Gekko Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 I have an eMachine that I am upgrading. I just purchased a new video card, ram, and hard drive. I want to remove my old hard drive and install this one since the older one is getting worn out. Will I be able to use the eMachines restore cd to install windows XP on the new hard drive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conformity_Inc Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 AFAIK the Emachines restore cd's are just a "key" to the part of the partition that holds the restore image (look at its contents in explorer and you'll see what i mean.) So the answer is no. I may be wrong though, but that's how it was when i had one a few years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skyfrog Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 What if he installed both hard drives; could you copy the restore partition over to the new drive? Maybe using a program like Ghost if necessary? Speaking of which, if all else fails just restore everything to your old drive, update it and install your programs, then make a backup image using Ghost or some other backup program. Burn it to a disc and use it as your new restore CD. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conformity_Inc Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 What if he installed both hard drives; could you copy the restore partition over to the new drive? Maybe using a program like Ghost if necessary? 586320387[/snapback] Probably, but if he were to buy ghost it would make more sense just to buy an OEM copy of XP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soham Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 just fdisk first and then install it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SergeantNoob Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 AFAIK the Emachines restore cd's are just a "key" to the part of the partition that holds the restore image (look at its contents in explorer and you'll see what i mean.) So the answer is no. I may be wrong though, but that's how it was when i had one a few years ago. 586320373[/snapback] Wrong. Don't confuse with Compaq. Yes just pop in the CD and restore - if I remember correctly the last eMachines recovery DVD I had access to had the original I386 folder contents in there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gekko Posted August 3, 2005 Author Share Posted August 3, 2005 So I can use the restore CD even though I'm not restoring, I'm actually doing a fresh install of XP. I assume doing this I would get random eMachines bundles software installed also, that's fine as long as I can get XP off of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conformity_Inc Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 what is the actual content of the CD's? Did you look at them in explorer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gekko Posted August 3, 2005 Author Share Posted August 3, 2005 No, I haven't yet. I'm at work right now. I'll check when I get home, what should I be looking for exactly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conformity_Inc Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 No, I haven't yet. I'm at work right now. I'll check when I get home, what should I be looking for exactly? 586320643[/snapback] Not so much what you're looking for, just when you do get home, list what folders are on the cd's here (if there is any.) That will tell you if it's a bootable CD that will install on a new drive or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eXtermia Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 most Emachines Restore CDs are specialized Bootable Ghost (7.5 I believe) CDs/DVDs with the image locked to the BIOS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k22 Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 depends on how old the PC is. I have an eMonster 550 and yes the restore CD works just fine with a different hard drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gekko Posted August 3, 2005 Author Share Posted August 3, 2005 Okay, disc one contains the following files: Drivers SUPPORT VALUEADD AUTORUN.INF T2241.GHO windows.ico Disc 2 has these: Drivers AUTORUN.INF T2241001.GHS windows.ico Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conformity_Inc Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 Okay, disc one contains the following files:Drivers SUPPORT VALUEADD AUTORUN.INF T2241.GHO windows.ico Disc 2 has these: Drivers AUTORUN.INF T2241001.GHS windows.ico 586321687[/snapback] Those are norton ghost files. It's highly unlikely you can just reinstall as normal on another drive as the data they'll look for will no longer be present. You could (if you have the time and patience) take your old drive out, untouched, no deletetion/format. Replace it with the new, put the 1st restore disc in and see what happens. but i do fear it will simply not work (at least though all you'll have to do is swap the drives back around and be back to square one as opposed to even furhter back.) What gives you the impression your HD is dying anyway? sometimes just a nice clean install/restore can do the world of good to even the most bogged down HD, and you could use your new one as a secondary slave? Sorry for not being much help, but restore discs are a bum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deathray Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 If the new harddrive is bigger than the old one. it should work. However, after you'll need partition magic or something similar to merge the unpartioned space. I believe that is what will happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gekko Posted August 4, 2005 Author Share Posted August 4, 2005 I don't know the specs on my old hard drive but considering it's eMachine OEM it can't be all that. The new one is a WD 120B 7200 RPM with 8MB buffer so I'm sure it's better than the one I have which is 40GB by the way. The old one, when I first turn on the PC has a bad buzz noise that only goes away after a few minutes, its very loud so I'm assuming all is not right inside it, didn't used to do this. I know I can always just try it but I was hoping to know ahead of time so that I'll have the necessary software, assuming I have to buy XP. It just seems silly to me to have to purchase a whole new copy when I have it already with a product key and all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SergeantNoob Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 It just seems silly to me to have to purchase a whole new copy when I have it already with a product key and all. 586324219[/snapback] You don't have to - you're not replacing the motherboard :huh: You must have a different set of DVDs then. The eMachines Windows recovery DVD I had access to had the I386 folder of the original WinXP OEM CD along with a hard drive image. If you run the ghost executable by itself, you can adjust the partitions before you reimage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jester1x Posted August 5, 2005 Share Posted August 5, 2005 Those are norton ghost files. It's highly unlikely you can just reinstall as normal on another drive as the data they'll look for will no longer be present.You could (if you have the time and patience) take your old drive out, untouched, no deletetion/format. Replace it with the new, put the 1st restore disc in and see what happens. but i do fear it will simply not work (at least though all you'll have to do is swap the drives back around and be back to square one as opposed to even furhter back.) What gives you the impression your HD is dying anyway? sometimes just a nice clean install/restore can do the world of good to even the most bogged down HD, and you could use your new one as a secondary slave? Sorry for not being much help, but restore discs are a bum. 586322886[/snapback] Actually, Norton Ghost files contain a complete image of your harddrive. That is, the discs won't/don't look for any pre-existing data on a harddrive in order to load the image correctly. I've used restore cds from my Compaq Presario to load the factory image onto a new harddrive (original drive was Western Digital 120GB and new drive was a Seagate 40GB, then used the oem drive as a storage drive solely) with absolutely no problems. I've also used the restore cd from a Toshiba Satellite to put the factory image back onto a bigger, replacement harddrive (Toshiba 60GB to a Seagate 100GB). When I used the restore discs on my new laptop harddrive, the restore disc even gave me the option to place the 60GB image onto the new 12GB partition I had. (Mind you, the 60GB image was mostly empty space with only around five or so gigs actually being used.) Should work without a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gekko Posted August 8, 2005 Author Share Posted August 8, 2005 Well, I got all my new hardware on Friday. Saturday I installed the video card and ram, definitely made a huge diffrence. Sunday I installed the new hard drive and booted with the restore CD. Worked like a charm, it ran Norton Ghost and installed Xp fine. So to answer my own question, the eMachines Restore CD will install windows XP on a new hard drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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