Toshiba W-7 went dark

"Monty" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 17 Mar 2018 18:52:57 -0400, "HB" wrote:


"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message
...

It isn't that complicated once you grasp what we're trying to do at each
stage! Time consuming, yes. The first thing we're trying to do is
establish whether the HD is actually faulty or just corrupted.
[]

I reburned puppy500 with a different Burner, making sure TWICE it was set
to
OSI, but the result was the same.

It seems to need fd64-500.sfs which wasn't found. I have no idea what tty
is.

What's going wrong?


I would suggest that you download the latest version of Fatdog64.

That would be version Fatdog64-721.ISO

I did that and it can only open and be used with the DVD in the drive. It
didn't install itself on the Toshiba. Maybe it didn't burn it to an OSI
file??!?


The version of Fatdog that you downloaded was released in July, 2010.

You would then have the latest drivers for your hardware and you might
eliminate most (if not all) error messages (item wasn't found).


Following that exercise, I would then suggest that you download

Macrium Reflect 7 Free Edition and install it on an operating PC.

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.


With that program, you would have the opportunity to repair errors in
the boot menu (if that is where the problem is).

Once installed, you would start the program and on the menu bar you
would select "Other Tasks" and then select "Create Rescue Disk".

And this will boot the Toshiba - it can't boot on it's own. Unless it boots
I can't see how I can install anything. Nothing else has worked but it
will run Linux from the DVD.


The "Rescue Media Wizard" will appear and then select "Next".
Then "Next" again and insert a blank CD in your CD drive.

When the CD is created, you can leave it in the drive and boot your PC
from it. After the booting has finished, you will see a list of
Restore Tasks.

Select the top option "Fix Windows boot problems". Follow the
on-screen instructions and, when finished, remove the CD and restart
your PC.

Good Luck!

"Monty" wrote in message
...

- snip -

If all that is wrong is that something has become corrupted, then this
sounds like it will work. Without any need (including for me!) to learn
how to access, and assess, a hard drive from within a Linux.

Cheers,

Let me understand this. I download Macrium Reflect 7 Free Edition and burn
in on a working Computer. Take the CD and install it in the dvd drive of the
computer that cannot boot and it can fix the booting problem - we hope.
Should be interesting.

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message
...
I'm going to respond to several of your posts, so there will be some
duplication (-:.

In message , HB writes:

(By the way, could you snip more of our posts when you post please?

I've wanted to all along but was castigated on one group for doing it.

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

Fairly easy, using Macrium (I have no experience of Acronis or the
others). You either run it from Windows, or (as I prefer) boot from its
boot CD; once it is running, you select which partitions you want to image
(it has a graphical interface), and where you want to put the image and
what you want to call it. It then goes ahead and does it.

OK so it doesn't do the whole OS to reinstall in cases like the Toshiba. I
take it the image is used when a System Recovery is done and everything
personal is removed. How are these "images" used?


How big (capacity I mean, not physical size) is it?

The Seagate is 500 GB. I (formatted) cleaned it off today. Auto is now shut
off. I'll deal with it when the other problems are solved or I get the
shedge hammer.

--

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

In message , HB writes:
[]
How difficult is it to make an Image of the HD?

Fairly easy, using Macrium (I have no experience of Acronis or the
others). You either run it from Windows, or (as I prefer) boot from its
boot CD; once it is running, you select which partitions you want to image
(it has a graphical interface), and where you want to put the image and
what you want to call it. It then goes ahead and does it.

OK so it doesn't do the whole OS to reinstall in cases like the Toshiba. I
take it the image is used when a System Recovery is done and everything
personal is removed. How are these "images" used?

If you image C: and the hidden partition if any, then yes, restoring
from that image _will_ put the whole OS back. It will put it back to
exactly how it was when you made the image; not the same as a
"reinstall", which to most people means installing from scratch.

