Will a recovery disk install windows on a new hard drive?

[sandmangeck]

My daughter spilled water on my Laptop, and the Hard drive is fried.

I bought the Laptop used off amazon a year or so ago, so the warranty is out. I've ordered the proper recovery disks from HP as none came with the Laptop. Also, the windows installation disk did not come with the system. The new HDD has not arrived yet, but I tried recovering the Hard Drive that I have and I get the Error 100a, please contact HP.

So my question is, Will the recovery disks that I have install windows on the new hard drive?

It is a HP HDX 16 1140, and the recovery disk set that I have was ordered using the Laptops serial number, so it is computer specific.

Also the operating system is Windows Vista 64 bit.

[seventhson]

It should burn an image onto the hard drive that is identical to the day you bought it. Note that I said that it *should*. Good luck!

[sandmangeck]

Thank you!
The new hd should be here tomorrow.

[Ayce]

As long as the new HDD is the same as the original, or approved by HP for the laptop, it may work. Otherwise, it may not work, as the recovery disks will not recognize the drive as HP approved for that unit.
FME,YMMV, etc.

[1958Bassman]

Laptop hard drives are pretty well sealed. Take it to a local computer repair shop and have the drive checked, outside of the laptop. I would bet it works. The circuitry in the laptop may be fried, but, unless the liquid caused power supply voltage/current to go to the hard drive on traces that it shouldn't, it might be OK. The laptop is probably toast, but if the power was disconnected ASAP and it can be dried/cleaned, it may survive.

A recovery disc isn't the disc with the OS on it, just important parts. The portable HDD that comes in a plastic case is the same as what's in many laptops and this can be opened. If you have another computer, you should be able to remove the new drive, insert the old one and connect it to the other computer to see if you can move the data files. It would be seen as just another mass storage device.

[sandmangeck]

The lap top turns on with the recovery disk with bad hard drive. But it only gets so far. Could it still be fried?
Without the disk it doesn't recognize the hard drive.

[1958Bassman]

Originally Posted by sandmangeck

The lap top turns on with the recovery disk with bad hard drive. But it only gets so far. Could it still be fried?
Without the disk it doesn't recognize the hard drive.

Did you open it and dry it out? If not, don't turn it on and remove the battery. The last thing it needs is power AND liquid at the same time. Remove the hard drive and make sure the connection isn't wet- if it's shorting across the pins, the computer will A) have major problems and B) not see what it needs to.

[sandmangeck]

I used the computer that night and it worked. The next morning I dried everything out once it set in

[two fingers]

Yes, it should. I have never done that exact computer. But I have used the recovery disk on many other laptops. The recovery disk not only has the OS on it, but it also has any other aps/programs that came on that computer from the factory. The whole point of a recovery disk is to get the computer to look just like the day you bought it.

The vast majority of computers are set (in BIOS) to read the disk drive FIRST, BEFORE reading the hard drive. If the computer sees the recovery disk in the disk drive, it will take over from there and do the rest, asking you a couple of questions along the way.

However, as stated before by other posters, this assumes that the hard drive (and NOT the laptop itself) is the problem. If you give this a try and it doesn't work, more than likely something went wrong in the computer itself. And the next thing to do would be trying your hard drive in another computer. I have an adapter that lets one hook up a hard drive externally. You can get one from newegg.com or tigerdirect.com etc. Then you would be able to retrieve all of the files that were on the old computer hard drive and transfer them to your new (replacement) computer if that's the problem.

Good luck.

[sandmangeck]

It worked. Thanks for all the replies.