KJ3N
05-26-2012, 08:53 PM
Picked up an HP Pavilion p6210y (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01859864&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&product=4006020) as a junker a few days ago. Previous owner was told that the onboard SATA ports were dead and a replacement MB was going to cost in the neighborhood of $300. They opted to buy another PC and left this one to rot. Hey, I can always use parts. ;)
Sure enough, when I get it home, it does not recognize anything plugged into the onboard SATA ports. Well, it's not a total loss. There's an AMD II quad core CPU, 6GB of DDR2 memory, a DVD burner, and a 640GB HD. I'm sure I can use the parts in something else. Still, it's a shame to just pitch the rest, so I start doing some experimenting.
Out of curiosity, I plug the HD into my SATA to USB cradle I sometimes use to do malware and virus scans, and plug the USB cable into the back of the HP. I boot the machine and it does see the HD through the USB port. It even starts booting from the HD. :chin:
Imagine my surprise when I see a Windows 7 Ultimate boot screen. :wtf: The labels on the outside say it should have Windows 7 Home Premium. Very interesting....
Now, obviously, Windows isn't going to fully boot from USB (and it doesn't), but it indicates that the OS is somewhat intact. If I can find a way to get the HD and DVD recognized by the system, maybe I can use the recovery partition to rebuild the machine to factory spec.
So, I get one of these (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115072) PCIe cards that has bootable support. It's less than $30, so it's not going to cost much to at least try it.
Once the card arrives, I install it and plug in the HD and DVD. Turn on the machine, and up comes Windows 7 Ultimate with a logon with a password required. :irked: No problem; I know how to handle that. :shhh: ;)
Examination of the (now-working) system reveals nothing in the way of personal files (the shop did get those onto DVDs for them), but it looks like the recovery partition is empty. Not totally surprising, given that (technically) the wrong version of 7 is on the machine. I've seen this scenario more than a few times.
No biggie. Just whip out a bootable install DVD of anything on hand, and away we go, right? WRONG! Seems that although both the DVD and HD are now seen, the add-on card doesn't support booting from the DVD. Nuts! :irked:
Well, I did get the HD to boot from USB, so now I'm getting one of these (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106356) to add to the bench. That should solve the problem nicely. I'm so confident that it will, that I ordered a set of recovery DVDs from HP. Only cost me $15.
$25 + $15 = $40 spent so far. I'm not counting the USB DVD burner, because I'm sure I'll find many uses for it down the road. But, even if I did, that still brings me in at $75. I can live with it.
Once the USB burner gets here (only ordered it today), I'll report back on how the total wipe and reformat went. :muhahaha:
Sure enough, when I get it home, it does not recognize anything plugged into the onboard SATA ports. Well, it's not a total loss. There's an AMD II quad core CPU, 6GB of DDR2 memory, a DVD burner, and a 640GB HD. I'm sure I can use the parts in something else. Still, it's a shame to just pitch the rest, so I start doing some experimenting.
Out of curiosity, I plug the HD into my SATA to USB cradle I sometimes use to do malware and virus scans, and plug the USB cable into the back of the HP. I boot the machine and it does see the HD through the USB port. It even starts booting from the HD. :chin:
Imagine my surprise when I see a Windows 7 Ultimate boot screen. :wtf: The labels on the outside say it should have Windows 7 Home Premium. Very interesting....
Now, obviously, Windows isn't going to fully boot from USB (and it doesn't), but it indicates that the OS is somewhat intact. If I can find a way to get the HD and DVD recognized by the system, maybe I can use the recovery partition to rebuild the machine to factory spec.
So, I get one of these (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115072) PCIe cards that has bootable support. It's less than $30, so it's not going to cost much to at least try it.
Once the card arrives, I install it and plug in the HD and DVD. Turn on the machine, and up comes Windows 7 Ultimate with a logon with a password required. :irked: No problem; I know how to handle that. :shhh: ;)
Examination of the (now-working) system reveals nothing in the way of personal files (the shop did get those onto DVDs for them), but it looks like the recovery partition is empty. Not totally surprising, given that (technically) the wrong version of 7 is on the machine. I've seen this scenario more than a few times.
No biggie. Just whip out a bootable install DVD of anything on hand, and away we go, right? WRONG! Seems that although both the DVD and HD are now seen, the add-on card doesn't support booting from the DVD. Nuts! :irked:
Well, I did get the HD to boot from USB, so now I'm getting one of these (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106356) to add to the bench. That should solve the problem nicely. I'm so confident that it will, that I ordered a set of recovery DVDs from HP. Only cost me $15.
$25 + $15 = $40 spent so far. I'm not counting the USB DVD burner, because I'm sure I'll find many uses for it down the road. But, even if I did, that still brings me in at $75. I can live with it.
Once the USB burner gets here (only ordered it today), I'll report back on how the total wipe and reformat went. :muhahaha: