"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message
...
In message , "
writes:

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message
...
In message , HB writes:


Brevity snip

(-:
[]
This is another concern of mine. I not only didn't get CDs with the
last
2
PCs, but no nag screens either. How do I make a bootable disc for them
or
one of these "images"?



Assuming they _have_ the ability to make one, the way to do so will vary
from make to make and probably model to model. Get the manual (if you
didn't get one with, and you may well not have, it should be
downloadable
as a .pdf [usually] from the manufacturer's website), and - if it isn't
obvious from the contents list - search it for the word recovery or
emergency.

Looks like I found it. I'll be making some DVDs later tonight for this HP
W-10 Notebook.

Good. Though remember that they _might_ only give you the option of
returning to as-new, so continue to certainly back up your data, and
ideally also image your C:.

I assume the C: drive is imaged when the Recovery Discs or TDs are made. Is
it? It's inventory time were I live here so the store didn't have any
larger TDs. They let the stock run down. I'd rather put the info on TDs than
CDs. Maybe I'll just go ahead and use the DVDs. There are stacks of them
here. Now to find the time.


Back to the Toshiba.
[]
The Toshiba is W-7, also has Classic Shell installed, is dead in the
water.
All I can get is the F12 screen that is basically useless at this point.

Yes, obviously to get any sort of shell, the system has to load from the
hard disc.
[]
I wish I had one of those. I never thought to look for a way to make a
rescue or boot disk for the Toshiba.

Assuming we get it working, I imagine you now _will_ look for it. But
still:

On the whole, I think a third-party imaging tool, Like Macrium or
Acronis
(both free), with the boot CD they allow you to make, along with just
copying (or using something like SyncToy), is better. (I image C: and
any
hidden partitions, and just copy/sync. my D: [data] partition.) The
reason
being that these restore everything exactly how you had it - including
all
the software you've installed, including all the tweaks to both the OS
and
the software you've done over the years; whereas using recovery tools
_can_ alter things, in the extreme returning to as-new, losing all your
software (and possibly data). You put the image - and data copy - on an
external disc.

I remember having something like that years ago. But when the black screen
with the blinker occured, it didn't work. Nothing worked. There was no
way
to make the PC SEE the drive and respond. It didn't work as advertised.
I

When you say no way to make it see the drive, I suspect _either_ you
haven't set it to boot from the CD/DVD drive before the hard drive, _or_
you haven't burned the DVDs in the correct manner that makes them
bootable.

I don't recall having a choice to make them bootable. I just followed the
prompts. What would the correct manner be?


As an outside possibility, the HD could be so badly faulty that just by
being there, it's stopping the PC working properly at all - overloading
the power supply, or something. But I think this is highly unlikely, since
you have (sometimes!) seen the BIOS boot screens. Nevertheless, you can
_try_ booting (powering on) the PC with the hard disc removed, and one of
the bootable CDs (a Windows 7 disc, a Windows 7 recovery disc, a Linux
self-boot disc, a Macrium or Acronis disc, ...) in the DVD drive: you
wouldn't be able to repair the HD, but that should at least show whether
the HD was faulty enough to prevent booting. But I don't think that is the
case - I think the reason it's not booting from one of those DVDs is one
(or both) of the reasons in the above paragraph.

I honestly don't remember any more since it was some years ago. As I recall
one was a XP and the other the Vista.


may as well have inserted a pancake in the drive. I have everything of
value
on the Toshiba saved to a thumbdrive. I need some kind of emergency boot
disc for the Toshiba but was unable to find anything online to download
and
burn to a DC or DVD. I'm going to check these two out later. Macrium and
Acronis.


Although they make a bootable disc, that disc is intended to be used to
(either make or restore from) an image; if you don't have such an image to
restore from, booting from a Macrium (or Acronis0 disc won't get you
anywhere.

I have no image of the drive and no knowledge of how to make one.


When you say you have "everything of value" saved, you mean presumably all
that _you_ have created, which most people call your data. As you've
discovered, the OS is also of value. Making an image with Macrium (of C:
and any hidden partitions) would allow you to restore, either to the
existing disc if it's OK hardware-wise or to a new one if you have to buy
a new one. the system to exactly as it was when you made the image.
Without such an image, you have to reinstall the OS, and any software, and
get all the updates that have come out since the disc you reinstall it
from was made, and do all the tweaks to both the OS and any installed
software to get them back how you had them - which for me would be hours
or most likely days of work, so is also IMO "of value".

How difficult is it to make an Image of the HD?

You need somewhere to store the image of course. I use an external HD (I
store images from more than one PC on it); a thumbdrive might do, though I
wouldn't trust one for backups. (I back up my "data" to it too.)

I have the external Seagate but never understood how to use it for an image.
It's loaded with trash I don't even want anymore. I dread plugging it in
because it loads this PC up with trash long deleted. There doesn't seem to
be any way to tell it I don't it putting stuff on my PC.


One is a Tablet w/W-10 and the other a Notebook
w/W-10. I have nothing in case one goes dark on me. The one before
these


I know little about tablets; if you even can make recovery software for
those, I don't know how you'd use it, as they don't have an optical
drive.
The notebook I assume _does_ have such a drive.

The Tablet has a USB port. The Notebook the usual optical drive.

Some tablets have a strange sort of USB port. Perhaps one that runs W10
_would_ have hardware that can boot from it, so that might be OK. The
notebook should be OK.
[]
I imagine you turn it on with the thumbdrive plugged in. You might have
to
amend the boot order in the BIOS so that it boots from USB first. $900
sounds a lot for a laptop - or even a desktop for that matter!

It's a HP I bought 2 or 3 years ago mainly for the kids since it has some
kind of special sofware that makes it very fast. It was recommended for
gamers. I got it at Best Buy. It has 12GBs memory and a 1TB HD. They love
it.

Lucky kids!

Kids! That's why funds are tight. :^)