HELP! Installing HP Vista Recovery Disks onto a new HDD

[harryu]

I found the same problem in this forum and several others online, but have not been able to find one with a solution!

I have an HP Pavilion Notebook DV6633US

It has a 120GB HDD with Vista Home Premium

I created recovery disks when I first got the computer

Last week the HDD crashed.

I bought a new Western Digital HDD (the original in the laptop was a Seagate) 

The Western Digital chart shows compatibility with my laptop specifically 

I upgraded from the 120GB to 160GB

I tried running my Recovery Disks

It installs necessary boot files, runs the Windows progress bar and then goes to a blue screen with an operable mouse cursor and an error message that says:

"This PC is not supported by the System Recovery Discs. You will not be able to continue to recover this system with these discs." 

The laptop is out of warranty at this point.

I contacted HP Tech Support in 2 ways and got 2 different answers. I'm not sure which to believe and don't want to take the time or spend money on ordering the wrong solution.

The Tech through the Online Chat support says:

My Recovery Discs have 'gone bad' and I need to order new ones from HP.

They insist that will solve the problem, but I've read multiple places online that it's not the solution

The Tech through email support says:

If I purchase a hard drive through a third party, no HP recovery disks will work and I would need to purchase a new Vista install (obviously expensive);

Only an HP purchased hard drive will work, it comes with it's own recovery disks. The Recovery Disks have a tatoo/signature for the specific hardware.

The HDD I purchased was discounted to $40. The HP HDD is $130.

One more wrinkle. If the HDD has a tatoo/signature on my original recovery disks, is that true for other components also?  

While it was still under warranty I had a defective CD/DVD drive replaced, also a defective motherboard replaced, and I added additional RAM.

I've seen several other posts with the same issue, and a number or suggestions are posted, but it seems that they never post once they found a solution that worked.  

Before I bite the bullet and spend the $130 on their HDD I want to be sure that will work, and if there's a way I can make it work with the HDD I already purchased, I would sure like to do that.

Any help here would be greatly appreciated!

[FortNil]

In my HP experience with recovery dics, there have been no such issues with hardware changes.  However, I have experienced problems with dvd drives having problems reading discs burned with another dvd burner.  Particularly an HP burner.  I would suggest to try a copy software to see if it will read the intire disc.  If the disc is truely bad, then I don't see this as possible.  Hp is not the only source for HP recovery discs.  Try google and study.

[Gangles]

the discs are not reading the tattoo on the system board that it attempts to match with what is encoded on the disc. Boot into the bios with F10 and tell me on the bottom of the screen if it states OEM FACTORY INSTALLED OS. if it does not, another set of media will not resolve your issue. If it does, you just need to paythe shipping and materials for the media even if you are out of warrenty. for United states it starts at about 14.95$ for ground shipping

[harryu]

Thanks... but it wouldn't say anything about the OS because the new HDD installed is blank. I'm trying to use the Recovery Disks to install Vista.

[Gangles]

It doesnt need an operating system to see that stamp. It will still be there. is it there?

[harryu]

It is there. It says Vista.

[Gangles]

then re-ordering the recovery media with HP will resolve your issue. your media is bad

[Rakhmad]

If you wish to order recovery media from HP, please mention specifically that your motherboard has been replaced by HP, some of users reported the recovery media will not work since the motherboard tattoo has been altered.

Your recovery media is fine, since it boot and fail at security state, since you have US model, you'll have a better treatment compare to other countries.

Make a phone again to HP and ask them a legal documents that stating replacing third party harddisk would lead to non working HP recovery disks.

HP has exceeded the security of their recovery media that it should. If they wish to maintain that kind of security, they should state in every documents ships with the notebook.

If you can win the debate, there is a possibility HP will send you a free special recovery disks that by pass the current security checked.

[harryu]

New wrinkle: On Friday I contacted Tech Support Chat one more time to confirm whether their HDD comes bundled with recovery disks or not. I explained the whole situation to the tech and he gave me yet another possible solution.  He said the recovery diks actually look for a match between what the motherboard has identified as the HDD and the HDD installed.

He said when you install a fresh copy of Vista (not the recovery disks), it will match the MoBo to the new HDD.  So find a trial copy of Vista, install it, then install my original recovery disks over it. He insists that will solve the problem.

So... I found a copy of Vista online and have been trying to install it.  It goes through the product key registration and then comes to a screen to select the drive to install the OS onto. However, the HDD is not there, and a message says that the mass storage drive is not found, may require driver. It allows you to 'Browse" to find drivers, and when you do that... the HDD is actually there! It's not identifying it though to install the OS onto. I tried installing drivers but it won't take them. 

I Google'd the problem and a few different sites said that you have to change a setting in the BIOS to tell it identify the drive in IDE mode instead of SATA, but I don't have that option in my BIOS settings.

So my question is: Is this process likely to work? and how do I overcome the problem of the install not seeing my new drive?

Thanks for the comments so far... additional help here is appreciated!

[Rakhmad]

Its the tatto issue, that prevent HP recovery disks to work.

My best guess is the motherboard replacement, not the harddisk. 

You may have a different issue, please check either the BIOS can recognized your harddisk or not.

Vista will automatically detect harddisk, no need extra drivers.

Check connectors and reseat the harddisk if the BIOS can not recognize it.