Toshiba W-7 went dark

In message , Patrick
writes:
On 19/03/2018 10:09, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
[]
I don't know what a "Manager" is. That may be the software I was
talking of.
[]
The 'Manager' HB speaks of *is* likely such as you were talking of, see
here and click the 'Downloads' button where is mentioned the
'FreeAgent-Go' that HB mentions;

https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/suppor.../portable-hard
-drives/freeagent-go/

https://tinyurl.com/y9ggh7d9

Thanks. I've looked at that, and glanced through the installation guide,
quick start guide, and user guide.

It looks as if it _is_ some sort of backup/syncing software, and that it
_does_ try to install itself whenever you connect it to a PC you haven't
connected it to before.

However, it looks as if it's just for things like the "My Documents"
folder, and other things we here tend to describe as "data": in
particular, all references to restoring files from it seem to be shown
being used from a working Windows. There's certainly no mention that I
could see of making a CD to be used in the event Windows doesn't boot,
or in fact anything about what to be done in such a situation.

Basically, I think it's only for backing up your working files (the "My
...." type folders), so that you can get back your _work_ in the event of
a disaster - by accessing the portable drive from another, working, PC.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"Usenet is a way of being annoyed by people you otherwise never would have met."
- John J. Kinyon

On 19/03/2018 06:57, HB wrote:
How can I install anything when the PC can't boot into Windows or Lenux?
All I have is a black screen with the "Disk read error occured" in the upper
left hand corner.

The idea is that you install 'Macrium-Reflect' on the Computer that is
working.

Next thing to do is run MacriumReflect (on said good machine) and follow
the direction given by 'Monty' to 'Create bootable Rescue media.

Then, you will take the Disc that you have created and put it in the
Toshiba and boot the Toshiba the same way that you did with the
Fatdog-Linux-thingy.

On 19/03/2018 14:04, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

If a command shell has actually been reached, as the '# -' ending of
HB's quote suggests it may have, then anything he types at that point
should be echoed after '# -', and we should be in business, but he
doesn't explain whether he actually tried to type anything there.Â* His
reply suggests that he didn't realise that we're asking him to try
booting from the Linux DVD again, and then try typing what I suggested
once the '# -' appears.Â* I think he's just thinking "Linux failed, so
how could I type anything?" without actually *trying* what I suggested.

You may be right. Paul has, however, posted a screenshot that shows a
Linux desktop, with arrows etc. drawn on to show which is the
Terminal-launching icon, so I hope HB has seen that image by now.

It will be useless, because Linux failed to load properly and tried to
fall back to a command shell. There will be no GUI and no icon.

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Java Jive
writes:


If a command shell has actually been reached, as the '# -' ending of
HB's quote suggests it may have, then anything he types at that point
should be echoed after '# -', and we should be in business, but he
doesn't explain whether he actually tried to type anything there. His
reply suggests that he didn't realise that we're asking him to try
booting from the Linux DVD again, and then try typing what I suggested
once the '# -' appears. I think he's just thinking "Linux failed, so
how could I type anything?" without actually *trying* what I suggested.

You may be right. Paul has, however, posted a screenshot that shows a
Linux desktop, with arrows etc. drawn on to show which is the
Terminal-launching icon, so I hope HB has seen that image by now.

There is the Terminal button, at the bottom of the screen.

In the Terminal, I executed "smartctl -a /dev/sda" to check
for Reallocated errors from SMART of the hard drive.

https://s13.postimg.org/cvoc2v64n/Fatdog64.gif === Link to picture to open in browser

*******

From the Package Manager, I can add "ddrescue" to the session.

https://s13.postimg.org/t07zo8l47/ad...64_session.gif

This package shows me using "ddrescue" to scan the hard drive
for read errors. Since the Fatdog user is "root", no sudo command
need be tacked onto the front of commands like this one. I use
a second Terminal window to examine the log file. Much of the fatdog
interface uses "one-click", so you have to watch it if you seem
to be getting "too many" of something.

https://s13.postimg.org/te9bntxhz/dd...bad_blocks.gif

That picture was taken, about 3/4 of the way through the scan,
so the recovery.log wasn't finished yet. When it is finished,
it will show just the one line, indicating all the blocks
scanned OK. If the file has many many data lines in it,
that spells trouble.

A test like that , is used to see whether the drive is really
sick or not. It's not CHKDSK, and doesn't check the health
of the file system. Or, check for any "missing" files.

