it, I shouldn't have to download all of that over again. Why can't it pick back up somewhere? There should be some way for these computers to keep track of how much of a file they already have. I mean gee whiz these are computers. They ought to be able to keep track of that sort thing easily.

I could write better file transfer programs than this.

My computer should be able to tell the server computer, "Hey I already got the first 2 GB of this file just give me the last GB!"

I can't believe that hasn't already been taken care of. Staring over from scratch again every time is baloney.

Surely there's a download management program that can do better than this?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top