Hello. I purchased a HP mini laptop 1100 last fall. It came with a program called Roxio back on track. I did not realize at the time, that this program was the only way to do a complete System Recovery for this particular computer. Roxio seems to be for this particular mini only. --- Anyway, it was popping up all the time and I made a terrible assumption that it was simply a system restore point program so I deleted it. I know, I know... I have beat my head against walls... anyway, I went to HP and redownloaded it, but, it only began saving from that day forward. I bought a new XP Disk Set and tried to install it and it refused to let me. It stated I could only Up-grade the system, and what I got was apparently a downgrade... I am so frustrated. If there was a way I could just access the partitioned Recovery area and do a re-install this could be fixed. Alas, I have tried everything I can think of and am stumped. --- I also tried to order the CD recovery disk from HP but they no longer offer them.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I really do have a HeadAche. ;/

According to the HP Web site, the Recovery Disc for the Mini 1100 is still available. Is this your computer?

Software & Driver Downloads - HP Mini 311-1100 CTO PC

If so, under Recovery Media is this:

» Windows XP Home SP3 Recovery Kit
2010-01-12 , Version:N/A

Note: The N/A just means the version information is not available, not the media itself as far as I can see.

What version of XP is currently installed on your computer, Home or Pro? What version the new XP you purchased, Home or Pro?

Whichever it is, you can use it, you just need to do a Clean Install which means you wipe out everything on the hard drive and start from scratch. You would need to backup any personal data you don't want to lose and find drivers for anything XP doesn't support directly. You also would still not have Roxio.

Far better to get the Recovery Disc and use it to put everything back to it's factory new state. This also means you will lose any personal data sop you will still have to back it up but all the right drivers and software will be there.

Rather than depend on Roxio BackOnTrack, why not spend the money and get a good backup program like Acronis True Image Home 2011 or use the free Macrium Reflect. Both will make full backups of your hard drive so if anything happens it's easy to restore. Acronis has a very good built in scheduler and will do incremental backups so you're not always doing a full backup which can take an hour or more. Incrementals for me take 3-4 minutes and I run it every night.

I use Macrium Reflect at work and do manual full backups whenever I feel it's needed. It can also be scheduled to run when you want using the built in XP Scheduler.

Originally Posted by Ztruker

According to the HP Web site, the Recovery Disc for the Mini 1100 is still available. Is this your computer?

Software & Driver Downloads - HP Mini 311-1100 CTO PC

If so, under Recovery Media is this:

» Windows XP Home SP3 Recovery Kit
2010-01-12 , Version:N/A

Note: The N/A just means the version information is not available, not the media itself as far as I can see.

What version of XP is currently installed on your computer, Home or Pro? What version the new XP you purchased, Home or Pro?

Whichever it is, you can use it, you just need to do a Clean Install which means you wipe out everything on the hard drive and start from scratch. You would need to backup any personal data you don't want to lose and find drivers for anything XP doesn't support directly. You also would still not have Roxio.

Far better to get the Recovery Disc and use it to put everything back to it's factory new state. This also means you will lose any personal data sop you will still have to back it up but all the right drivers and software will be there.

Rather than depend on Roxio BackOnTrack, why not spend the money and get a good backup program like Acronis True Image Home 2011 or use the free Macrium Reflect. Both will make full backups of your hard drive so if anything happens it's easy to restore. Acronis has a very good built in scheduler and will do incremental backups so you're not always doing a full backup which can take an hour or more. Incrementals for me take 3-4 minutes and I run it every night.

I use Macrium Reflect at work and do manual full backups whenever I feel it's needed. It can also be scheduled to run when you want using the built in XP Scheduler.

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my distress. My current Install is XP Home SP3 on an HP Mini. I have gone to the sites you gave links for about 3 months back and although it seems possible to order, there is no such Recovery available for me anymore. I filled all the info and tried that well before all my stress.

I then Purchased XP Home Edition SP2. It has refused to do the install.

Since I last posted, I decided to just dive in and destroy the thing out of sheer frustration. I ran some program called KillDisk Hard Drive Wipe. It did the trick. Killed my comp right well. Lost my OS so could not boot, couldn't get in to do a thing. Lolololol. I made a heck of a mess.

However, BEFORE I ran that, I did find a way to use Roxio to back up my hard-drive from their homepage. Apparently they have a way of identifying your comp and realizing their software was supposed to be there. Although I had no idea how to get the Disaster Recovery Disks to work; I eventually had to do a reboot using KillDisk and go change to boot from the RD, then, lol, have to put a RD IN to recover files......... yeah. After an interesting 48 hours, I have managed to get the comp back into the same frame of mind it was in prior to wiping the hard drive thanks to the Roxio back up files.

At this point, I have decided to disconnect this particular comp from internet abilities, and go get a decent comp with the Recovery Program built in like I'm used to. Lessons learned, it was fun and a learning curve.

My thanks again for being here to seek advice and consolation. H-Ache

As I said, you need to do a Clean Install. If you've wiped the hard drive then you need to boot the CD. To do that you need to set it as the first boot device in BIOS Setup. Once that's done, with the CD in the CD/DVD drive, boot up and the XP install should start. If you see a message that says Press any key to boot from CD, press Enter. All the following give you good directions on how to do a Clean Install.

Clean Install- WhatTheTech
Clean Install - Michael Stevens Tech
Clean Install - WinSuperSite

I looked at the links. I DID try a clean install. As I said, because the XP Home I purchased is SP2, I got a message stating the system allows for UPgrades only. Yes, I booted from the CD drive New Disk on restart. It would not allow the install because my purchased program is a Downgrade.

You did not do a Clean Install then as doing so would have formatted the drive and there would have been no previous Operating System on the hard drive for it to check.

Boot from CD.

Blue Screen: Setup is loading files.

Top of Blue Screen: Windows Setup
Bottom of Blue Screen in white Border: Setup is loading files.

Blue Screen: Setup is starting Windows.

Blue Screen: A problem has been detected and Windows has shut down to prevent damage to your computer. If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again follow these steps.

Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer.

Technical Information: ***STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF7AC1524, 0xc0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

Stop 0x0000007B INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE : Advanced troubleshooting for "Stop 0x0000007B" errors in Windows XP

Try running the bootable version of DBAN (Darrick's Boot and Nuke). It will be a .iso file that you use as input to create teh bootable CD. ImgBurn is a good, free program to use to create bootable CDs from .iso files.

Once it's booted, enter autonuke. Let it run for a minute or two so it wipes the partition table and MBR then kill it. Now try the XP install again. Should boot directly into the XP Installation. The hard drive should be seen as RAW (Un-initialized, un-formatted).

Create a partition that encompasses the whole drive, Format it and XP "should" install.