Normally, you'd change the "destination" to an actual
storage device, instead of redirecting the output to
/dev/null and throwing the reads away. But that example
is what I can do, when I don't know what the OP is going
to do next. I can gather some information about the
situation.

The package manager has TestDisk as well, but at the
moment, we don't need it. And it has a needlessly complicated
interface - I will stay away from there if I can :-)

I couldn't find Clonezilla in there. So that's not an option
from our tiny DVD.

Paul

"Patrick" wrote in message
news
On 17/03/2018 02:08, HB wrote:
https://support.toshiba.com/repair
In reading the site the PC is out of warranty and isn't W-8.

Scroll down to Get Recovery Media.

Don't show or tell us the Licence number (Certificate Of Authenticity)
which could be stolen from you if you show/reveal it. Said Licence number
(COA) has the format; xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx (five groups of five
digits), it should also be the the one that you used trying to download W7
from Microsoft but it was rejected because it is an OEM (Original
Equipment Manufacture) licence. Thus it is that MS rejected it because it
is not thiere responsibility but the OEM's (Toshiba).

Nothing like that on the back of the Toshiba.


I suspect that when you went to the Toshiba site
https://support.toshiba.com/repair
to get the Recovery Media from them, that you tried to put in the above
mentioned COA rather than the Serial-Number of your machine/laptop

I put in what's called the Serial number on the sticker on the bottom. It's
9 digets.


Can you please take a photo of the label that is on the underside of the
Laptop, and then give us a link to said picture/s?


This old HP digital camera doesn't take closeups. I just tried. The pics
were very blurry, unreadable and over exposed.


--

Microsoft motto "If it ain't broke keep fixing it till it is."

"Patrick" wrote in message
news

Can you please take a photo of the label that is on the underside of the
Laptop, and then give us a link to said picture/s?



Please see here, to get the Serial-Number etc., of your machine;
https://support.toshiba.com/sscontent?contentId=4007069

That's the number the site I tried rejected. It's right on the back of the
Toshiba.

On 19/03/2018 16:47, HB wrote:
Can you please take a photo of the label that is on the underside of the
Laptop, and then give us a link to said picture/s?

This old HP digital camera doesn't take closeups. I just tried. The pics
were very blurry, unreadable and over exposed.


OK

"Wolf K" wrote in message
news

AFAIK, you can make Recovery Media only for the machine that you are using
to make the Recovery Media. So you have to use that machine's Windows
Activation Key (_not_ the machine's serial number).

However, you may be able to boot the Toshiba with the recovery media,
since AFAIK it will look for an activation key only when you install Win7.
Could be worth a try.

Where can I get the recovery media from? The Toshiba site rejected the
Serial number. Nothing came with the laptop. She handed it to me in some
kind of cloth bag - that was it. She had already replaced it as I recall,
with a new laptop. It was very slow though she had almost nothing on it. I
did a System Recovery which helped. It ran fine until that evening I was on
the Lowe's site looking for pressure relief valves. Suddenly I was looking
at that black-screen-of-death. It had booted fine when I turned it on that
evening.


Also note Tesla's comments about the BIOS battery. I think he's right, a
failed BIOS battery is a real possibility. Changing that is bad enough on
a desktop, on a laptop it's a tech job IMO.

What are the signs of a failed BIOS battery? Wouldn't that just invoIve
booting? I was actually using the Toshiba when the screen suddenly went
black with the blinker in the upper left-hand corner. I said to myself, "Oh
sh*t!"


Good luck,

On 19/03/2018 16:35, Paul wrote:

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

In message , Java Jive
writes:

[After pointing out that the GUI had failed to load, but this has been
snipped by others!]

If a command shell has actually been reached, as the '# -' ending of
HB's quote suggests it may have, then anything he types at that point
should be echoed after '# -', and we should be in business, but he
doesn't explain whether he actually tried to type anything there.
His reply suggests that he didn't realise that we're asking him to
try booting from the Linux DVD again, and then try typing what I
suggested once the '# -' appears.Â* I think he's just thinking "Linux
failed, so how could I type anything?" without actually *trying* what
I suggested.

You may be right. Paul has, however, posted a screenshot

But he hasn't got a GUI!

There is the Terminal button, at the bottom of the screen.

But he hasn't got a GUI, only, and only if we are in luck, a
command-shell, and most probably only in maintenance or recovery mode
without a network.

