First post, by xboingx
Hi,
I hope it's not against any rules here and this is a right forum.
I have a problem. I managed to get my hands on working examples of the following old laptops:
Compaq Armada M700 (AM7 P3700T4X12VC64N2 - dual Windows NT/Windows 2000 install)
Dell Latitude C640 (Windows XP)
Compaq Presario A900 (Windows Vista Home Basic 32bit)
MSI GX600 (MS-163A version, Windows Vista Home Premium)
I would like to restore them to their original factory conditions (including software). Those computers were reinstalled multiple times and as such they have their recovery partitions/recovery cds lost. Dell laptop is not a problem, as I have recovery CD from other dell systems that work, however the original image would be better, The Presario and GX600 can be reinstalled using standard vista systems (minus activation problems as the servers no longer works) but once again the original branded image would be better. The Armada is the biggest problem as even the bios setup utility was located on a special partition on the HDD (the BIOS is very minimal and does not allow to setup anything, even date).
So the question is: do any of you have access to images of original HDDs/recovery CDs? Every help would be appreciated. I found image of setup partition for the Armada but the system refuses to bat the image 🙁 The systems have all the required stickers etc. I just need the software to install the OS and activate it properly.