If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Rate Thread | Display Modes |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
Toshiba W-7 went dark
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:. 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. 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. 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. 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". 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.) 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! [] -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf (You can snip my signatures from your replies; good software will do that automatically, but I don't know if OE does. Or rather OE-RunasXP.) BTW, I 'm acessing OE6 from a thumbdrive. An ancient free version RunasXP was going away a few years back. Microsoft motto "if it ain't broke keep fixing it till it is." (-: -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Heaven forbid today's audience should feel bombarded with information or worse, lectured. Dont'scare the horses by waving facts around. - David Butcher, RT 2014/11/29-12/5 |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | Rate This Thread |
|
|