It will only do this (reliably, anyway) to a hard drive that is working
and has no problems. You also can't make an image in the first place if
you don't have a working system: making an image from time to time os
something you should do against future disasters, it's not something you
can do once a disaster has happened, as now.

As for "everything personal", it's up to you, when you make an image,
whether you include everything, or just the OS. Most people here
partition the disc into two partitions - C: for the OS and software, and
D: for your personal stuff; doing that means that (a) the two are kept
separate, and (b) C: is smaller so the imaging process doesn't take as
long and you're more likely to do it oftener.

BUT: imaging is not going to help you at the moment; it's something we
would strongly encourage you to do once you've got the system back
running, as it is a LOT easier to restore (from) should things go wrong
again if you have further problems in the future. Although you should
think about imaging your other machine(s) that _are_ working - but, you
may need a bigger drive, we'll see.

How big (capacity I mean, not physical size) is it?

The Seagate is 500 GB. I (formatted) cleaned it off today. Auto is now shut
off. I'll deal with it when the other problems are solved or I get the
shedge hammer.

Hmm. How much of the space on the discs on your various machines is
_used_ space? You can see that by right-clicking on each apparent
"drive" (such as "C:") and selecting properties, when you should get a
pie-chart showing how much is used. I don't mean what proportion, I mean
actual GB figures. This will give you some idea what space you'd need on
an external drive to image them: Macrium and I think some of the others
will do some compression when creating images, so it's slightly less,
but that will give some idea.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

To give you some indication, opinion polls suggest that people who
passionately hate or love country [music] are utterly indifferent to Marmite.
- Eddie Mair, Radio Times 11-17 February 2012

In message , HB writes:
[]
Sorry for the confusion. SG = Seagate. SG appears to add new files to the
old that it stores. If I remove them from my PC, they are not removed from
the SG. New files are added to the old. I assumed when it did a backup it
would delete what was no longer on my PC and add the new files and folders
it found. In other words replacing what is on the PCs HD at the time of
backup - including the new and deleting the last backup. Apparently that
doesn't happen. It also accumulates backups and never gets rid of them.
Those I deleted by hand. They were strings of numbers and dates it made
them.

"It" - a drive - cannot do anything, such as add files, do a backup,
replace, delete, and so on. *Software* that is _on_ the drive can do
these things, if it is set to autorun - or that software may have been
installed on the hard disc and set to run whenever the external drive is
connected. I can see that it might seem to you that the drive is doing
these things, but it's somewhat important that you understand the
difference.

It rather sounds as if SG came with software already on it that
automatically makes backups when you connect it - or at least copies
things, whether they are truly backups is arguable. I take it you never
connected it to the Toshiba laptop that has failed.

Did the instructions that came with SG tell you how to _use_ the
"backups" that it creates? If not, then it's rather pointless it
creating them.

It is _possible_ that this software is something like Macrium, and it
_is_ actually creating images. (When you look at what is on it, do you
see single large files - many tens of GB each - with a name that looks
something like a date?) If this is the case, it definitely should have
come with instructions telling you how to restore from them - and
probably a CD that you boot from, or instructions on how to make one, if
a machine it has imaged fails to boot.


Why it puts hundreds of things on the DT is a mystery to me.

Can you tell us what some of them are called?
[]
I just shut off autorun. Done and the Seagate is being formatted as I type
this. I'll go over the "Manager" later and reset the backups. It's the
FreeAgent-Go, 500 GB.

I don't know what a "Manager" is. That may be the software I was talking
of.
[]
If you right-click on D: or F:, and select properties, you should get a
pie chart showing amount used and free, so you can work out the total
capacity, which should enable you to figure out which is which, assuming
you know what capacity your "TD" is.

The HD on this Desktop is 1 TB.

How much of that is used?

I have no available Thumbdrives - all are full. My largest in any case is
128 GBs. The external Seagate HD is 500 GBs.

.

Once opened, if that's possible, what would the next step be?

