What will supplies will I need to rebuild a Compaq hard drive?

Question

It was purchased in 2000- and It crashed and I am not able to use the restore disc that came along with it

Answer 1

Your programming inside your HDD (hard disk drive) crashed, not your disk drive. Besides, do the below options, then. The first part is if you do not have a cd, and the second part if you do have the cd. After you get the computer running, you need to go to ALL PROGRAM and click on PC HELP & TOOLS and explore the stuff there one by one and you will learn grasshopper.

If you use Windows XP, when you reboot, press f10 key. This part is available before it tries to access the windows XP system where you crashed. My system has done this too much. I am an expert now. lol All it cost was time and money for the beer while waiting for the computer to run recovery operations. lo

By pressing f10, Go try the Restore option first and then if not do the Recovery option. Try the first one where data files are lost but programs remain. Then if computer still crashes, then do the Recovery where it "REFORMATS" and puts your computer back to factory specifications. I did this after I caught a virus, ran the Restore, and still the computer was messed up. So, I did the "hard recovery", KEPT the Norton's Anti-Virus up-to-date and have not a problem since. You know it is legal now and google "oem software," and buy Norton's. You have to shop around though as prices varies.

Here is an excerpt from my HP info on Recovery

To install the Recovery Console as a startup option
With Windows running, insert the Setup CD into your CD-ROM drive.
CLick Start and select Run.
Type the following where D: is the CD-ROM drive letter:
D:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons

Follow the instructions on the screen.
Notes

To run the Recovery Console, restart your computer and select the Recovery Console option from the list of available operating systems.
You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure.
To see the commands available on the Recovery Console, type help at the at the console prompt.
If your computer will not start, you can run the Recovery Console from the Setup CD. See Related Topics for information on running the Recovery Console when your computer will not start.
Related Topics

Answer 2

To physically rebuild a hard drive you would probably need a degree in Computer Science, a clean laboratory, and hundreds of dollars in equipment.

However I would suggest you get Spinrite Version 6.0 from http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm and run that program on your hard drive. It will cost you about $80, but it is a very good program and cost a lot less than sending it to a professional.

You have to ask yourself how valuable your data is to you. If it isn't worth $80 then just cut your losses and get a new HD, they are cheap.

Whatever you do, if your data is valuable to you, do not try to work on the hard drive yourself.

Answer 3

Your question is too open ended ... if your machine crashed, the reason could a number of or elements or combinations or elements i.e. faulty hard drive, operating system, RAM ...

If all the hardware is fine, the all you'd need is an OS cd and reinstall. Before doing this however, you may want to understand the course of the crash as previously stated.

Good luck.

Answer 4

Compaq doesn't make hardrives, they do, however, assemble computers. Now I assume you are trying to say to rebuild the computer, not the harddrive (a very small box in the computer) where the data is stored at. Take it to a local computer store and allow them to diag the computer. They can tell you what is wrong and what it would cost to fix it.

Answer 5

Don't open the case, if you do, it will no longer be a usable drive.

Answer 6

screw driver