Topic: Big problem with my Toshiba laptop

[dessy]

Hi There, Just got a Toshiba Equium p300 - 16T laptop of ebay running vista, but running very slow. So pressed F8 and got it back to factory setting COOL NO PROBS :laugh ....  I went to computer then hard disc drive, to check out the gbs LOCAL DISK C vista had 90 odd gbs.. next to it was DISC D with 90 odd gbs, Made a big mistake and pressed format on disc D i tryed clossing it but to late  i can not get back on to vista but it dose boot up, so i changed the boot order to dvd primary boot and put in my windows 7 disc it boots from the dvd but nothing happens just a black screen...........

 

   ? Have i trashed my hard drive      IF any one can help please let me know
                                                                                                                 All the best Dessy..

[Rodders]

Hiya Dessy,

Hmmm...  it sounds to me like C: was the boot, or restore partition and D: was the system partition.  If you can get the HD out and mount it on another machine, Windows Explorer will then reveal the extent of your foolhardiness.

If you're dead lucky, you might find there's a packed version of your operating system and drivers on drive C: waiting to be installed.  Otherwise it's 7 days hard labour.

Do you feel lucky?   

[Simon]

Would it have totally formatted the drive, I wonder, or just deleted the partition?  I was just thinking perhaps something like Recuva, or Acronis Disk Director might be worth a try?

[Rik]

Praying is good too.

[dessy]

Tapadh Leat Rik,  Ive got 2 of these laptops so i think Rodders idea is well worth a try, and will let you know the out come And im feeling lucky 

  Thanks a lot guys for the help 

[Rik]

Good luck.

[dessy]

Hi there, got the hd out of the laptop, Theres a spare port on the back of these laptops which fits the hard drive form say "A" the one ive damaged .... so ive pluged the hard drive from "A" in to the spare port on my laptop "B" which works fine, IM just wondering what to do next .. I will log on over the weekend and see if any one can help.

    All the best for the weekend ................
                   

 

[Rodders]

Okey-dokie.   Now, using Explorer, right-click on the newly-added drive and select properties.  Tell us what it says regarding drive capacity for each partition/volume.  Then tell us whether you can find any files on the drive.

Also, please advise if there's any good reason we couldn't simply clone the working drive to the iffy one, to create a copy that you can then use on the potentially-knackered lappy.

[dessy]

Hi there Rodders, so the hds in the spare port but when i go to computer its not showing the new hd drive, ive tryed swapping the drives round and nothing happens just the black screen.
 So swaped them back so the faulty hd is in the spare port. tryed turning off the laptop and then pressed F12..

  This is what comes up.

    CD/DVD : HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-T4ON

    HDD2 : TOSHIBA MK2046GSX

    HDD : TOSHIBA MK2046GSX

    LAN MARVELL YUKON 88E8040T                       

    So one of the hdds most be the faulty drive i think .

   If i could clone the drive that would be cool, the healthy hard drive is running windows 7.

 Thanks again for your help ..

[Rodders]

From your Start Menu, select: Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management.

Your iffy HD should be shown there.  If it doesn't have a drive letter assign it one, in Change Drive Letter and Paths -> Add.

Once you've done that it should be recognised, provided everything's going to plan.  You'll probably then have to reformat it (both partitions).

Now snag yourself a nice free copy of Easeus Disk Copy, from this link here, and install it.

Keep us posted.



Oh, almost forgot...   DO NOT FORMAT THE GOOD DRIVE!