HELP! Can't Format Laptop Hard Disk.

[bobfrance]

Now I'm moderately useful when it comes to computer stuff, but this time I've drawn a blank. :(

I have an old laptop (Toshiba Satellite 2140CDS) which I'm giving to a friend of mine who's just starting a new business.

I stoppped using it quite a while ago because the hard drive was knackered.
Having sourced a new HD I've put it in the laptop, but when I try to boot it briefly displays "TOSHIBA" in big red letters (which is normal) but then instasntly reads..

"NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart"

When I press Ctrl+Alt+Del it blanks briefly then bring the same message up again.

I've tried holding down the Delete key and F8 when booting in the hope of getting to the bios but no dice. :(

All I really want to do is boot it from the Toshiba CD, format the drive and install Windows...

...but it won't let me :weeping:

I've also tried booting from a floppy but it's not interested.

Please help or I'll end up feeling like a complete spud! :irked:

Bob.

[Plotloss]

What is the boot device sequence in the BIOS?

I would expect it to be Floppy, CD-ROM, HDD0

Cant remember what the Tosh bios key is, usually F1 or Del when you see the full screen logo.

[Plotloss]

Alternatively visit www.bootdisk.com and download the Win98 boot disk with CD rom support and it should boot from that fine.

[bobfrance]

Not sure of the boot sequence.
It spins up the CD Drive but but doesn't try to read it.
Nothing from the floppy.
I've tried F1, F8 & Delete but so far to no avail.

I can connect the new drive to my own PC via a USB adaptor but I can't see how that would help.

If I could just access the BIOS...

[Plotloss]

Hold down escape whilst hitting the power switch.

Keep holding Esc down and you should get a screen saying F1 for BIOS

Apparently...

>> Edited by Plotloss on Tuesday 26th July 19:15

[Plotloss]

There is a user manual available for download here:

http://support.toshiba-tro.de/tools/Satellite/s2140-2180/online-user-manual/userman_win98_3000840_en.zip

[bobfrance]

YOU STAR!

I'm in the bios and have made the boot sequence CD - FDD - FLOPPY.

Unfortunately there is no option to format the HD through the BIOS (which I've never encountered before) Though I have got it to boot from the CD.

The Toshiba verion of windows has a go but then brings up an "Invalid Drive Specification" message then rebverts to the same old error message as before.

I'm currently trying Windows 2000 instead which seems to be doing better (but taking it's time).

Thank for all your help Plotloss - I'll keep you posted.

[Plotloss]

The Tosh disc is doing a hash check of the component serials adding them together and coming up with an invalid result because the drive has been swapped.

A standard version of any operating system should get there eventually

[bobfrance]

Yes I thought it was making a Hash of it.

The format is at 66% now but seems to have been stuck there for some time. Does this sound normal?

[Plotloss]

It doesnt usually stick but then it could be doing remedial tasks in order to format.

[doug phillips]

It is possible that the new HD is to big for the BIOS, what size is the old one.............. and the new one ?.

Doug.

[bobfrance]

67% now!

Seems to be 1% about every 15 minutes.

It's going slow but as long as it gets there I don't care.

The new drive is 12Gb. I can't remember what the old one was but i suspect only a couple of Gig.

If it is to big. is it possible to flash the bios and get it to accept larger sizes?
Or failing that would partitioning do the trick?

[doug phillips]

No, you should be OK with a 12 Gb drive. I just guess it is acting like a normal Pc (ie being a pain in the arse) and just taking its time. I hope that you have all the drivers to hand.

Doug.

[Plotloss]

Very good point about the BIOS addressing.

You may fall foul of an 8.4Gb physical size limitation on the BIOS addressing. Back when this was a problem was 95/96 when Win95 had just been released and could only address 2Gb partitions with a physical limit of 8.4Gb so if the laptop is 10 years old or more it could concievably cause an issue.

If when you reboot it it freezes during POST, thats the issue and its easily resolved with a BIOS update.

Now its moving, albeit slowly I still wouldnt worry too much.

[bobfrance]

Hope your right!

it's just leapt for 67% to 71%.

I was getting worried for a bit there.

[bobfrance]

Well the formatting finished and Win2000 went through it's installation routine.

My next problem is when it re-boots and says it's setting up it just goes to a blue screen. Not THE dreaded blue screen though, it's just the standard windows blue background (as it looks jjust before the icons appear).

I left it like that for a couple of hours then powered it off and on again. It restarted and said "resuming setup" and returned to the blue screen again and hung. ;(

What a b*gger!

Any thoughts O wise ones?

[aldi]

Bearing in mind the above, how about reinstalling but just creating an 8GB partition when it asks about disks etc?

All that hanging around on 67% sounds like a flakey disk, could be wrong though...

[bobfrance]

It did format in the end, but the saga goes on.

I gave up trying to install win2000 as it just hung on setup. I decided to try XP instead but before I could it appears that the drive has now gone kaput.

I'll try again when I get a replacement.

Oh well...