Inside it, there will be a drive! Hopefully, it will be the same sort - i.
e. a SATA, with two connectors - as the one you have taken out of the
poorly laptop. If it _is_ the same kind, then if you take out the existing
drive and put it somewhere safe, and put the drive from the laptop in its
place. You should then be able yo connect the USB cable to one of your
working computers, and examine whether you can see it, probably as E: or
F: on that computer. If you can't, can you see it with the partitioning
tool (in Windows 7, I get to that by typing parti into the start box and
then going for "Create and format hard disk partitions"; it may be
different in 10), which should be able to "see" through a USB interface.

The above is a bit confusing. Both the DT and the Toshiba are W-7 Home-64
bit. I don't have a USB cable to connect the Toshiba's HD to my DT. Wouldn't

No, that's where you'd need to buy a dock, "cable", or housing, like the
ones I gave you links to in a previous email. Or, if you can open up the
"Seagate", you can use that: you'd take out the drive that's in it, put
it aside somewhere safe, put in the one from the Toshiba in its place,
and connect it back to your desktop in exactly the same way you do now
when you connect the "Seagate". [In effect, you'd be using it as the
"housing" which was my third option out of dock/"cable"/housing, means
of connecting a drive to USB.]

the HD from the Toshiba work like the Seagate if a USB cable can be attached
to it? In that case it would show up under F: drive.

Exactly. The "USB cable" in that sentence would be the dock, cable, or
housing I keep mentioning; if you can open the "Seagate", you will find
inside it a 500G drive which will look almost identical to the one from
the Toshiba, and you'd just swap them, thus using the Seagate's housing.
(I'm assuming this "Seagate" contains a 2.5" drive not a 3.5" one, but
even if it's a 3.5", the connectors will be the same.)

(Do you know what the capacity of the drive from the poorly PC is?)
[]
I'm trying.

I think it's 1 TB also.

Wow, that was an expensive laptop!
[]
Maybe - I think at least one of Paul's posts suggested where you can get
a
rescue disc for 7 (I'm pretty sure that would be a DVD rather than a
CD),
but I'm not sure, as he's made lots of posts in this thread!

Yes he did but it's out or warranty and the Serial number was rejected.

I think it was rejected because the number you gave it was an OEM one not
a retail one, rather than it being out of warranty.

Where would that number be? It's not called that on the Toshiba. Maybe on
the recept from where she bought it?

There are two types of number we're talking about here. There's the
Microsoft one, which looks like XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX, where the
Xs are letters and numbers, and the Toshiba's serial number(s).

The Microsoft one - which will be on a sticker with Microsoft on it -
would be used with a website that lets you download images of Microsoft
DVDs - either a full install disc for Windows 7, or some sort of rescue
CD. I suspect that won't work, because the Windows licence that came
with a PC that already had Windows installed is going to be an OEM -
original equipment manufacture - one, and Microsoft are saying, in
effect, that any responsibility for supporting that machine is the
OEM's, not theirs. The only way it would be a retail licence, which they
_would_ honour, would be if you'd bought Windows 7 separately from the
computer. (Even then not necessarily, it depends how you bought it. But
I suspect it's highly unlikely you'd have bought it that way anyway.)

I'm not sure where you'd use the Toshiba number(s): if you're very
lucky, it might be possible to download something from the Toshiba
website using them. I've no idea if Toshiba offer anything like that.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

To give you some indication, opinion polls suggest that people who
passionately hate or love country [music] are utterly indifferent to Marmite.
- Eddie Mair, Radio Times 11-17 February 2012

In message , HB writes:
[]
I wrongly assumed you would know it was pertaining to using Linux to see
if the Toshiba can boot. This was the smallest Linux to see with since my
downloads are not unlimited. I think I replies to the wrong person. Not
getting much sleep causes such things - sorry.

