Can't boot from CD

well-medicated

loaner wrote: »

if you are able to boot from floppy and have 2 usb ports, this might work

But do I need to have a built in floppy in addition to 2 USBs?

tomsolomon

This might help...........

http://www.defectivekit.net/2007/02/guide-install-windows-without-cd-rom-or.html

well-medicated

Yes, I would definitely try the adapter option, except that I'll spend money, and knowing my luck, there'll be something else.

So, I thank you all for your time and patience with me, but I'm going to hand it over to a shop to get it going again [£45], and never let the kids near it again.

well-medicated

Yes, but it wouldn't boot, probably cos the FDD was on a USB connection. Thanks anyhow.

well-medicated

To anyone who has tried to help me out with this problem - YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE THIS!! I couldn't write this yesterday, cos I was having a fit.

I took the lappy to a repair shop, explained in detail the problems that I'd had [beforehand by phone and then again at the shop] and was told that they could sort it. They would have it ready in a week.

Well, yesterday I got phone call from them [sounded like a 16 year old] telling me that THEY COULDN'T BOOT IT FROM THE CD!!! Can you believe it?

Told him that I'd obviously wasted my breath when leaving it in, and then they'd wasted a further week of my life. Can't wait to see what they're planning to charge me. The laptop is likely to have a head-sized dent in it before I leave the shop.

W-M

ComedyMonkey_2

Unless it has been stated and I have not read it properly - check that the media boots in another machine, say your neighbour's/friend's/work etc. Sounds like it is recognising the disk but not reading it correctly.

If faulty media you can probably recreate or download a new disk. Don't bother paying the shop for 0 result unless you agreed otherwise.

wakandem

The usb device needs to be seen in the bios, probably as a 'removable device'. Unless this is the case it will not work. Disable all other boot devices in bios. A stated, check the media works in another pc.

totalsolutions

Your fix is to run a small piece of software from grc.com. Called spinrite. It will repair the hard drive. Run from a floppy

well-medicated

Thanks - but the problem is that I have neither FDD or CD inbuilt. They both run from USB cable. And since the BIOS doesn't give me the option of booting from USB device, I'm stuck. Selecting boot from FD or CD won't work, they need to be built into the computer. I'm missing an option from BIOS settings - 'boot from USB device'. I'm going to see if there's a way the bios can be updated or upgraded, or anything.....

BritBrat

Could you take the hard drive out and put it in a caddy, then do the repair from another PC with the caddy/hardrive connected to the PC.

I don't thinkyou would be able to do a fresh install but you may be able to do a repair.

Or if you have a good image of the laptop you could restore the image to the laptop drive through another PC.