Author Topic: formatted pc now its dead, pc virgin be gentle (Read 15274 times)

kabluckyj · « **on:** January 08, 2006, 21:47 »

i think Ive killed a large family members Toshiba satellite 2180cdt laptop,tryed to format hard drive ,first two steps ok <1 recover entire hard drive 2 caution> then ERROR extraction failed.now all that appears is a message asking me to insert system disk have i killed it can it be fixed will the large family member thump the soft in the head do good er ,the above never happened when i formatted my own laptop using my recovery cd

sam · « **Reply #1 on:** January 08, 2006, 23:12 »

ok looks like the recovery cd might have an error... i.e. stractch or something.

Is this a PC World or similar store bough laptop? Under warranty? If so they can probably (and should!) give you another recovery cd.

A few things I'd like to clarify. You reformatted the machine using the recovery cd and not manually using a dos prompt or something similar?

kabluckyj · « **Reply #2 on:** January 09, 2006, 17:16 »

pc out of warranty,so i can,t go in that direction . with regards to the recovery disc having a problem i,ve used it 2 days earlier on my own laptop with no probs

Sandra · « **Reply #3 on:** January 09, 2006, 18:27 »

Unless both laptops are the make/model/version then you cant use your recovery CD on it.

They only work with the pc they are supplied with

kabluckyj · « **Reply #4 on:** January 10, 2006, 17:11 »

thanks for the advise ,but i,ve still got the problem of a laptop with no operating system ,and when i put the system disk in it leave a message any ideas .any help much appreciated .how do to load the o/s

sam · « **Reply #5 on:** January 10, 2006, 17:17 »

ok.

so this computer, does it have any recovery cds? / windows operating systems with it?

If not then you are going to need to get an operating system to install since you have no wiped the harddrive. If you have windows xp, this should be a nice simple procedure as it will just boot from the cd and take you through the nice step by step install procedure.

Sandra · « **Reply #6 on:** January 10, 2006, 17:50 »

You may have to contact Toshiba and ask them to supply a recovery cd for that particular model.

The other option is to do as Sam suggests and install an OS from a full CD not a recovery one.
This may leave you with problems getting the drivers but you should be able to get them from the Toshiba site.

One other option depends on why you formatted the pc in the first place.
If it was just a tidy up thing and the PC was running ok then you could possibly find a recovery program that would "unformat" it and restore it to how it was before you formatted it.
Sometimes recovery programs work quite well but sometimes they dont.
You have one advantage in your case as you havent been able to load anything on it so it wont have overwriiten anything, its really just killed off the MBR hopefully.

How about this for an idea Sam, would booting from a floppy and running the fix/mbr command restore it do you think ?

We really need to know why you formatted it in the first place, as if it had a corrupted OS then theres no point trying to get it back to that state :roll:

sam · « **Reply #7 on:** January 10, 2006, 21:16 »

Quote

How about this for an idea Sam, would booting from a floppy and running the fix/mbr command restore it do you think ?

yep that sounds good.

kabluckyj · « **Reply #8 on:** January 14, 2006, 19:21 »

operating system was erratic and not working properly so formatted it, which leaves me at this stage - black screen with message insert system disc in drive press any key when ready, so put windows 98 or windows Xp in and press any key and nothing happens, disc wont read or run. what can i do step by step instructions if possible please.

Simon · « **Reply #9 on:** January 14, 2006, 20:56 »

You haven't still got a floppy disc in the drive, have you? That could produce that message. If so, take it out!

Sandra · « **Reply #10 on:** January 14, 2006, 23:33 »

Ok did you format with a floppy or with XPs recovery CD ?

If it was with the cd then it should be set to boot from the cd if from a floppy then you need to reboot from the floppy and tell it to start the pc with cd rom support.

The XP wont install if its a recovery cd so I suggest you put it on 98 for now.

Boot from a 98 boot disk and at the A prompt type X: and hit enter (X is the drive letter of your CD drive), NB this will be one letter up from usual as it creates a virtual drive and moves everything after C up a letter.

Then type Setup and hit enter and follow the onscreen instructions as a normal install

If you dont understand this or dont have a floppy drive let us know.

kabluckyj · « **Reply #11 on:** January 15, 2006, 10:46 »

pc was formatted from cd using an xp recovery disc, tried rebooting from a 98 floppy, done what you suggested (x:) comes back as invalid drive specification. Then tried rebooting from a 98 cd, comes back as press any key to continue - when key pressed nothing happens. It wont reboot from anything that i try. the only thing that i do get is when i insert floppy i get information on the screen about cd device, driver device, device name, transfer mode, driver and port firmware version and then the A prompt.
Driving me nuts, have you any other ideas. if this is going to be long winded would a conversation help.

Sandra · « **Reply #12 on:** January 15, 2006, 13:50 »

Presumably when you formatted the drive from the XP recovery cd then you would have done it in NTFS.
98 will only install on a FAT partition, preferably FAT 32.

So lets get back to basics.

Boot from the 98 floppy and this time at the A prompt type :

FORMAT C: /S

Press Y and enter after the warning message, just press enter when it asks for a volume label, unless you want to name it, I never bother.

This will format it as FAT 32 and make the partition active and ready for 98 to install on it.

Reboot again and Type :

E:\SETUP

If it still says invalid drive then just before it gets to the A prompt and it gives the info about the cd device, take note of which letter it says is the CD rom, thats the letter you need to use where I said X in my last post or E in this one.

kabluckyj · « **Reply #13 on:** January 16, 2006, 18:42 »

hi, with regards to last reply, done all the above down to reboot again and type E:/setup, it did what you said it would do formatted it as FAT 32. Now at A prompt. I think the CD drive is R (have been through the whole keyboard) and can only change drive to A, B, C & R, whilst in R done what you suggested \SETUP, but it comes back with Bad Command or File Name. The CD rom is working because it tries to read the CD when it is first put in. But still cannot get operating system to run. H E L P i'm drowning

Sandra · « **Reply #14 on:** January 16, 2006, 19:05 »

Ok a tthe A prompt type R:

Then at R try Setup, you dont have the \ infront of it.
I noticed that you worite it as / once and as \ another time.
With dos commands you have to be exact with spaces and characters although upper and lower case dont matter.

If that still says bad command then again while at R type DIR /P and see if it lists a whole lot of folders, files and directories as that wil be reading the 98 CD.

If it still says Bad Command then it hasnt loaded the drivers for the CD rom.

When you booted from the 98 boot disk did you select Start computer with CD rom support ?

You need to select that option for it to load the CD rom drivers but if its reading it as R then it should have loaded them :?