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Question

HP G72 259wm Recovery

by Sep 2, 2011 3:04AM PDT

I crashed my computer. When the screen came back up it said "hard disk not found."
I ordered the recovery disks from HP. No instructions came with it and I'm not paying them $60 just so I can press a few buttons.
I have the System Recovery disks 1 & 2, and the application and driver recovery dvd.
Can anyone help me please! Usually I am a computer wizard but this new tech junk has totally stumped me!

Discussion is locked

17 Posts
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Answer
Re: system recovery disks
by Forum moderator Sep 2, 2011 3:43AM PDT

Recipe:
1. Turn the computer on to put system recovery disk 1 in the tray.
2. Turn the computer off.
3. Turn the computer on. It should boot from the CD without problems, if the BIOS is set so.
4. If it still tries to boot from the hard disk (so you get the same error message) turn the machine off and on again, early in the boot press the key to go into the BIOS setup (usually f2 or f10 or delete, but that varies with make and model, see what the screen says and check your user manual if necessary), find where the boot sequence is defined and change it so it boots from cd first. Then exit the BIOS setup. The PC will reboot.
5. Follow the prompts to reinstall the OS from the CD.
6. Repeat #2, #3 and #5 to install the other CD's.

It's quite likely, I think, that the install of the first CD will fail with an error message about the hard disk. Then it's time to replace the hard disk. If it still fails after that, it's time to replace the motherboard; The old hard disk might mysteriously come to live then.

Kees
Kees

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(NT) That's how it works on a similar G62.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Sep 2, 2011 3:58AM PDT
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Try this
by TWB404 Sep 2, 2011 4:03AM PDT
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Today, it's dumbed down.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Sep 2, 2011 4:05AM PDT

The BIOS defaults and from the factory are set to boot from CD/DVD.

The makers are dumbing down things like this.
Bob

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Yeah
by Kimberly14787 Sep 3, 2011 5:40AM PDT

I figured that out and went in and rechecked the bios. I got to the point of tears last night I was so frustrated with the errors. I keep asking myself am I missing anything. Building my first desktop was easier than this! But the laptops are a whole different jungle for me! I might just go back to a desktop. One that if there is anything wrong with the hard disk I can go in and fix it. I guess I'm still old school trying to jump into the new age of computers.

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Answer
Another problem
by Sep 2, 2011 7:38AM PDT

I got it to load Windows and then I got to a screen where dos came up and then disappeared. Now I have the disk still in, not running and it seems to be stalled on a screen. And it's not a black screen.

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More Info
by TWB404 Sep 2, 2011 7:48AM PDT

After if loaded the DVD, it should have rebooted and started the Windows install.After that It should have rebooted and stated it was loading drivers and then rebooted and started loading the programs. Where did it lock up at.

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It loaded....
by Kimberly14787 Sep 2, 2011 2:39PM PDT

It loaded Windows. And I'm back to the grey screen again. I will try this till I get it right. My classes start on the 9th and I have another puter I can use till then, but I really liked my HP till this happened. I'm going to try the second disk before the reformatting begins if I can get the dvd drive to open for me.

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(NT) Did you get the hard disk not found error fixed?
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Sep 2, 2011 9:29AM PDT
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Not yet.... sigh
by Kimberly14787 Sep 2, 2011 12:10PM PDT

still working on it........

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Answer
OK I'm trying this...
by Sep 2, 2011 12:10PM PDT

I got it to the screen where it said "insert the boot disk." The #1 disk is in the computer and is now loading windows. I am up to the screen where it says Starting Windows. I'm gonna see what happens next. I ended up with an error from the recovery screen about not being able to load something, and I should have copied it down, but dummy me. OK now it went from Starting Windows to a black screen. Now it's on a colored screen where the dos popped on and then disappeared. And here I sit...

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Answer
Another failure.. this is frustrating
by Sep 2, 2011 2:35PM PDT

I got up to the reformatting screen. It went through the reformatting (I think), and then on the files download this is the error that I got...
Fail to Create
D:\SDV.FLG
So I tried opening the dvd drive and it wouldn't let me open it.
Then I got another error:
Copy File Fails
From E:\PRELOAD\BASE.WIM
to C:\RM\Image\BASE.WIM

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At this point
by TWB404 Sep 3, 2011 12:43AM PDT

I think you have a bad hard drive. You got 2 choices, you can go ahead and bite the bullet and buy a new one and see what happens or you can find a program that will test it for you. One test that I use is to run a full format on it. That is one of my complaints about not having a Windows install DVD. Your recovery DVD do not give you this options and all they do is a quick format which will not tell you anything. If you have an old Windows XP CD laying around and know how to get it to the partition and format screen you can use it. There is also free disk testing software on the market and maybe someone reading this can make a recommendation on a good one. Keep in mind that if you do have a way of running a full format on the hard drive it will take forever to finish. The last time I ran one it was a 80GB hard drive and if memory serves me right it took over an hour to finish. Another program you might want to try is MiniTool Partition Wizard and it is free. They have a bootable ISO you can download and burn to a CD. It is a good program and I have used it to do my partitioning and formatting of blank drives. Click the link below and scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see the download link for bootable CD. Using Partition Wizard requires some knowledge of partitioning and how a hard drive is setup but it is not all that difficult.

http://www.partitionwizard.com/download.html

If you need a program to burn it to a CD you can use ImgBurn and it is free to. Click the link below and use either mirror 7 or 8 to download from.

http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download

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Answer
Thank You
by Sep 3, 2011 5:35AM PDT

Thank you all for your help! I'm going to try this again with all of the info compiled together and hopefully will come up with a workable solution. I've only had the computer for a year and the warranty ran out July 31st. Go figure! If it doesn't work, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy another computer. Hopefully the last try will work.

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HP G72-759WM
by Michelle91595 Oct 28, 2011 10:20AM PDT

Kimberly14787,

What was your final outcome with this issue? I am in a WORLD of hurt because my hard drive crashed on the same model laptop.

I was not able to create recovery disks prior to death and only had time to backup on an external drive - little to no warning as to what was happening. This laptop no longer does much of anything ( 12 hour period).

I did get a new Internal HDD but I have backup on an external Harddrive and I keep getting "You have NO BOOTABLE Disk" message.

I have changed priority in BIOS but the same message comes every darn time. All suggestions welcome. Any Windows 7 recovery out there?

Any Recovery software that can help? HP is of NO help at all! Most Windows 7 help refers to the computer being operational and Recovery disks? Or pay $49.

I am a student and ALL of my programs needed for classes are on this computer which hates my guts currently.

Thank you much,

Michelle

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(NT) Did you order the recovery media from HP yet?
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Oct 29, 2011 2:25AM PDT
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Nightmare resolved - I hope.
by Michelle91595 Oct 29, 2011 8:00AM PDT

I did not order anything from HP as my warrenty expired as of July 23rd. However I was finally able to bring up the Recovery Menu by pressing F11 long enough to burn a Recovery CD for Windows 7 off my crashed Hard Drive.

When my NO BOOTABLE DISK - ERROR MESSAGE came up after installing the new Hard Drive I inserted the Recovery CD, Windows files loaded and I followed the instructions, then I was able to retrieve my Image File from the Back Up I created on my external Hard Drive.

So far so good. I have not had it up long enough to check everything. I am just grateful to have my programs back to complete my homework assignments.

Ughhh, frustrating for sure I will certainly be backing up my files at least weekly after this ordeal. And from now on any computer purchased within our family unit a Recovery CD will be the first thing created.

Thank you much,

Michelle

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