Help me sort my laptop!

[Sea Chief]

You should try Google on your XP PC

"That message means there is no network cable connected. It also means it's trying to boot from the Network, so either the network card is listed before the hard drive in the boot order in the BIOS, or the hard drive is dead/has a bad cable, or is disabled in the BIOS."

I'm guessing the hard drive is dead. Do you know how to get to the BIOS to check the boot order or is that more Russian? I have a Toshiba laptop but can't remember which magic keys to press. I'll check.

Well I did manage to get in (I think f12) although I didnt really know why I was there, or what I could have done.. I just followed an instinct/ as Ive been here once before. Its a scary place. I dared not press nowt but 'get me outtahere' esc key alot.

I did read your google results for the error mssg.. but it doesnt mean a whole lot to me thats why I ask here, for somepne to condense and boil right down to s'thing I can apply. Like 'HDD defo is dead- yes get another' (rather than those results from google: "could be a cable" a cable? its plugged in, it provides power- how can it do anything as it is but provide the designated power? "The Network" this is utter russian, or "disabled in the Bios" sounds like a ruddy skin disease).

I am slightly more sure the HDD is the reason.. but fairly is a bit wayward to go & spend £25 unless its defo the right thing to do/ something catagorically says the HDD is bad. I just need the proof.

[Sea Chief]

Oh I'm not giggling, I'm rooting for you.
I would like to see you win one for a change.
You appear to be down to one helper.
Whatever you do, don't run Dave off!
As far as me posting here, I post where I please.
Read it or don't.
T

And whatever you do big-tee.. lordy dont forget to pm Steve A with your giggles!

It takes determination & application to understand & I may not have the tech knowledge you may do, but I do win big-tee. I -will- save my 76 yr old Ma £100 even with your belittling comments.

[big_teee]

And whatever you do big-tee.. lordy dont forget to pm Steve A with your giggles!

It takes determination & application to understand & I may not have the tech knowledge you may do, but I do win big-tee. I -will- save my 76 yr old Ma £100 even with your belittling comments.

I haven't belittled you.
You will know when I do.
Because you struggle so, I tried to help, but you wanted to make jokes about everything all of us tell you.
I hope you get it fixed soon!
Good Luck,
T

[Dave H]

Well I did manage to get in (I think f12) although I didnt really know why I was there, or what I could have done.. I just followed an instinct/ as Ive been here once before. Its a scary place. I dared not press nowt but 'get me outtahere' esc key alot.

There be dragons!

f12 works on mine too. When you re-start the computer and press f12 to bring up the BIOS there should be a "HDD Recovery option" at the bottom of the screen. That is the hidden recovery partition on the hard drive. Try that before replacing the drive (your recovery DVD could be faulty). But the shop diagnosis was hard drive failure...

[Steve A.]

Sea Chief:

My pathetic post? After reading the following post I assumed that you were no longer taking this thread seriously...

Take the CD out, and try a power cycle.
Try turning it back on.
It may be ready to boot up?

Power cycle? what go round the block on a bike?.. ok but I dont see how thats going to help.

I would have googled "power cycle computer" if I did not understand what Big Tee was suggesting as I do countless times every day when I run across terms or expressions that I do not understand. But that is how I do things- diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks, I guess...

Steve Ahola

[tedmich]

We were all ignorant of the stuff we now know at some point, so I can relate how SC may be pretty frustrated with this stuff. That said if he keeps trying to learn there are probably a few people here who are willing to continue to try and teach

Any appliance that was dealt with as a "black box' for years is pretty daunting when it starts f***ing up! But fixing it yourself takes time, effort and a fair amount of frustration usually!!

[elipsey]

Cheif,

• "PXE boot error" is irrelevent.
• 100GB is plenty for installing windows from scratch.
• The normal windows installer will show you how much free space is on the disk, and ask you to choose an area to install Windows. If you are given that option, you probably need to choose a space and create a "partition"; in other words tell it to format a place to put the files.
• If you are not given this choice, the problem might be that your disk is smaller than the original, so you need to get a bigger one, or learn how to work around it, as discussed here, for example: https://social.technet.microsoft.com...a-smaller-disk
• Your time is worth something. There's no shame in paying for help. Good luck.

[Sea Chief]

Cheif,

• "PXE boot error" is irrelevent.
• 100GB is plenty for installing windows from scratch.
• The normal windows installer will show you how much free space is on the disk, and ask you to choose an area to install Windows. If you are given that option, you probably need to choose a space and create a "partition"; in other words tell it to format a place to put the files.
• If you are not given this choice, the problem might be that your disk is smaller than the original, so you need to get a bigger one, or learn how to work around it, as discussed here, for example: https://social.technet.microsoft.com...a-smaller-disk
• Your time is worth something. There's no shame in paying for help. Good luck.

