View Full Version : Computer guru's, need help
I'm using my tablet currently because my computer won't get passed the "boot from bbs-harddisk" screen.... What is wrong with my computer? It's a toshiba satellite L500 running windows 7 made in 2009 with an intel core i3 processor.
Can you boot from a live CD? This would allow you to access the data on your drive to make a backup.
Most likely there is a system file that is corrupted. You will probably wind up doing a restore from the factory hidden partition on the laptop's hard drive. This will overwrite your data and bring your computer back to the way it was when it was first purchased. There should be information on how to conduct a restore in your manual or on the manufacturer's web site.
Can you boot from a live CD? This would allow you to access the data on your drive to make a backup.
Most likely there is a system file that is corrupted. You will probably wind up doing a restore from the factory hidden partition on the laptop's hard drive. This will overwrite your data and bring your computer back to the way it was when it was first purchased. There should be information on how to conduct a restore in your manual or on the manufacturer's web site.
Will that erase all my files and pictures? I guess it doesn't matter if that's the only way to fix it, but would like to know...
If you run a restore, it will reformat your drive and overwrite much of your data. Before doing a restore, you should boot the computer from a live CD and find your data and copy it to an external drive first.
No live cd... I have to order one... damn...
If your hard drive did not die on you chances are it can be repaired or at least get your file back.
strm_trpr
05-24-2013, 07:10
Try using utility called spinrite from grc.com, if your hard drive is recoverable this could help. Once you get it to boot do a backup of important files.
Computers suck. I like 'em, but I hate 'em as well.
No live cd... I have to order one... damn...
If you have access to someone else's computer (work/friend), Live CD's can be downloaded and burned to disc for free. All you need is an internet connection, CD burner, and CD.
I'd recommend Ubuntu Desktop. It's probably the most Windows-like linux.
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop
After you burn the live CD, you should be able to boot from your CD-ROM drive (instead of your hard drive), grab the files you need (probably to a USB thumb drive), and then do a restore.
Ubuntu will also tell you if the hard drive has an error.
buckshotbarlow
05-24-2013, 10:16
Try using utility called spinrite from grc.com, if your hard drive is recoverable this could help. Once you get it to boot do a backup of important files.
find access to a burner first...then run spinrite. If that doesn't work run a linux live cd...here's a list: http://livecdlist.com, then what you can do is mount up the drive, scp/ftp/tftp whatever the hell you want off of that hdd. After that, buy a new drive from microcenter...
buckshotbarlow
05-24-2013, 10:17
ps, make sure you mount the drive in read only mode also.. (ro)
Ok, for us ignorant ones - WTF is a live CD?
Ok, for us ignorant ones - WTF is a live CD?
I believe it allows the computer to run off of the cd rather than your broken hdd. I think it has the basic operating software on it to get you up and going to retrieve stuff.
buckshotbarlow
05-24-2013, 11:36
It loads the operating system into memory vs installing it on a hdd. It gives you full functionality on a system with out the need for a hard drive
This might be a stupid question... but where the hell do I go to get the free live cd? All of the places that I have tried so far want to install a bunch of other crap along with the supposed live cd software...
I just had our desktop repaired at Micro Center, and it lasted a couple of days before it went tits up again. Was working OK, but I had no clue how to recover everything that was saved, such as all my photos and iTunes, etc. Essentially, it was like right out of the box, and I had to start loading our stuff back on it. Thankfully, I had the sense to buy a 1T external drive and saved all my photos to it, but had no clue how to copy all our iTunes stuff there.
Finally was getting somewhere with that, except for what they'd "saved", when I loaded the divers and shit for our printer. Suddenly, "Internet Explorer has stopped working", and that was it. How you gonna fix Internet Explorer if you can't access the internet? Then the display turned to shit again, all multicolored like a bad acid trip.
I hate computers, and Micro Center's really pissing me off. What kind of fucking business refuses to allow people to call them on the telephone? You absolutely CANNOT call any of their stores directly, it's not allowed and the numbers aren't given. What a buncha bullshit.
I'd much rather deal with an individual that repairs them, anybody know anyone near Parker that's reliable and trustworthy? Someone with a phone? We don't use computers for much more than email, web surfing, forums, photos and iTunes. No gaming, no work stuff, no huge amounts of power and complexity needed. Hell, I don't even know how to use Photoshop. I just want the damn thing to work right.
Caithford
05-24-2013, 13:31
This might be a stupid question... but where the hell do I go to get the free live cd? All of the places that I have tried so far want to install a bunch of other crap along with the supposed live cd software...
Try UBCD 4 Win (http://www.ubcd4win.com/howto.htm). It's free, but it does require you to put it together.
You can also try the UBCD which has a lot of testing utilities, but it's text based and can be challenging (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/) to use if you're not familiar with the nitty gritty, or have some command line or Linux experience.
My favorite right now for ease of use is Hiren's boot CD. Comes with a crap-ton of free recovery utilities, you can download the ISO, so you don't have to build it, and it works on most machines out of the box (http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd).
Good luck.
My favorite right now for ease of use is Hiren's boot CD. Comes with a crap-ton of free recovery utilities, you can download the ISO, so you don't have to build it, and it works on most machines out of the box (http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd (http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd)).
That's interesting, but I damn sure don't understand a word of it.....
Try UBCD 4 Win (http://www.ubcd4win.com/howto.htm). It's free, but it does require you to put it together.
You can also try the UBCD which has a lot of testing utilities, but it's text based and can be challenging (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/) to use if you're not familiar with the nitty gritty, or have some command line or Linux experience.
My favorite right now for ease of use is Hiren's boot CD. Comes with a crap-ton of free recovery utilities, you can download the ISO, so you don't have to build it, and it works on most machines out of the box (http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd).
