I purchase My HP laptop last, with pre-loaded software widows xp Home addition including lots of useless HP Programs. on the first start up I was prompted to make a back-up of the software that was installed, and could only be done once. this took 14 cd's. the system crashes every 3 to 4 weeks and takes aprox 2 hrs to reload, I have tried to reload a stand alone windows XP but it will not boot from the disk. it keep asking for the original disk. is ther any way I could bypass the originals. Thanks a lot

Try to fix the crashes. What are the issues that cause the reinstallation? (edit) I believe you can remove the extra programs from the install CDs by using nLite. Before doing anything make a duplicate set of restore disks and use them the next time you need to restore. Find nLite below. http://www.nliteos.com/

The OS never is fully uninstalled and re-installed when you go over your recovery process due to the way they set up your laptop at the factory with the disc, where they put both the bundled HP software as well as the OS itself all onto one copy. 'have tried to reload a stand alone windows XP but it will not boot from the disk' Your optical drive isn't bootable or you haven't configured your first boot device properly. Now is this stand alone windows xp a retail or OEM copy? If your optical drive is bootable you should have no problems whatsoever installing with a bootable optical drive after the HDD is formatted to NTFS. If it is giving you message 'insert original disc' when both parameters are true, then there's almost certainly a BIOS setting preventing anything other then the HP factory software disc being used to install Windows.

The original back-up of the operating system should not have taken 14 cd's. I don't know what you did or how you did it...but it isn't right to have to use 14 cd' The whole story is not being told here! In The Matters Of Style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, Stand Like A Rock "People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid."

Just buy a XP home/pro setup cd,then back up all the stuff you want to keep to cdrw, next install the setup cd and reboot,then delete the old installation and install a new..

Hey Lurks- It may have taken that many. My wifes Presaro took 12. Won't accept dvd's.

Yeah per is correct. For XP, you will need up to 10 blank CD-R discs or 2 blank DVD+R discs (says this HP article), and for Vista, approximately 11 blank CD-R discs or 2 blank DVD+R discs (per this HP knowledgebase). Won't accept dvd's. I never had problem burning DVD+R discs using the Recovery Disc Creation program introduced on HP machines shipped after Spring 2003. When I need to restore Windows, I usually invoke the restoration operation from the F10 key at bootup instead of booting to the DVDs. i_Xp/VistaUser