Boot Manager and Backup Blues... ; )

[Lode]

Hi!
Recently I got the message on my laptop that the Bootmrg was missing, ending up with a black screen with that text. I'm using an HP laptop, and called HP. They told me I needed a new Hard Drive, and format it with their System Recovery DVDs.
The DVDs came yesterday and I used them on the Drive that was still on my laptop. It seems to have done the trick, as everything works again. So I wonder if I need that new Drive... which I recieved today.

I still have a full System Backup on an external drive I made 3 weeks before the problem started, but when I try to use it -to avoid spending days in getting things back the way they were- I get this message:

"Your computer can only be restored if the disk is reformatted on which the "Windows Recovery Environment" -I'm translating from Dutch- is presently being executed. Start the Windows Recovery Environment from a Windows Install disk or a System Restore disk.

This never happened before, so I called HP again. First I was told that because I'm working in a "HP Environment" it was not possible to use a System Backup, as that can only be done in a Windows Environent. When I said that I had used Windows System Backups before on the laptop, I was told I had to do with the the Bootmgr. But that if I installed the new Hard Drive and HP System Recovery DVDs it should work.

Not true it turns out. I get the same "only in a Windows Environment" message.

Wondering what to do... I would rather buy a Windows 7 disk, have it overwrite all the HP software, and then see if I can get the backup on it. But maybe the new Windows 7 would balk at that, as on the backup is already a Windows 7 OS...

PS: I just removed all HP software I could find, but still no using that backup possible. Same message.

[Lode]

Solved; I can send the hard drive back, get a full refund, and keep the HP System Recovery DVDs for free said the very friendly lady at the HP help desk.

(I told her it had nothing to do with my hard disk. Bootmrg is software, and its gets restored with the use of recovery DVDs. But still believing what their technician had told me -that the backup would work using the new hard drive- I took the original out of my laptop and put in the new one, and formated it with the recovery DVDs. No change, so I wiped it clean with the free version of KillDisk, and took it out again to return it to HP.)
http://lsoft.net/killdisk.aspx

In the mean time my laptop is finally just about back in shape. Even a little leaner and faster, as I have less clutter on it now.

I'm almost ready to make a new system backup of it. That one will work I trust if I need to restore my laptop as it will contain the same Windows 7 license as is already on it now with the newly installed system from the HP DVDs.

All's well that ends well...