I am using a four year old Aptiva[model E24] on which I have had to run the Recovery disc twice.
This was not because of the machine,but because I’ve twice driven it it to meltdown through wild attempts to test it’s tolerance of my ignorance about anything more technical that the hammer…
I now have the opportunity to inherit another Aptiva—an older model.I estimate that it’s about 5/6yrs old. and it has a real problem with lack of space
Is the recovery disc that I have applicable to The E-24 only?Or can it be used in any model of the Aptiva line?I would like to use it to rejuvenate the old machine.
Do you mean the recovery CD that came with the E24? I wouldn’t expect it to work on a different computer. They normally contain drivers specific to that computer.
If the E24 also came with a Windows install CD, that should work on any computer. That might be the best bet - reformat the hard drive (if you inherited the computer from someone else, you don’t need any data on that computer, do you?) and do a clean install of Windows. Ideally you’d want to use the “custom” option and choose only the components and utilities you need.
Re the E-24 - According to IBM here are the specs of your machine.
K6 200MHz(256KB) 24MB RAM 2.1GB HDD IDE PCI/ISA Minitower(6X5) ATI 20X CD 56K Win95
If it has a problem with lack of space this is a “get rid of files” or “get a bigger hard disk issue”. scr4 is correct about the current setup disk not being useful for the project you have in mind.
If you want to re-format the hard drive and start with a clean slate you will need to download the Lucent LTWIN 1643 modem drivers at a minumum. It would also be prudent to have the audio and video drivers available although I suspect the latest version of Win 98 Se probably has these built in (if that is what you intend to use as the new OS for the E-24).
Sorry I should have read your OP more carefully. I saw too late that the E-24 is your current machine.
The same principle applies however. Check you component list for the older machine. Within the limits of the BIOS capacity getting a bigger harddisk is still suggested as the best route. In fact upgrading the e-24 with a bigger HD (per previous description) and putting the e-24’s little 2.1 gig in the older machine might be a good way to go.
The Recovery program IBM packages with Aptiva computers is specific to that make and model, as it clearly states when you start the program.
The first thing the program does is check the system BIOS; if it doesn’t match, it ends the program.
IBM was not overly generous when installing hard drives in Aptivas; my 4-year-old Aptiva was shipped with a 2 gig hard drive.
My cure? First I added a Zip drive. That gave me more capacity 100 mb at a time.
Finally I bought a second hard drive. That’s really the cheapest way to go, hard drives are your best bargain per mb. I slaved it to the smaller hard drive, which enabled me to use the IBM recovery program . . . which I just needed when my master boot record went bye-bye last week.
Unfortunately the Recovery disk has your Windows installation on it, so if you don’t have a Recovery disk for your new-to-you computer, you’ll have to make other arrangements. IBM might be able to replace the Recovery Disk for you, contact IBM for more information.