Might Need a HD for HP Pavilion m8400f

[johnnyb58]

I’m sick of dealing with my computer problems and want to install a new clean HD with a clean install of all new programs.

I have some questions:

1) I do not have a Vista System disk, but I believe there is a second drive with everything I need only I believe it’s a partition. So how do I replace the drive and keep the Vista system?

2) I thought I had a Vista HP recovery disk, but when I pulled it out, it says “Bootable Hardware Diagnostic Disk”. Is that the same thing?

3) If I can’t replace the HD without buying a whole new OS, is there a way to restore from the absolute beginning? I’ve tried restoring but it appears that all my restore points are corrupt.

I also read on the HP site that I can restore from boot up with the F11 key, but I think that is the same as the restore points. Is it the same?

 

[voyagerfan99]

Whoops! Accidentally deleted and banned the wrong user :embarrassed:

Do you really need to buy a new hard drive? No. Just save whatever you need and run the factory restore. Though in all honesty, I'd ditch Vista and get a copy of Windows 7.