New Hard Drive

[ermadea]

Please can anyone help: A new hard drive was put on computer by engineer in repair shop because old one was irreperable, they have the windows xp install cd, but how do they register it and with whom and what do they do next to get it up and running, bearing in mind they are not very savvy with technical language, the engineer only put on new hard drive, nothing else, but they are clueless as to what they have to do or what else they need - who are they? My son-in-law and daughter. Please help, thank you

[oldbob]

Well!! What can one say? What qualifications does your "engineer" hold. It sounds like he might be a boilermaker, He certainly is not a computer technician. Your story makes me question everything that has been said, even the statement that the old one (hard drive) was irreperable. If the hard drive has been replaced the replacement must be set up (jumpers etc) exactly the same as the original. The XP installation CD should be placed in the CD Rom reader and the computer re-started. Win XP should start to install automatically - just answer all the silly questions correctly. In my country (which is a long way from yours) we simply ring the local branch of Microsoft , explain the situation and they will supply a new activation code. One would presume a similar arrangement works in your country.

[rojash]

I agree with oldbob, there's got to be something very wrong with a repair shop that replaces a hard drive, but doesn't install the operating system.
They will need to configure the machine to boot from CD (by going into the CMOS setup program), boot with the XP CD (or recovery CD if they have one), and follow the instructions.

After XP is installed, they will need to install all the motherboard drivers (they should have a separate CD for this, unless the PC is one of those brands that comes with a recovery CD rather than an XP CD). Then they will need to install any additional hardware drivers.

XP will offer them the chance to activate online, but before they can do that they will need to get their internet connection working. As OB says, they can choose to activate by phone - in any case they have 30 days in which to do it.

Once the machine is activated they will need to download and install all the Windows updates that have been issued since their CD was manufactured.

[Kerplunk]

The shop does not have to install the operating system. If they diagnosed the hard drive as being faulty all they have to do is replace the hard drive or provide another one. If you want the operating system installing there is usually a fee of about �30 to do this. Ask the shop to install the operating system and see awhat they say. If they won't do it there are plenty that will.

[ermadea]

Thank you very much to oldbob,rojash and Kerplunk for your sound advice, everything is sorted now, and up and running. It seems there was a misunderstanding,and the engineer has accepted it was his fault. They did pay for xp to be installed on to the new hard drive. Your help was most appreciated.