Daughters sick laptop - no bootable device!

Figment

Before you do that, it's worth investing a couple of quid in a USB caddy. Take the hard drive out of the laptop, pop it in the caddy and attach the caddy to a working PC. That will:

a) Tell you if the drive is working; and if it is
b) give you the opportunity to recover any data from the drive.

You need a caddy similar to this


You may also find this service manual helpful

richwhit

OK thanks Rob - so just to check you'd suggest that rather than go and buy a new harddrive I'd be better off spending the £12 odd on the hardrive enclosure which I'll have to remove my faulty hardrive, connect to this new bit of kit which will then be able to plug into my Pc to see if my faulty harddrive can be repaired - gasp! Worse case is that my hardrive is unrepairable and I'll have to buy a new one and swallow the £12 spent on the enclosure.

Is the route you'd take? Or just a thought is there anywhere I could send my hardrive for someone else to check if its repairable? (or woudl this be just as costly as spending the £12 on the enclosure?)

Thanks a million, richard

Figment

If the Windows Certificate of Authenticity (COA) is still attached to the bottom of the laptop and legible, you do not need to purchase a Windows disc. In most cases you can download a Windows 7 iso file which you can then burn to a DVD and use that to repair or reinstall the operating system

The COA will tell you which edition of Windows was installed. On that machine it should be Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit,or possibly Home Basic 64 bit.

Tell us which and someone should be able to point you at an ISO to download.

Figment

Another option. Is the edition of Windows on your PC the same as that on your daughters?

richwhit

Ok - Windows COA is on the base of the laptop but half it is illegible where the bottom of the PC has been moved about on surfaces (is it just me or is that dum best place to put some quite essential info that you don't want to be rubbed off?)

The laptop was running Windows 7 it is telling me - I'm therefore assuming I'm looking to have to fork out £70 odd for a new Windows o/s??

Windows on my PC is vista i assume as only bought my brand new HP desktop last week.

Lifeforms

For a cheaper way just contact the manufacturers of the laptop, ascertain if you got CD/DVD's with it, or if you were meant to create them yourself. THEN enquire how much it will be to get replacements. That'd be so much cheaper than just buying an OS. Mention about the sticker being half off too, they might be able to tell you it.

Try the HDD in the caddy first, if that doesn't work, then you need to find out what type it is (ide or sata, prolly sata though) look for a 2.5" on ebuyer or aria, or such, avoid ebay (unless it's new via one of the ebayoutlet stores ie ebuyer outlet) and decide on size. Then you'd need to install it, and reinstall windows.

It's not a big thing, but caddy is cheaper, and will say if your hdd is knackered.

Figment

richwhit wrote: »

Ok - Windows COA is on the base of the laptop but half it is illegible where the bottom of the PC has been moved about on surfaces (is it just me or is that dum best place to put some quite essential info that you don't want to be rubbed off?)

The laptop was running Windows 7 it is telling me - I'm therefore assuming I'm looking to have to fork out £70 odd for a new Windows o/s??

Windows on my PC is vista i assume as only bought my brand new HP desktop last week.

A PC bought last week will be Windows 7. Vista is considerably older.

The issue with the COA is, as you say, rather dumb. They used to be laminated, preventing the information from being rubbed off, but changed to non-laminated a few years ago. In hindsight it's probably an idea to either record the information separately or cover the COA with clear tape.

Does it say which edition of Windows 7, and can you read the licence key?

richwhit

OK caddy purchased - once it arrives (hopefully in a couple of days time) - I'll resurrect the thread as no doubt will have questions on checking if the HDD is reairable or not.

Many thanks to everyone who has offered advice this afternoon - truly appreciate you taking the time out to help me try to get my daughters laptop back to her.

thx, Richard

richwhit

Figment - -perfect idea!!! A piece os sellotape placed over the COA would save so much hassle - will definitely be doing this in the future!

The only info I can read from the COA is as follows:-

Windows 7 Home Prem OA
Acer Group
(thin bar code)
CO.7P201.001

then only the occasional letter/number which has been rubbed off

debitcardmayhem

Forgive me if this has been covered , but I am a small screen in a noisy pub (nothing unusual there then :beer:) have you got another W7 pc in the house, if so create a w7 repair disk on that and try and use that ..... just an idea really