That's OK; I have sometimes (as in this case) have replied to your
replies to Paul, which probably confuses too.
[]
Fatdog64-500 Ihad no way to know exactly what it was.
http://distro.ibiblio.org/fatdog/iso/
[]
OK, this is version 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?

- brevity snip -


It tells you (or at least gives a good indication) that everything in
the Toshiba works, _except_, possibly, the hard drive. The hard drive is
where Windows is, or at least was.

The _hope_ is that the hard drive works, but has just had some
corruption which we may be able to fix (either using the Linux boot disc
you have made, or, as I have learnt from this thread, a Macrium 7 boot
disc).

If the hard drive _is_ actually faulty, that's no reason to discard the
PC - you'd just buy it a new hard drive, and install an operating system
on that. The rest of the laptop seems to be working - processor, memory,
CD/DVD drive, display, keyboard, probably USB sockets, ethernet port,
and wifi - and people are telling me it's a relatively new laptop. The
Windows you'd install we _might_ be able to help you to get working
without having to buy it (since you'd already bought it when you bought
the laptop), though I think that might be hard work, or could be a new
Windows 7 (if we can help you find one - they're scarce now), or a new
Windows 10. Or of course you could install a Linux instead - most of
them are free.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Anybody can garble quotations like that -- even with the Bible... Er... "And he
went and hanged himself (Matthew 27:5). Go, and do thou likewise (Luke 10:37)."

In message , HB writes:

"Java Jive" wrote in message
news
On 18/03/2018 11:43, Java Jive wrote:

I'm not familiar with this particular Linux distro, so can someone else
tell us:
Would lilo would be available in such a command shell?

I suppose I should've asked HB also to try typing:
lilo --helpEnter


In Linux I see nowhere to type anything. Linux can only run with the DVD in
the drive. When I removed the DVD, no more Linux. what does this tell us?


There _is_ somewhere to type things - you just have to bring it up. It's
like the Command Prompt in Windows - not obvious from the desktop. (I
think it's called "terminal" in Linux.) One of the Linux guys who knows
fatdog will have to tell you how to bring it up.

Once we are at that prompt, we should be able to type things which might
tell us if the hard drive appears to be there (i. e. are its electronics
saying "I'm a hard drive"), and then whether we can actually access it,
and then whether we can fix the corrupted files/partitions/whatever,
*if* that's all that's wrong with it. It may even be possible to bring
up an explorer-like graphical view, rather than having to do everything
by typing things into the terminal window. But all these are things a
Linux person would have to tell you; that's why, if _I_ am going to help
you, it'd have to be by accessing the drive down a USB cable from a
(working) Windows computer.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Anybody can garble quotations like that -- even with the Bible... Er... "And he
went and hanged himself (Matthew 27:5). Go, and do thou likewise (Luke 10:37)."

In message , HB writes:

"Monty" wrote in message
.. .

- snip -

If all that is wrong is that something has become corrupted, then this
sounds like it will work. Without any need (including for me!) to learn
how to access, and assess, a hard drive from within a Linux.

Cheers,

Let me understand this. I download Macrium Reflect 7 Free Edition and burn
in on a working Computer. Take the CD and install it in the dvd drive of the
computer that cannot boot and it can fix the booting problem - we hope.
Should be interesting.


That's what the person who told us implied! Well, you install M7 on the
working computer, and _run_ it on that computer, and _one of the things
it can do_ is make a suitable CD - see the post from the person who told
us about it. In this case you _don't_ just burn the CD from the file you
download - you _have_ to actually _install_ Macrium, then run it, and
select make CD from one of its menus. Don't worry - installing it won't
harm the computer you install it on; it is benign.

Obviously, it will only be able to fix the booting problem (assuming it
can at all; this is all new to me!) if the hard drive is working but
just corrupted; and also, I suspect there _might_ be some types of such
corruption it can't fix. But it sounds relatively simple to do if it
works!
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Anybody can garble quotations like that -- even with the Bible... Er... "And he
went and hanged himself (Matthew 27:5). Go, and do thou likewise (Luke 10:37)."

