No boot disc and laptop crash

[SHRED]

My daughter's Win 7 Toshiba crashed.
I can only get to BIOS and a "disk error" reading that says push Ctl-Alt-Del which then just repeats the error message.

So if I am reading the advice here correct can I make a bootable USB flash?? Linux? Ubuntu?
If so can I then burn (save) files to the DVD drive??
And afterwords can I reinstall Win 7 from the partitioned HD section that houses the OS all by running from the bootable USB Flash drive????

I want to save music and pics from the HD to a DVD and then reinstall Win 7.

Thanks.

[canetoad]

1. Before doing anything else

Give yourself and/or your daughter a mild metaphorical thrashing for not using the 'Toshiba Make Recovery Media'
utility. It's present on every Toshiba Win 7 machine, takes a few DVDs and gives you peace of mind that you can reinstall the OS when you need to.

Mint linux is good for making a bootable USB stick. Go here for instructions:http://www.pendrivelinux.com/
You need to format the usb drive correctly (HP has a good free utility) and copy boot files to the drive. Then you should be able to plug it in, hit F12 for boot options and select USB.

If the problem is indeed a DISC error, that is probably beyond the scope of a Linux boot usb drive to fix but the more Linux savvy posters here may have some suggestions.

[darkstar3]

2. You've successfully placed yourself into a catch 22.

You cannot reinstall the operating system, even from the recovery partition, without a disk, and you cannot get that disk without using the "Make Recovery Media" tool inside the operating system. Toshiba isn't like some of the nicer Dell's, where the recovery controls are actually built into that separate partition and the partition is bootable.

You're not hosed, though. I've dealt with this exact situation in the case of Gateways, Dells, HPs, and the properly oft-maligned E-Machines. Generally, you can call the manufacturer and request a recovery disk. Since you didn't actually make it yourself, you'll have to pay for the privilege of having them do it for you, and they generally charge about $10-$20.

Of course, THAT disk that you get from the manufacturer is designed as a factory reset. It will NOT save any of the personal data that you've acquired. YOU STILL NEED A BACKUP OF YOUR USER DATA BEFORE YOU PROCEED. I've found that the following link has been quite helpful in the past for using free utilities to back up data from a crashed Windows-based computer. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/use-ubuntu-live-cd-to-backup-files-from-your-dead-windows-computer/

Hope this helps.

[SHRED]

3. I used a SATA/IDE to USB adapter

http://www.vantecusa.com/en/product/view_detail/266

Removed the HD, hooked it up, plugged it in to my computer and it cannot read the disk. Won't even assign a letter to it. It never becomes visible. My computer freezes a bit as it tries to recognize it and I get a "USB device could not be loaded properly" error.
Physically the laptop HD is humming along but no-go trying to even view it as a removable storage drive from my computer.
That tells me the drive is physically a goner.

Now for about $170 I can get a new HD and Win7 from Newegg. I think that will be the best avenue rather than for my daughter to try and deal with Best Buy and Toshiba for warranty. Sometimes they spend weeks before you get your system back.


Thanks

[hobbit709]

4. That's probably best.

i would suggest partitioning the new hard drive and keeping all your data on the D: drive. That way if Windows gets hosed again your data is safe if it isn't a total HDD crash like you had this time. And back up the data to an external drive on a regular basis.

[SHRED]

5. good idea thanks

[SHRED]

6. A question about partitioning

I have never done it.

Does the partitioned area show up as a lettered drive?

Can you drag/drop, copy/paste, etc...to that partitioned area of the HD?

I understand the reason for keeping a separate area apart from the OS but how handy is it to use?

On a 250G HD how large should I make it?

[hobbit709]

7. You have that option at the beginning of setup

The C: partition doesn't really need to be larger than 100Gb. It will assign drive letter D: during the install.
no problems with copying or anything else. It would be the same as plugging in an external flash or regular drive and copying to or from it.

[DainBramaged]

8. Sounds like a dead drive

Are you plugging it into a WIN 7 computer with the USB 'shovel'?


Try this to see if the drive is truly dead (install it on the good system) and isn't the Toshiba still under warranty?

http://majorgeeks.com/CrystalDiskMark_d5574.html


CrystalDiskMark is designed to quickly test the performance of your hard drives. Currently, the program allows to measure sequential and random read/write speeds.

Features:


Measure sequential reads/writes speed

Measure random 512KB, 4KB, 4KB (Queue Depth=32) reads/writes speed

Select test data (Random, 0Fill, 1Fill)

Theme support

Multi-Language support


PS


Start/Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Storage/Disk management


You may have to initialize the drive for your system to see it since it really isn't a USB device.

AND if you have WIN 7 activation code on the laptop, you get 'lifetime' help from Microsoft, so IF you want to get on the phone with India, they will link you to a disk image to re=burn your Windows using your activation code FOR FREE!!! Just need to download an ISO burner from Major Geeks!!!!!!

[blogslut]

9. Here's some simple software for installing Linux on a USB stick

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

When you run the software it will ask you what version of Linux you want to download and there will be a drop-down list of distributions to choose from. There are many Linuxes but IMHO, I would download/install Puppy Linux because it's a) small in file size and b) it almost always boots up successfully on almost any computer.

As far as what you do once you get your USB Linux running, all I can say is that you can at least determine if Linux recognizes the hard drive. If it does, that means the hard drive is not fried.

I'm not sure how you can create a WIN7 boot dick from within a Linux environment. I'm not saying it's not possible but I just don't know how to do that.

[Betty88]

10. you could try hirens bootCD

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

one of the options on it is called minixp it will let you get to your files and if you have an external drive copy them over to that

it has saved my butt several times