cannot get my install disk to work

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kordiak

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i put it in the install disk and try to boot from my cd/dvd rom drive and it just gives me a blank screen, am i doing somthing wrong or is the
HDD just burn out?

ok i noticed i left out some key information

1) my friends toshiba recently just stoped booting windows, including safe mode
2) on any give time it can give me a variety of messages the most common one is the sorry for the inconvenence speal about windows failing to load
3) i have a copy of win xp pro, with SP2 and i burned it to disk, it works in regular windows, but is it possible i need a special dos disk to re-install windows?
4) any help would be apreciated!!!!
 
The Toshiba's hard drive has most likely failed. Is the laptop bios set to boot from the CD? Can you get into the bios screen?
 
explain bios, you mean when i hit f2 and can change the settings?
b/c if so i can load the bios and i can also hit f12 and attempt to boot from the cd/dvd drive, but it fails

oh i just checked yeah im in the PhoenixBIOS Setup Utility right now
 
any sugestions, could it be my disk is just not meant for dos, and if all else fails is there any way to get the files off?
 
"any sugestions, could it be my disk is just not meant for dos"... Are you trying to say " Is my CD not bootable?" It may be possible to get your files off the drive, but you are going to have to get a replacement hard drive first.

I have a Compaq Armada laptop that is 7 years old. It has a bad hard drive. The system would almost reach the Windows loading screen and say "hard drive failure is emminent" press F1 to continue... It just restarts over and over. The customer saw this "F1 to continue" for a month before she gave the system to me. A month ago I could have saves her data, now I don't know
 
so your saying i should pick up a toshiba hard drive quickly? i still dont see how i can get to the files? and why do hard drives fry anyways?

and yes i am saying that my boot disk is a home made one, so it boots in a regular windows setting but maybe not in a dos setting
 
First of all kordiak,
CD's cannot be seen in DOS without booting the system with a dos boot floppy. If your Toshiba has a floppy drive, you can boot from the floppy containing a Windows 98 boot disk. You can make one by going to http://www.bootdisk.com Once you boot to an A prompt, you can get to D, the CD ROM...

Toshiba's are known for all their hardware failures. Hard drives are high on the list of common failures with any laptops... Why? Heat and shock/vibration. Think about how most laptops and notebooks are handled and abused on a daily basis

... most XP CD's are bootable. Chances are that your "homemade" one is too, if you created it properly
 
so no floppy drive, no luck? just pick up a new hard drive?

college bugets are tight thats why im such a stiff with the money

a use external floppy drive wouldnt work would it?... not that i could find one anyways
 
kordiak,
Any bootable device would work as long as you could get access to the XP CD... I'm getting the impression that you are a little new to the World of computer troubleshooting. Again, once you get a new hard drive, it will still have to be partitioned and formatted. XP will have to be installed. You will need a working CD/DVD ROM to do this. Are you sure that the CD ROM is good?
 
it boots up on other windows computers so i would say yes it was made correctly

im good at poking and proding around pc's but when it comes to this im a little out of my league i agree, thats why im here! I'v only ever upgraded or re-installed a full operating system through an operating system

well i agree with you that it is probably just a toasted hard drive but i figured i would at least try and re-install windows first before sending her out to get a new hard drive, and if what your saying is what i think your saying im going to have to figure out how to install windows on this new hard drive as well without a floppy drive as well...

if all thats correct where would you recommend going from here?

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Nope same old black screen at the end... bummer

Um a new tidbit of information, i was just turning on the toshiba out of frustration and walked away to make a sandwitch when i returned it was on the blue win xp screen checking the c drive!

well it made it all through stage 1
and is currently on stage 2 where it says it is correcting errors in index
$I30 for file 14801

now its continuing to check

if! and its a big if because im not getting my hopes up, but if it boots into windows what should i do?! will it be fixed? **** my luck its 11:40
 
I still think the hard drive is bad along with the CD drive... Hard drives may sputter and sputter until they totally die. I know the Compaq Armada 12GB drive is gone... it is 7 years old. I have a 30GB drive coming on Wednesday. $100 is a lot for a crummy 4500RPM notebook hard drive. What ever the customer wants, the customer gets... as long as he pays for it
 
YES! If you can't boot from the CD ROM, and you have no floppy, what other choice do you have?

The Compaq Armada's hard drive and an extra 256MB memory module came today. The drive was aready formatted FAT32, and I was able to boot off the customers XP Pro OEM CD, and delete the existing FAT32 partition. I created a new partition and formated NTFS. The XP install went perfectly. Remember, this Armada is 7 years old. It does have a CD/DVD ROM... and a floppy drive
 
one final thought, iv been attempting to install xp pro, b/c i dont have home edition, but she has home edition, a home xp disk might help me chances for a repair yes?
 
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