[lifesavernick]

I thought I might give linux a go because i was gettin fed up with XP, halfway through the instillation I realised that installing it might be a bit above my level of knowledge. No worries i thought as i stuck in my Recovery CD that was supplied with my laptop (i have used it a number of times) everything was going according to plan, it deleted the partitions and formatted the HD. It told me to take out the cd and restart, which i did.
Problem: I push the power button, the toshiba screen pops up and gives a little beep (this is normal) then a grey screen comes up covered in what appears to be 7's. Thats all that happens. I have tried using the recovery cd again but i get the same problem. Does anyone have any bright ideas?

Cheers,
Nick.

(if you want I can allways attach a pic of the troublesome screen if thats any help)

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If the hard drive manufacturer has a set up utility, use it to do a low level format then try the install

[Retired Tech]

If the hard drive manufacturer has a set up utility, use it to do a low level format then try the install

[lifesavernick]

The recovery disk is the only disk that came with the computer. I had a look on google, it says i can download a disk for this from the HD manufacturer. How do I find out what kind of hard drive it is, i had a look in the manual but all it says is 40gb hhd, thats all. Because its toshiba does that mean that the hd is a toshiba hard drive?
Or is my information wrong about how i do a low level format?

[Retired Tech]

If you have the make and model of laptop, Toshiba is the place to look

http://www.csd.toshi.../su_sc_home.jsp

[Retired Tech]

See if you can find anything here, or e-mail toshiba

http://askiris.toshi...entral.do?id=m1

[lifesavernick]

Seems that my laptop fails to exist on the toshiba website. Sent them an email but i dont really expect them to reply, they have a free phone number ill give them a call tommorow to try get some answers. I'll let you know what happens.

(had a look on the cnet website and found the review of it, it said something about s.m.a.r.t this isn't what i was looking for was it?)

http://asia.cnet.com...9017923p,00.htm

[Retired Tech]

See what you can get from the phone call

What does the recovery disc have on the label

[lifesavernick]

'Product recovery DVD-ROM'
Toshiba
Portege A100

for techincal support: refer to the toshiba support section on the users manual.

This is a backup dvd-rom only may be used only with a toshiba computer system, will not function on other computer systems, the software included was pre-installed on your hard drive at the factory...

I'll get back to you after i call them.

Nick.

[Retired Tech]

Wouldn't mention Linux to them

[lifesavernick]

Microsoft was invented to take the blame for most things...

[lifesavernick]

So I called up toshiba today and they couldn't tell me what was in it and that I would have to take it apart to find out. So I took it apart and put it back together again (with no bits left over!) and it seems that the hard drive is a toshiba one. They dont make their own hard drives to they?
I took photos of it just incase its not a toshiba one, I will put them up when I find the cable for my camera...

Edited by lifesavernick, 04 August 2006 - 05:21 AM.

[The Skeptic]

You can download a bootup utility from Seagate and use it for this purpose. I do it when I can't get a specific utility or if I can't identify the drive. Seagate is not choosy, and will do the job. A link in my signature.

[lifesavernick]

Any idea what its called, cause there is alot of programs to choose from, i tried data lifeguard but it wont work it says 'non-wd drive hit any key to exit...'

Edited by lifesavernick, 04 August 2006 - 05:57 AM.

[The Skeptic]

Download SeaTools Desktop from this link:

http://www.seagate.c...pport/seatools/

[lifesavernick]

Cheers guys. all problems solved, maybe ill stick to windos for a little longer....