HB wrote:


OK, this is version 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?

- brevity snip -

Here's the picture I provided, of what I wanted
you to do while you where there.

In a Terminal, smartctl -a /dev/sda

https://s13.postimg.org/cvoc2v64n/Fatdog64.gif

Then check your Reallocated raw data, to see if it's
still zero.

That's about all I can do from Fatdog64 I think.

A Reallocated raw data value of zero is not
a guarantee of good disk health, but it's one
of the indicators to be checked.

A benchmark curve helps indicate certain kinds
of illness in hard drives (wearout pattern, without
impacting reallocated indicator).

*******

While there is a "disks" command in some of the
Linux distros (gnome-disks or gnome-disk-utility package),
it isn't available in Fatdog64, and it wasn't in "packages".

https://s13.postimg.org/ter8nfx8n/gn...-benchmark.gif

By comparison, here is (windows) HDTune for the same disk.

https://s13.postimg.org/wgmmaquhz/hdtune_500.gif

The steady declining curve, with the lack of wide
downward spikes, means the drive is looking reasonably
healthy.

Paul

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

"Java Jive" wrote in message
news
On 18/03/2018 11:43, Java Jive wrote:

I'm not familiar with this particular Linux distro, so can someone else
tell us:
Would lilo would be available in such a command shell?

I suppose I should've asked HB also to try typing:
lilo --helpEnter


In Linux I see nowhere to type anything. Linux can only run with the
DVD in
the drive. When I removed the DVD, no more Linux. what does this
tell us?


There _is_ somewhere to type things - you just have to bring it up. It's
like the Command Prompt in Windows - not obvious from the desktop. (I
think it's called "terminal" in Linux.) One of the Linux guys who knows
fatdog will have to tell you how to bring it up.

Once we are at that prompt, we should be able to type things which might
tell us if the hard drive appears to be there (i. e. are its electronics
saying "I'm a hard drive"), and then whether we can actually access it,
and then whether we can fix the corrupted files/partitions/whatever,
*if* that's all that's wrong with it. It may even be possible to bring
up an explorer-like graphical view, rather than having to do everything
by typing things into the terminal window. But all these are things a
Linux person would have to tell you; that's why, if _I_ am going to help
you, it'd have to be by accessing the drive down a USB cable from a
(working) Windows computer.

Click the Terminal icon, in the bottom row.

https://s13.postimg.org/cvoc2v64n/Fatdog64.gif

Paul

On Mon, 19 Mar 2018 03:10:41 -0400, "HB" wrote:


"Monty" wrote in message
.. .

- snip -

If all that is wrong is that something has become corrupted, then this
sounds like it will work. Without any need (including for me!) to learn
how to access, and assess, a hard drive from within a Linux.

Cheers,

Let me understand this. I download Macrium Reflect 7 Free Edition and burn
in on a working Computer. Take the CD and install it in the dvd drive of the
computer that cannot boot and it can fix the booting problem - we hope.
Should be interesting.


1. Download Macrium Reflect Free and INSTALL it on a working computer.

2. Run Macrium Reflect on the working computer.

3. Click "Other Tasks" then select "Create Rescue Media". This will
display the "Rescue Media Wizard" panel. Click "Next".

4. This will display the "Rescue Media Drivers" panel. Click "Next"

5. This will display the "Burn Rescue Media" panel. Put a blank CD in
the CD/DVD burner and then click "Finish".

6. When the CD is finished burning, the CD tray will open for you to
Remove the CD.

7. Power up the non working PC and put the CD in the CD/DVD drive.

Close the drive and see if it boots. If it does boot (It may
take a couple of minutes and then you should see a Panel with
four options. Click on the first option -

"Fix Windows boot problems"


Please report progress.

Here's hoping !