If he can do anything at all, he can type things like
ls -alEnter
lilo --helpEnter
.... etc, and then only if the commands we wish him to use, such as lilo
that could repair the MBR, are available in that shell, or can be
installed for it directly from the DVD, without using the network. I
don't think anything else will be possible unless we can either tell him
how to diagnose and fix whatever reason it was that caused Linux to
crash as it booted, or he tries a different distro.

Java Jive wrote:
On 19/03/2018 16:35, Paul wrote:

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

In message , Java Jive
writes:

[After pointing out that the GUI had failed to load, but this has been
snipped by others!]

If a command shell has actually been reached, as the '# -' ending of
HB's quote suggests it may have, then anything he types at that
point should be echoed after '# -', and we should be in business,
but he doesn't explain whether he actually tried to type anything
there. His reply suggests that he didn't realise that we're asking
him to try booting from the Linux DVD again, and then try typing
what I suggested once the '# -' appears. I think he's just thinking
"Linux failed, so how could I type anything?" without actually
*trying* what I suggested.

You may be right. Paul has, however, posted a screenshot

But he hasn't got a GUI!

TBH with you, I have *no idea* what's on his screen.
Not a clue.

I thought something booted, but what do I know.

Right now, I can't even be sure he looked at the pictures I posted.

I'm not picking up signals, that we're in sync at all.

He's doing something, but what ? I've got no
signal to work with.

Paul

On 19/03/2018 18:30, Paul wrote:

Java Jive wrote:

But he hasn't got a GUI!

TBH with you, I have *no idea* what's on his screen.
Not a clue.

This is the relevant excerpt that tells me that Linux fails to load, and
tried to abort to a command shell, which may or may not have ended up
being a functional command shell:

On 17/03/2018 22:38, HB wrote:
I have no idea what any of this means:

I burned it to a disc (Puppy), turned the Toshiba on, and it says this:

done (in green, upper right hand corner.)
Loading drivers needed to access disk drives. Searching for Puppy
files in
computer disk drives. (The in RED is says), fd64-500. sfs not found.
Dropping out to intitial-ramdisk console. /bin/sh :can't acess tty; job
control turned off # -

I *hope* that '# -' is the shell prompt, in which case if he tries
typing something harmless in there, such as ...
ls -alEnter
.... to get a directory listing, then we might find we've got enough
functionality there to be able to help him, but unless and until he
actually tries this, we can't do much more.

In article , says...

"Java Jive" wrote in message
news
On 17/03/2018 22:38, HB wrote:
I have no idea what any of this means:

I've not seen that before either, however ...

I burned it to a disc (Puppy), turned the Toshiba on, and it says this:

done (in green, upper right hand corner.)
Loading drivers needed to access disk drives.

Good - as others have said, it shows that your BIOS settings are
sufficient to boot from the media you used, and that the PC is bootable.

Searching for Puppy files in
computer disk drives. (The in RED is says), fd64-500. sfs not found.

I can't find a reference to fd64-500.sfs as such, only ...

http://gorgeaccess.net/fatdog/ro/ind...ge=Sfs%20files

"An sfs file is a file system that is merged with your normal file system
at boot.

... (it then lists the following, the first is repeated 3 times with
different values of z = 0, 1, 2, but I wouldn't have expected the absence
of any of them to be a show stopper such as you encountered) ...

fd64-devx_5z0.sfs
Devx - for compilation and development.
Part of Fatdog64 proper.
Note: This is only for Fatdog 5z0

... (finally, and the absence of this might be a show stopper) ...

fd64-32bit-libs-7.sfs
Compatibility library for running 32-bit applications.
Re-packaged for Fatdog from Quirky 1.1, Fatdog's little brother."

Perhaps you didn't quite copy the file name right? At any rate see below
...

I downloaded this version of Fatdog64-702 Dec 2016 (as someone here
recommended). It saw and loaded Fatdog. Fatdog works - so what does this
tell me about the Toshiba and why it can't load Windows? It seems to work
fine on the Toshiba but I would like to run Windows on this PC.... where do
I go from here?


Get a genuine Windows disk. Boot the pc with it. Delete and recreate any
partitions and then reinstall the OS. Note - what you now have will be
gone.

Also note - I have two older Dells will not install Win7 for some reason
(just reboots and starts over) but they do install XP with no problem.

On 19/03/2018 17:05, HB wrote:
What are the signs of a failed BIOS battery? Wouldn't that just invoIve
booting? I was actually using the Toshiba when the screen suddenly went
black with the blinker in the upper left-hand corner. I said to myself, "Oh
sh*t!"

