and the last thing \I will mention, is a bios battery is not the laptop
battery, it is a separate battery much smaller inside the machine where
it is not accessible. But still, it must be changed if it is bad. They
do not last forever those little batteries. About the size of a watch
battery.

On 3/14/2018 12:20 AM, HB scribbled:
"Java wrote in message
news
On 12/03/2018 21:26, HB wrote:

"Java wrote in message

whereas I think your other half meant just the hard drive, assuming it
was
dead, did she not? This is a standard way of preventing personal data
being retrieved from binned HDs. Personally, I use a lump hammer and a
cold chisel on a concrete floor or step.

Yes, that's what she meant. Destroy the HD.

Thought as much, but let's make sure that it really is dead before we
perform the last rites ...

But is the HD really dead, or has it just got corrupted ...

It's not dead as it brought up technical screens when tapping F8 or F2.
It
ran fine with the battery not charged and plugged in.

No, the technical screens come from the BIOS, which is *usually* a chip on
the motherboard, not written to the HD.

I learn something every day. Seriously.


{
Hopefully irrelevant historical note:

Having said that, about 15-20 years ago I encountered some Dell desktops
where some of the BIOS functions were combined with some Dell system
recovery functions on a hidden first partition of the HD, and if, as was
the firm's policy, you wiped the HD before putting the firm's standard
build on it, you lost that partition and thereby the ability to enter the
useful BIOS interactive GUI. I presume some BIOS functionality must have
remained, because otherwise the PCs could not have got as far as booting
the OS, but the BIOS GUI was definitely missing. Consequently, I rewrote
the scripts to leave the hidden partition in place.
}

On the back it just says Satellite followed by numbers. I don't know
which
numbers would be relevant. This is the 1st number. C655D (or 0) S5063
system
unit.

I would suggest going to Toshiba's site and comparing what you have with
pictures of other models and their given designations one of which will
probably be close to the above. When dealing with problems or buying
spares, it is *nearly always important* to know exactly what it is that
you have.

This was given to us by a realtive. She said it was too slow and wanted
a
better faster newer laptop.

I'm afraid that you must learn what is useful information and what is
ot - the above is not.


What would be useful is for you to find the exact model number by
comparing what you have with information from Toshiba's website.

I could usually get rid of problems like this by accessing
safe mode and doing as System Recovery or Restore. But nothing led to
safe
mode.

What you are referring to as 'Safe Mode' is part of Windows, which you
will only reach if the HD is working.

I hear it spin up and when the PC gets hot the I can hear a fan start.


You need to get your head around how a PC boots. The processor in a PC is
built in such a way that on receiving power it goes to a particular place
in its memory to begin execution of whatever instructions it finds there.
These instructions are part of the Basic Input Output System (the BIOS
that we keep mentioning). The BIOS performs some self-diagnostic tests,
then if these are satisfactory it searches any attached media - hard
disk, CD/DVD, or USB stick, in an order that is settable within the
IOS - for an Operating System (OS) to run. Usually, as in your case, it
finds an OS on the first partition of the only HD, and, again as in your
case, it is often Windows. There is more detail on another page on my
site that describes this process.

http://www.macfh.co.uk/JavaJive/PCHa...ootProcess.htm

Interesting and informative. I'll check your site tomorrow.


Whether or not you choose to understand the details above, the important
consequence is that, if the HD has gone down, the PC can never find an OS
to run, and can never offer you Windows 'Safe Mode'.



I'll do some Googling again and see if I find anything helpful. I'm sure
a
tech would have found those screens that came up helpful. To me they may
as
well have been in Chinese.


BUT the fact that you have got into the BIOS at all does suggest that most
of the PC is functioning, and in itself that is encouraging. Next we have
to find out which part of the PC is broken, and, from what we know so far,
the hard disk does seem a likely culprit, but it would be premature to
*assume* that at this stage.

OK.


More generally, when reading technical stuff that is unfamiliar to you,
it's important to resist developing the habit of going into either panic
or glaze mode. Although officially I'm now retired, I've just spent three
days at a legacy client's configuring a cloud phone system, something
which I've never done before, and I did it successfully because I did it
step by step, trying to understand one thing at a time. You have to be
prepared to invest some time and effort in studying and trying to
understand what needs to be understood.

I agree with you completely. Glaze mode sounds familiar.


If the laptop can boot from a USB stick, then download an Ubuntu or
other
Linux distro - make sure you get a suitable one, 32-bit or 64-bit as
appropriate - install it on a 2GB or larger USB stick, depending on
the
size of the download, and see what messages Linux generates as it tries
to
boot the PC. This may give you some useful pointers to a hardware
fault.
If the PC boots from the stick, then you should see your hard disk
partition(s) as clickable icons down the left hand side menu (in Ubuntu,
other distros may be different, for example the icons may be on the
desktop). Try this and come back to us with a description of what
happens, particularly whether the PC boots at all, whether Linux lets
see
your HD at all, and even the contents of it.

OK.. will do.OS.


Have you tried this yet? If the PC can boot from a USB stick, then
hopefully all that is wrong is the HD, so then we would have to see if it
can be retrieved as a whole, or at least if your data can be retrieved
from it.

No, my job and family interfered. I have to stop and pick up a flash drive
as the ones I have don't have 2 GB of space left for this Ubantu. I assume I
just insert the flash and turn the Toshiba on and see what happens? What's
suppose to happen? I know nothing about that OS. Or I can use DVDs. Maybe
that's the better choice since there are plenty of them here. That should be
handled tomorrow. Too much coffee, not enough sleep.


IMPORTANT NOTE: You may have to master an understanding of the BIOS
sufficient to set the boot order so as to ensure that the PC will try to
boot from a USB stick, if one is present. If that is beyond you, burn the
Linux distro to a CD or DVD instead, and see if the PC will boot from
that.

F2 brought up InsydeH20 Setup Utility. I got the Boot tab where it can be
changed from HDD/SSD to FDD, LAN or USB.

The battery is still charged as it's not plugged in this time either.