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

"Monty" wrote in message
...

- snip -

If all that is wrong is that something has become corrupted, then this
sounds like it will work. Without any need (including for me!) to learn
how to access, and assess, a hard drive from within a Linux.

Cheers,

Let me understand this. I download Macrium Reflect 7 Free Edition and
burn
in on a working Computer. Take the CD and install it in the dvd drive
of the
computer that cannot boot and it can fix the booting problem - we hope.
Should be interesting.


That's what the person who told us implied! Well, you install M7 on the
working computer, and _run_ it on that computer, and _one of the things
it can do_ is make a suitable CD - see the post from the person who told
us about it. In this case you _don't_ just burn the CD from the file you
download - you _have_ to actually _install_ Macrium, then run it, and
select make CD from one of its menus. Don't worry - installing it won't
harm the computer you install it on; it is benign.

Obviously, it will only be able to fix the booting problem (assuming it
can at all; this is all new to me!) if the hard drive is working but
just corrupted; and also, I suspect there _might_ be some types of such
corruption it can't fix. But it sounds relatively simple to do if it works!

Stated another way:

1) Install Macrium Reflect Free on a *working* computer.
Then, make the Emergency Boot CD from within the Macrium window
on that working computer. If it produces an ISO, use Imgburn.

2) Boot the broken computer with the Emergency Boot CD.
Go to the miscellaneous functions menu, and there is
a Boot Repair in there.

https://s13.postimg.org/4oar0y4bb/ma...oot_repair.gif

The image depicted is a Windows 10 OS alright, but the
machine was booted with the Macrium Reflect CD, so Macrium
is in control at the time the picture was taken. Macrium
works for WinXP through Win10 or so. Or at least it did
the last time I checked. WinXP support could get deprecated
anytime these days. Win7, not a problem.

Paul

On 19/03/2018 10:09, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
Can you tell us what some of them are called?
[]
I just shut off autorun.Â* Done and the Seagate is being formatted as I
type
this. I'll go over the "Manager" later and reset the backups.Â* It's the
FreeAgent-Go, 500 GB.

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.../freeagent-go/

https://tinyurl.com/y9ggh7d9

On 19/03/2018 11:08, Paul wrote:

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

In message , HB writes:

InÂ* Linux I see nowhere to type anything. Linux can only run with the
DVD in
the drive.Â* When I removed the DVD, no more Linux.Â* what does this
tell us?

There _is_ somewhere to type things

[snip]

Click the Terminal icon, in the bottom row.

I think you're both missing something, as in the following quote
concerning booting from the Linux DVD ...

On 18/03/2018 11:43, Java Jive wrote:

HB writes:

Dropping out to intitial-ramdisk console. /bin/sh :can't acess
tty; job control turned off # -

It's encountered a show-stopping error and tried to drop out to a
command console or shell, the Linux equivalent of what in Windows is
sometimes called a command prompt or a DOS box. However, I'm not sure
from the above whether or not it actually succeeds in getting to a
command prompt that you can use.

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.

In message , Java Jive
writes:
On 19/03/2018 11:08, Paul wrote:

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

In message , HB writes:

In* Linux I see nowhere to type anything. Linux can only run with
the DVD in
the drive.* When I removed the DVD, no more Linux.* what does this
tell us?

There _is_ somewhere to type things

[snip]

Click the Terminal icon, in the bottom row.

I think you're both missing something, as in the following quote
concerning booting from the Linux DVD ...

On 18/03/2018 11:43, Java Jive wrote:

HB writes:

Dropping out to intitial-ramdisk console. /bin/sh :can't acess
tty; job control turned off # -

It's encountered a show-stopping error and tried to drop out to a
command console or shell, the Linux equivalent of what in Windows is
sometimes called a command prompt or a DOS box. However, I'm not sure
from the above whether or not it actually succeeds in getting to a
command prompt that you can use.

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.
--
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