I also have suspicion that the CMOS-battery might be the/a cause of
problem/s, it is thus that I searched on Google for how to replace said
CMOS-battery on the Toshiba laptop that I suspect that you have, I thus
came up with the below link that illustrates/explains how to replace the
CMOS-battery on said machine. Perhaps you would care to look there and
maybe verify if you think that it looks like your Toshiba.

http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptop...a-laptop-1.htm

On 19/03/2018 05:33, HB wrote:
The above is a bit confusing. Both the DT and the Toshiba are W-7 Home-64
bit.

If the OperatingSystems are the same as you say above then you could
make a W7-64bit recovery disc on your working machine and then use it on
the (non-working) Toshiba.

To make above said RescueDisc see;

How to from Microsoft;
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/...em-repair-disc

Or another place;
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-crea...r-disc-2626301

When you have created the RescueDisk you can reboot your Good Computer
and test that it works (Boots) from the CD (don't forget to watch for
the Prompt to "Press any key to boot from CD/DVD".

If the CD has Booted OK (first screen should be to select your Keyboard
which will most likely be US as default) on your good Computer then
eject the CD and shut down th Good PC.

Put the CD in the Toshiba and reboot (turn off and on), watch again for
the "Press any key to boot from CD/DVD" and press a key (eg, 'Enter').

pjp wrote:
In article , says...
"Java Jive" wrote in message
news
On 17/03/2018 22:38, HB wrote:
I have no idea what any of this means:
I've not seen that before either, however ...

I burned it to a disc (Puppy), turned the Toshiba on, and it says this:

done (in green, upper right hand corner.)
Loading drivers needed to access disk drives.
Good - as others have said, it shows that your BIOS settings are
sufficient to boot from the media you used, and that the PC is bootable.

Searching for Puppy files in
computer disk drives. (The in RED is says), fd64-500. sfs not found.
I can't find a reference to fd64-500.sfs as such, only ...

http://gorgeaccess.net/fatdog/ro/ind...ge=Sfs%20files

"An sfs file is a file system that is merged with your normal file system
at boot.

... (it then lists the following, the first is repeated 3 times with
different values of z = 0, 1, 2, but I wouldn't have expected the absence
of any of them to be a show stopper such as you encountered) ...

fd64-devx_5z0.sfs
Devx - for compilation and development.
Part of Fatdog64 proper.
Note: This is only for Fatdog 5z0

... (finally, and the absence of this might be a show stopper) ...

fd64-32bit-libs-7.sfs
Compatibility library for running 32-bit applications.
Re-packaged for Fatdog from Quirky 1.1, Fatdog's little brother."

Perhaps you didn't quite copy the file name right? At any rate see below
...
I downloaded this version of Fatdog64-702 Dec 2016 (as someone here
recommended). It saw and loaded Fatdog. Fatdog works - so what does this
tell me about the Toshiba and why it can't load Windows? It seems to work
fine on the Toshiba but I would like to run Windows on this PC.... where do
I go from here?


Get a genuine Windows disk. Boot the pc with it. Delete and recreate any
partitions and then reinstall the OS. Note - what you now have will be
gone.

Also note - I have two older Dells will not install Win7 for some reason
(just reboots and starts over) but they do install XP with no problem.

The OP has an OEM machine. The official Microsoft download
page needs a retail key. I think I tried the COA key off my
laptop and was denied a download. I tried the retail key that
I bought for the new machine, and that let me into the downloads
at Microsoft.

There are lists of tools to work with TechBench. You'll need good quality
checksums with stuff like this. The Heidoc seemed to be OK, but it's broken
for Windows 7 as of today. I don't know whether any of the others that
download from Microsoft would as a result, still work or not. I like to
think at some point, Microsoft just removed them. I don't know if it's
a web page cracking issue or not.

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/links-fo...l-distributer/

The checksum is the key. MD5 is no good. SHA1 is better than nothing,
but is the weakest working choice for authentication. SHA256 is probably a better
choice today.

MD5 is fine if you need a signature, for some home files. Where nobody
is on purpose trying to create an alias. But for the authentication
task, you want something better than that. And some of the goofy
signature methods (.sig), aren't always a good substitute (they rely on
downloading a key ring from "somewhere"). I checked something the
other day with a .sig, and it said the signature was valid,
but the key used had no "chain of trust". Which means the program
I was using, I hadn't set it up properly (and good luck figuring
out what's wrong).

Paul