Good luck.
It says that I need an XP CD... Should I even try to run my computer off of XP? I guess it really doesn't matter anyway considering that I don't have an XP CD....
I've gotten to this page here so far...: http://support.toshiba.ca/support/isg/center/en/index.asp?s1=Notebook&s2=Satellite&s3=L500&s4=PSLS6C-00F005
does that help anything?
For what you need to do, you do not need a full featured operating system, although this one is actually pretty capable for a Linux distribution: http://puppylinux.com/download/
Download the ISO and burn it to a CD. Do not copy the file to a CD, your software must unpack the ISO file and install it onto the CD so that the CD is bootable. I use a free piece of software for this: http://www.imgburn.com/ All of this will need to be done on another computer which is functioning and has access to the Internet and a CD writer (most computers newer the 5 years old do). Once the CD is completed, you will need to put it into your malfunctioning computer and power on the machine. There will be a key (like F2 or F12, could be something else, depending on your BIOS from your motherboard) which will enter into a setup screen. You will need to change the boot sequence on the machine to boot from your CD drive. Once you have made that change, save the change and exit. This will restart the boot sequence and your machine should boot from the Linux live CD in your CD drive. During boot up, you will have a screen that will ask you if you want to install from the CD or run the live CD... you want to run the live CD.
After the machine has completely booted up, you will eventually be at a normal window that looks similar but not exactly the same as Windows. The button at the bottom is like the Start button in Windows and it will get you a list of available programs. You are looking for the programs Gparted, a mount manager (Pmount), and the File Manager (ROXFiler or Thunar). Gparted will tell you the names and types of hard drives installed on your computer. It can also show you the different partitions on your hard drives even when they are hidden. Once you know the name of your hard drive (something like /dev/hda1) where your Windows OS is installed, you can then mount that partition, using Pmount, so that you can then access the files (using ROXFiler) on the drive and copy them over to an external hard drive or USB drive.
Once you are certain that you have gotten all of your files off of your hard drive and onto an external drive, you can proceed to the restore by following the information from Toshiba.
I realize this is a lot of information. It is much simpler to do than to explain in a typed response on a board. I wished I lived closer, I would come over and have it done in an hour. The good thing about this is once you have your live CD burned, you label it and put it aside for the next time you need it. One day you may even decide to completely skip Windows and just install Linux and stop paying M$ for their operating system.
Oh, and if you only have one browser installed on your system (IE) this would be a good time to install two other browsers. As long as you have an Internet connection, there isn't any reason not to have two or three different pieces of software to do the things you do most with your computer... surf the web.
Did anyone say anything about regular backups? Sorry, I just had to.
EDIT
This is what I found for restoring a Toshiba Satellite L500 computer to factory settings - http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120119021152AAXJOO7
Here is what I found for getting into your BIOS setup - Press the F2 key on startup. This will take you the screen which will let you set the boot sequence and allow the computer to start from the live CD.
spyder:
As I'm sure you are now aware, this isn't a straight forward process, especially for a non-tech type of person. I mean absolutely no offense, but you may be better served by bringing it in to someone in Trinidad.
Spyder has mad skilz with a lathe. He has an awesome set of tools. He can fix it.!
buckshotbarlow
05-25-2013, 07:45
Spyder, one quick question...do you have a second computer system? If not, do you have access to another system? If so, you can buy one of these gizmos (http://www.microcenter.com/product/249962/SATA-IDE_to_USB_Drive_Adapter) hook up your old hdd, and transfer all your data to a new hdd (http://www.microcenter.com/product/392919/Expansion_2TB_SuperSpeed_USB_30_Desktop_Hard_Drive _STBV2000100). Then, hold onto the original drive, put it on the shelf, and replace it with a new one. Now, the usb drive becomes your backup drive, new drive gets a fresh install of your OS. Copy the data back, and if you miss any files then all you have to do is hook up that adapter again, and find the old files and copy back, then replicate to your backup drive. I do this all the time with my customers...
Lol, currently at safeway using the wifi, bear/tree/cable lines.... all equal no good! I am going to use my wife's computer whenit all gets sorted...
Ok, new lines, or spliced together line... whatever... anyway at the wife's computer and looking at that puppy page thing you sent over cstone, is this where I'm supposed to go? ftp://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/
If it is where I'm supposed to go, what exactly do I download? I know I have to burn whatever file/files to a disc, and I've read through that part of the page and how to tell if you burned it correctly, I just don't know what part to download to burn..... More advise please.
Completely forgot that I had an external disk thing that hooks one computer up to another's hard drive. Anyway, did it using my wife's laptop and Norton immediately pulled up Rootkit.Boot.Pihar on my computer's hard drive, but couldn't remove it. I looked online and got antimalwarebyte's stuff, and Kaspersky's TDS SKiller to remove it, hope it works since my expensive and shitty Norton couldn't even with it's power eraser crap. Running scans now, Kaspersky already said it removed it, Norton can't find it anymore, and I'm letting malwarebytes go through it currently just for added security, so, we'll see if my computer boots up now after this is all done.
All of the scans came back negative for anything else on my computer after Kaspersky got rid of the first virus, plugged my hard drive back in, and the computer booted up like nothing was wrong. Ok, I'm good now.
Rootkits can be nasty buggers. Often attempts to remove will cause the host system to crash, so it never gets removed.
I'm sorry I didn't follow this thread and missed your follow up question. Glad you got the machine running. Now you back up your files. Not one backup, not two, but at least three copies of every file you can't find anywhere else. Put one copy on an external drive (thumb drive or Hdd in an enclosure) the second on a DVD, and the third in the cloud (dropbox etc...). Just make it a habit to backup on a regular basis.
PM me a mailing address and I will mail you a live CDs of both Puppy and Ubuntu.
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