Installation dilemma.

[raven]

Hi,advice needed for a noob, sorry if this post is a bit long.
I have just bought a new Compaq 6715b laptop, it's a business machine that has been downgraded to XP Pro (32bit) from Vista Business.
It has AMD Turion x2 64 bit 2GHz processors, ATI Radeon X1250, 150GB hard drive and 2GB ram.
It is jammed full with HP info center, support and all that kind of stuff.
When I first switched it on the HP restore created a 10 GB partition which is full after I updated to Service Pack 3 and created restore disks.
When it boots up there is a message displayed after the bios post and before Windows starts to boot saying "Press F11 for restore".
Clonezilla reports that this utility resides in the first 500 sectors of the harddisk. (this is from my memory so could be slighly wrong).
From installing Kubuntu in the past I guess that the GRUB loader will destroy this restore booter.

Options:
1.Go for dual boot and split the remaining disk space.
2. Wipe the disk and install Kubuntu 64 and try to run windows in a virtual machine. (windoze might be faster without all it's HP clutter)
I'm worried that the XP restore disk that came with the laptop will not recognize the OEM product key number on the base as it was originally Vista.
3. Keep on worrying and do nothing!

Any ideas?

[The Liquidator]

Re: Installation dilemma.

It depends what is on the DVD. For example on my Dell 630m the DVDs (sent some time after I got the laptop so I think it might have been by mistake!) are full XP and applications install disks. Once I had them it then became possible to remove the "hidden" partition and dual-boot on a proper basis. Incidentally the only windows now on my machine is in a VM.

If you have a full install disk then you ought to be OK. However, if the disks supplied require the recovery partition to be intact then you won't have a problem setting up a dual boot but you may struggle to reinstall/recover windows in the event of something going wrong.

What is on the disk?

[flarson]

Re: Installation dilemma.

On my Sony Vaio the install partition is a hidden partition at the beginning of the disk and I can boot to it with grub. That means I can still restore the Windows Vista which is on sda2 from the hidden sda1.

[raven]

Re: Installation dilemma.

The disk says "Operating System CD"
"Multiple User Interface Pack for use with Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP2"
"Only for recovery of the origiinal language version"
"Only for distribution with a new HP or Compaq PC"

When put in the drive it autoruns and has an option to install XP SP2
Since posting I've been reading about Nlite and I may have a go at shrinking the XP footprint.
I've attached a dir listing of the CD.

My main worry is that I have three product keys, one on the sticker on the base (for Vista Business), another from the HP info utility and yet another found by Aida.
If I install I'm wondering which one, if any, will work. This brand new machine was sold as an XP downgrade.
Cost £301 including delivery to the Northern Isles if you're interested. (not from HP, they must be offloading them through lack of uptake in Vista!!)


Thanks for responding.

P.S. mando_hacker I did not see any "hidden" partitions but I will try booting up in DSLinux and check, thanks for the tip.

[The Liquidator]

Re: Installation dilemma.

I would keep all 3 keys, to be on the safe side.

When the disk autoruns cancel out of it and then look at it through Windows Explorer. Does it look like a standard install disk?

So far as the hidden partition is concerned, I wouldn't expect Windows to see it, although you should be able to from a live linux cd.

[raven]

Re: Installation dilemma.

I went for the dual boot option.
Installed Kubuntu 8.10 with KDE 4.1 64bit, did full update.....it was unuseable!
One quick format later...install 9.04 beta 64bit....WOW! fast.
Got a few problems with software but all the hardware seems to work.

Update. the GRUB menu had All the Kubuntu items at the top and then XP pro and at the bottom a listing for Win NT. As I only had XP pro I figured that the last listing must be for the disk restore utility (see my post above) so of course I must try it to see if I'm right! (there was no hidden partion)

Yes it was the disk restore utility and after it had chugged a few times I came to a screen with an option to cancel and quit without making any changes.....so I thought.
The damn thing has overwritten my Grub so I can't boot back to Kubuntu
It's gone back to the original "Press F11 for restore"

I hate computers!!

[flarson]

Re: Installation dilemma.

So it does have a hidden partition. YOur hatred should be directed at M$, not the poor defenseless computer.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Installation dilemma.

All you really should have to do at this point is reinstall grub.
You might want to boot up a live cd and start gparted (you might have to get it from the repository first). That will give you a look at what's on your disk.
The first thing the repair utility typically does is to reinstate the original boot loader, which in this case it did without prompting. You can overwrite what it did by reinstalling grub, either from a livecd or a super grub disk. You have not lost your system, only the boot loader.
But, yeah, don't boot that restore partition unless you really mean it...