I have an HP Pavilion a1140n Media Center 2005 Desktop PC. I had the PC serviced because of meltdown. The technician determined it was the hard drive and replaced it with a Western Digital 1TB drive but could not recover the data from the old drive. I tried to use the HP recovery disks but I get the error message “this CD is not for this computer”! I talk to HP online support and the bottom line is I was told I would have to purchase a new operating system because the recovery discs won’t work on a new disc drive. Specifically, here are the last several chat lines with Steve, the floor supervisor for HP online support:
Steve : The only solution for this issue is to buy the retail version cds Thomas
Steve : I can understand your concerns but we cannot much in this regard other than getting the retail version cds .
Thomas Yates : You have not explained why you can’t give me the CD’s that belong to the product key QX3CH-CKRFM-WBQ9B-VQY2W. That’s what I bought when I purchased the computer.
Steve : Though I provide you the cds which belongs to product key QX3CH-CKRFM-WBQ9B-VQY2W will not work as you changed the harddrive
Thomas Yates : Why not?
Steve : HP shipped hard drive have special chip which can identify the recovery disc where the normal hard drive dont have.
Thomas Yates : Now I see! What a terrible thing HP has done! Forcing someone to buy a new computer or operating system because of a hard disc problem. I will have to write to corporate and tell them just how I feel. Thanks for your time. But I will not buy another HP anything! So long!
So, now I have a worthless computer with a new hard drive.
Is this really true? Can a manufacture withhold the operating system and in effect, make the computer they sold you inoperable? Is there any other solution to be able to use the recovery discs?
Call me aggravated!
