window xp sp2 disk

[mill]

"the only non-reveresible thing would be if your reinstall was on a hidden partition and you deleted it"

You mean down the road if i wanted to used the recovery cds and reinstall from the hp cds i could?

[Chewy]

yes that would work, but you won't after you see how well a clean install of xp works

be sure and partition the hard drive when you get the chance, another factory flaw

[mill]

Ok Chewy thanks, when you partition your hard drive what all do you keep on yours, ? i mean do you just keep your os on one and all your programs on the other?

[Chewy]

I leave about 15-20 gigs on the system partition, that's OS and programs only, but no full install games, so I have about 10 gigs free, vision wants to use a temp folder in my documents for conversions. Data(and huge programs) go on what's left over. I keep the system partition very clean,
defrag only takes a few minutes and my backup stuff stays on the data partition.

[mill]

Weres a good like on partitioning ? i found one for reformating

http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=56673&highlight=reformatting

It sounds a little tricky. If i would not have messed with my registry i wouldnt be having this problem lol

[Chewy]

you just boot to the cd and play around, after a few tries and one evening it's a piece of cake

[mill]

LOL, Thanks Chewy well give it a shot.

[Budreaux]

You need to be prepared and willing to accept that you wil not be able to go back to OEM with this decision. HP puts there Recovery on a seperate Partition on the HD. When you do a Clean install with a MS XP disk, it will format over that and the option is no longer their. IF you decide to go back, for some crazy reason, you'll have to call HP and buy the recovery disk from them.

[Chewy]

post 1 in this thread:

This hp came with 7 recovery cds

too bad people post without reading thread

[mill]

Chewy cant connect to internet, i have no ethernet controller

[Chewy]

how old is that HP, surely it has onboard ethernet?

see device manager

[mill]

hp pavilion230n

[Chewy]

install the driver

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=330086&lang=en&os=228

down at the bottom

Summer 2003 Original Network Adapter Driver Collection

summer 2003?

[mill]

Good find but it wont let me install

[Chewy]

7. Right-click the device you want to update, and then select Update Driver

.