Ask HN: Windows recovery CDs without original computer? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Windows recovery CDs without original computer?

2 pointsa_simm8 comments

I found a set of 6 windows recovery cds in my mother's effects that I made on Jan 6, 2008 on a Compaq mini tower. The original computer is long gone.

So I bought another mini tower of the same vintage, trying to recover, and received a message like "these disks were not made on this machine"

Compaq support was no help and MS support has an open ticket since Nov 2021.

I've looked at the disks on another machine and its unclear what's going on. No info on the format, structure, etc appears in my web searches.

Does anyone know how to get to data off them and or someone or some place who does?

Thanks!

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Are you sure that those disks contain the private files? As in a 'backup' rather than the 'recovery' of Windows alone?

Generally speaking, the private files would be backed up separately, and not with the Windows operating system.

Is there any indication of the software used? You could possibly get in touch with the company that produced that software. (If it was Microsoft, then you are SOL.)

Yes I'm sure. They were made with Windows (probably XP) software and works something like Apple's Time Machine. So if your put in the first cd it will give you an option -- assuming it was the same device apparently -- to overwrite your hard disk to exactly the same state as it was when the recover/ restore / backup - not sure what to call it - was made, including user files. The problem here is that it seems to be locked to the original device or model (can't figure out wich) so it won't start the recovery process.

What's on the discs that you want? Aren't most recovery discs just the OS and some OEM software?

Its a copy of all the files on the computer at the time: letters, photos and anything else she was working on or we sent her.

Given the name of the discs and the message you got, I'm worried that they might not actually contain user data like that. But anyway, you could always dig into the code with Ghidra or something and try to patch out that check.

Given the volume of the data and previous experience, the disks would restore the computer into the same state as when the were created, including all the user files at the time.

Oh, it's that kind of backup? Then yes, your best bet is trying to fake out or patch out the checks. I assume you want to keep the real files private and not just upload them to the Internet. Does the computer you bought have the same backup software on it? If so, can you make a dummy backup with it and then upload that somewhere instead? Then someone could figure out how to crack that one, and you could then follow the same steps for the real one.

The backup was created using the included windows software at the time. The computer I bought is pretty useless

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