I bought another hard drive, and went thru the same insatlll process via the recovery cd.

It shows exactly the same symptoms/ all exactly the same as the original HDD.

So what can I do now? £26 wasted.. the shop fwiw charged my Ma £60 (she only just digs out the receipt now, after all this effort!) to tell her, as it states "System check/ Hard drive failure". Which seems not to be correct info then (& I bet took the chap all of 2 mins work to esablish via f12, or some very quick diagnosis procedure.

Im going to go through Dave's post #49 and try & dicipher a plan.. the BIOS area is like jumping into very deep water.

Anyone know whether the new harddrive I tried this recovery on remains blank, or has something gone onto it? myabe I can get a refund of its still blank you see.

[tedmich]

SC did you do this?

1 Install new HD
2 put the recovery CD into optical drive of OFF computer
3 Start up computer while holding down F12 key

computer should boot from recovery CD and prompt you to install OS and drivers to new HD

if this fails, describe exactly how and where

[Sea Chief]

SC did you do this?

1 Install new HD
2 put the recovery CD into optical drive of OFF computer
3 Start up computer while holding down F12 key

computer should boot from recovery CD and prompt you to install OS and drivers to new HD

if this fails, describe exactly how and where

Ok I did all this but -not- pressing f12. The recovery procedure starts -without- neccessarily pressing f12, it seems, so thats whats Ive left it to do.

Nowhere on the recovery process has it asked me to press f12. I know f12 gets me into the BIOS.. but without knowing exactly why Im going into the BIOS and as it gets cracking without it, I dont understand why BIOS..

[DrGonz78]

Nowhere on the recovery process has it asked me to press f12. I know f12 gets me into the BIOS.. but without knowing exactly why Im going into the BIOS and as it gets cracking without it, I dont understand why BIOS..

I think people here are just trying to cover all the bases for you. When they say go into bios... It is to make sure you select the correct boot procedure. Now if the recovery software is booting up then skip that step.

[elipsey]

Ok I did all this but -not- pressing f12. The recovery procedure starts -without- neccessarily pressing f12, it seems, so thats whats Ive left it to do.

Nowhere on the recovery process has it asked me to press f12. I know f12 gets me into the BIOS.. but without knowing exactly why Im going into the BIOS and as it gets cracking without it, I dont understand why BIOS..

F12 often allows you to choose a boot device. I assume he was suggesting that you choose to boot from the CD. It did that anyway, so don't worry about it.

What size was your original disk?
What size is this one?
What is the exact error message when the installation fails?
Can you take a picture with your phone, and post it?

[Sea Chief]

F12 often allows you to choose a boot device. I assume he was suggesting that you choose to boot from the CD. It did that anyway, so don't worry about it.

What size was your original disk?
What size is this one?
What is the exact error message when the installation fails?
Can you take a picture with your phone, and post it?

I think too that was the suggestion re. f12.. but yes as it did/ does boot from the cd I didnt feel need to dive into BIOS, yet. This is what it does:

1) 1stly a BIOS-type page appears for 10 secs or so & within it an error mssg.
2) Then promptly it goes into the cd process > says recovery cd > then all the steps look fine> until the CD can be ejected, and
3) it restarts ok and tries to reconfigure the set up stuff. THIS is where it come unstuck. It just goes on a continual cycle without setting up properly/ restarts etc etc ad nauseum.

Does that help for a diagnosis?

The orig disc 250Gb. New one same.

The error mssg actually is there, with the cd in ready to go, on very innitial start up IE before it promptly kicks into the recovery CD stuff. It shows on a black BIOS-type screen amongst other white text for about 10 secs whilst it gets into gear to boot form the recovery CD.

I will try and take a pic later. But I noticed it says amongst this BIOS-like innitial text page:

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable

[elipsey]

3) it restarts ok and tries to reconfigure the set up stuff. THIS is where it come unstuck. It just goes on a continual cycle without setting up properly/ restarts etc etc ad nauseum.

Does that help for a diagnosis?

Getting warmer. As I said before, PXE error is irrelevent; if you care I'll explain why, or you can just take my word for it

It will keep booting from the DVD and re-installing Windows if you don't take the disc out after installation, or change the boot order. Did you eject the DVD between the installation and the first reboot?

[Dave H]

It will keep booting from the DVD and re-installing Windows if you don't take the disc out after installation, or change the boot order. Did you eject the DVD between the installation and the first reboot?

SC, do the above. Forget my post #49 for now. It was to try and boot from the hidden restore partition on the old drive. Your new drive won't have that.