In message , HB writes:
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message
...
[]
If it will boot the Toshiba, it will do so even if the HD _is_ toast,
unless it's toast in a very unlikely manner.
OK, then how will I know if the HD is toast if it boots the PC anyway?
Because, once the Linux (whichever flavour) has loaded and is running,
you then tell it to look at the HD (which will appear, in Linux, as
something like "sda", "sdb", or similar, if I understand Paul's post on
the matter correctly). _How_ you tell Linux to look at the HD, someone
who speaks Linux will have to tell you - in simple steps!
* If it can't see any HD, then the drive is probably toast.
* If it can see an HD, but can't see any partitions on it, then the
drive _may_ be toast, or may just have a scrambled partition table (or
boot sector?). This _may_ be repairable.
* If it can see an HD, and can see partitions on it, and examine the
files on it, then the drive isn't toast, though may still be somewhat
faulty - but we _might_ be able to repair it so that it runs long enough
to make an image, or to run further tests on it to see if it's actually
faulty or has just got corrupted somehow.
extension? There is no other software out there anyone knows about that
You DO have to worry about the strange extension, if that extension is
".iso". You DON'T just burn that file to the CD the same way you'd burn
any other data file: you have to use "create CD from ISO image", or some
similar setting in your Ashampoo. (Or download and use ImgBurn as already
described - it's fairly obvious within that which is the
create-from-ISO-image option.)
Ashampoo doesn't have that choice. I downloaded ImgBurn but have not had the
time to see how it works. It doesn't look easy and intuitive like the other
burners I had.
See Patrick's post; Ashampoo _does_ have that choice. As does ImgBurn.
(He also mentioned a third alternative.) I also agree with his
suggestion of using rewriteable media, if you have them, so you don't
waste them if you get them wrong. (Though use a write-once one once
you've proved the method - IME, CD-RWs aren't _long_ lived, I mean
recordings made on them aren't.)
[]
http://www.oldversion.com/windows/do...mgburn-2-5-0-0
[]
I like Imgburn. I don't like Adware.
Paul
I assume that's the one you've got.
[]
But I'd still say _my_ first choice - rather than trying to boot from a
CD/DVD - would be to examine the HD, on one of your other computers, using
a USB dock, "cable", or housing: This _doesn't_ involve buying hardware
you won't need anyway, since if you're going to back up the machine after
you've repaired it (and all your other machines!), you'll need the
dock/"cable"/housing anyway to connect the backup drive.
By backup drive you mean an external drive - one for each PC? Or one
external drive with the images on it that can boot them all? The external
Seagate attaches with a wire to the USB port.
[]
I use my external drive to store images from my two main PCs. You don't
boot _from_ the external drive: you boot from a CD you make using the
imaging software you choose. I choose Macrium, for which the boot CD
actually fits on a mini-CD (well it does for Macrium 5 that I have; I
think it will for 6 and 7 too); it hasn't let me down yet. Once Macrium
(or whatever) has booted from the CD, you tell it which image file (on
the external drive) to restore from.
Whether you can store many such images depends on the capacity of the
external drive (such as your Seagate). The images aren't the size of the
drive they come from, only the used part of that drive or a little
smaller: for example, on here I have a C: partition of 99.9GB, but only
28.2 GB of that is used, so an image of that (plus the 100M hidden
partition) would only need less than 29 GB. (Less, in fact, as Macrium
offers to do compression when it's making images; I tend to turn that
off.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
And every day in Britain, 33 properties are sold for around that price [a
million pounds or so]. - Jane Rackham, RT 2015/4/11-17