[Ztruker]

If the drive is defective, trying to restore it won't work, but it won't hurt it to try.

Your users manual should tell you how to remove the hard drive. They usually come out quite easily.

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I'll check the manual and keep you updated on my progress.

thanks for all the help!

[elkatbal]

I'll check the manual and keep you updated on my progress.

thanks for all the help!

[elkatbal]

still trying to find the HD manufacturer and diagnostic tools but I recovered the QosmioPlayer and now I have the repair screen back. Says the System32\Drivers\Ntfs.sys is corrupt or missing and that's why Windows won't start. I'm supposed to press 'r' at the first screen to repair but not screen comes up. if I press 'r' on that screen the laptop restarts again.

[elkatbal]

found out that the manufacturer is Toshiba and they do NOT offer diagnostic utilities.

I went ahead and restored the laptop to original factory settings (as I just wanted my computer back!) and everything was great. disk worked fine, loaded windows back up. took a couple hours to get all the settings and everything straight, even restarted it a few times configuring things.

then I turned it off, took a shower, came back and it won't work again! now it doesn't even load screens, it just keeps restarting over and over flashing the Qosmio logo and nothing else.

If I try to boot to disk this message comes up:
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
System32\Drivers\Ntfs.sys

You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original Setup CD-ROM.
Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair.

But not matter what I press, it just restarts with the Qosmio logo, then turns off, restarts again... I can't even boot to disk anymore.

I don't even know what to do now.

Edited by elkatbal, 28 February 2008 - 01:49 AM.

[Ztruker]

According to this web site, you can use IBM or Maxtor's hard drive diagnostic to test Toshiba drives. See here: http://www.techspot..../topic7602.html

[elkatbal]

I burned an iso image from the Hitachi/IMB option and nothing happens. did I pick the right one? the other is an OGT diagnostic tool but I don't know how to save that to a disk to run on my laptop. but my laptop is no longer booting discs at all. it won't even load my Recovery disk. it just keep restarting no matter what I do.

and I can't find any diagnostic tools on the Maxtor page.

[Ztruker]

Does your laptop have a floppy drive? If so, you can download the diskette version of SeaTools (Seagate owns Maxtor) which handles Maxtor drives just fine. I used it today to fix a 250GB Maxtor drive.

Both diskette and CD iso are available here: http://www.seagate.c...loads/seatools/

You need to register (all that you need to give is your E-mail address).

[elkatbal]

I do not have a floppy drive, so that's out.

the disk drive is being selective but I've got it reading a few other disks. XP will not reload, though. first message failed setup because "The file dmboot.sys is corrupted." and then I tried again and it said, "The file ntfs.sys is corrupted" and setup failed that time, too.

yesterday it booted up fine but then restarted after about a minute. today it booted up fine again and never restarted itself. but my brother in law tech guy helping me thought to restart it to see what would happen and it did the black restarting screen again and never booted normal the rest of the night.

now I've got the recovery disk back in and running and I'm thinking that for the time being I can get the laptop to work and run some programs on the laptop, like diagnostic utility tools, if it stays on and that way I won't have to burn disks.

any suggestions on what to do (programs, utility tools to run, etc.) if I actually get the laptop up and running?

[Ztruker]

Already gave you the main one you need to run first, which is the hard drive diagnostic.

Edit: Just re-read the above and it sounded a tad harsh, sorry, was not meant that way. You do need to download the iso image of the diagnostic CD and run it to see if your drive is having problems. The short test only takes a minute, the long one can take several hours, it depends on the size of the drive. Took about 3 hours today for me on a 250GB IDE 7200 RPM drive.

Edited by Ztruker, 01 March 2008 - 10:35 PM.

[elkatbal]

didn't read all that harsh to me, no worries.

but the point is moot. loaded the recovery disk and it went all the way to the end 100% complete then froze on a black screen and never did anything after that. eventually I restarted and... nothing.

I guess I'm just going to take it to a store. seems there's more wrong with it than I can handle.


thanks for all your continued help!