Posted October 30, 2007 Ok, So a guy at uni gave me his laptop to put xp sp2 on it...He asked me to sort it out generally too. I ran virus scans on it etc and it was HEAVING with trojans, virus' adware. Was shocking.. So I put in the XP SP2 disk I have and it started to update then some files were missing and it said press esc to ignore them. I ignored two files which were only notepad.exe and notepad.hlp. Then it restarted as per expected. And now the whole laptop won't boot into windows!! It starts up, I get the splash screen of XP and then a blue screen comes on for a second with some details about the installation files not found. It flicks off half a second later and then the laptop reboots. It does this eternally. Nothing happens. No boot My bud brought me an xpdisk round and I went into the bios to change the boot order and boot from a CD. Attempted this but it said it wasn't a bootable CD. (Thought it would work??). Basically I'm buggered. It's an ancient laptop for sure but the guy will go spare! Can't help but feel I've been shafted considering the Xp sp2 disk worked fine for my laptop. Any help would be greatly apreciated. His laptop is an Toshiba E50 if that helps... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 30, 2007 Sounds like the XP2 install disk buggered it all up, you'll need to format it and reinstall windows probably. Sounds like the install disk you got from your friend was buggered as well, was it very scratched? An alternative would be to get a linux live cd and see if you can boot from that, if you can it would be a good time to backup the files to your laptop or online. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 30, 2007 Ok don't ignore the files. That happened when I tried it with my brother's pc and it just didn't work. What you want it to do is retry to install the files by hitting enter. It would be annoying to do this by hitting enter each time it fails even so what I did was press the enter key and put a penny beside it so that the key would stay pressed (might not work on a laptop) Also check if your uni is part of the microsoft acedemic allinance. If it is you should be able to get a decent copy of even the latest windows os. Thats my two pence. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 30, 2007 I'm having the exact same problem with my laptop! It has no virus's though (I had 2 firewalls, spyware blocker, norton internet security, everything ), it jammed while doing it's normal updates and i had to manually turn it off and then it won't load windows anymore. Same blue screen and everything, the laptop didn't come with no boot CD'S either. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 30, 2007 Does your laptop (mine is an acer) have a hidden partion say about 5 gig which allows you to do a system reinstall from the hard drive. Also by hitting f10 when you start up do you have any sort of repair options? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 30, 2007 I'll have a gander at this whole F10 thing (I have that on "this" laptop). It's a nightmare. We aren't part of the MS Academic Alliance (Sounds evil lol). Ok, so it sounds like the XP2 install disk buggered it all up, and ala Sanchez/..." you'll need to format it and reinstall windows probably." How do I do this because I can't get past the XP splash screen. No desktop at all. If I ask the lappytop to boot from a CD that doesn't work neither. I'm totally lost. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 30, 2007 Format. Reinstall Windows. There is basically no other alternative. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 30, 2007 So I put my windows disk in and it should start reformatting? (Coz it doesn't lol) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 30, 2007 No. You need to go into the BIOS settings, change the boot settings to boot from the CD/DVD drive. Then you can boot from the CD and go through set up. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 30, 2007 ffs! I select to start from CD/DVD drive it says looking for bootable CD then a few secs later says it's non-bootable Buggered I take it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 30, 2007 Does it give you an option to boot from usb (very unlikely). Because I'd say you might get away with a usb bootable flash drive. I'll try and think of something but I'll probably come up with nothing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 30, 2007 No option no... I found this though..Which is just...stoopid. ... Toshiba usually ship their Equium laptop computers with Toshiba Equium Windows Recovery CDs (also known as Toshiba Equium hard drive recovery CDs, Toshiba Equium hard drive restore CDs, Toshiba Equium hard drive data restore CDs). The Toshiba Equium Windows Recovery CDs are specifically designed for your Toshiba Equium laptop computer & usually contain an image of what was on the laptop hard drive when it was first bought. They allow you to return the Toshiba Equium to its original state (as new). This is particularly useful if the machine has been attacked by a virus, if the original Toshiba Equium laptop hard drive has developed a fault, or if you simply wish to replace or upgrade the hard drive, & need to re-install your original Toshiba Equium software. The Toshiba Equium Recovery CDs are also sometimes referred to as Windows installation CDs because they completely erase the contents of your laptop hard drive & then re-install your operating system (Windows). However, they differ from normal Windows installation disks in that they usually restore all programs which were originally installed on the laptop hard drive when the Toshiba Equium was first purchased (any additional programs or files which were not originally installed will be overwritten). That's just stupid if I need that disk. He doesn't have it (obviously) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 30, 2007 Most laptops come with those stupid recovery cd's which is often just a cut down version of norton ghost. A decent laptop would come with a hidden hard drive partition with everything that would be on those discs with certain key presses to activate it. I'll see if I find anything on a feature like this with toshiba laptops. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 30, 2007 It says I can boot from usb... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted October 31, 2007 Ok then. This tutorial from the good peeps at tech republic should help you make a boot disk out of a flash drive. Tech Republic Of course if you don't have one you'll be in a spot of bother. If you manage to get that working, you should be able to repair windows from there. I think besides that you should be able to get all the required software etc. to get things running again. Good luck Another note try going into safe mode when booting up by hitting the f8 key to see if you can make it into windows at all. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
