A Plea For Help

My daughter's Toshiba Satellite laptop will not boot Windows 7. It shows the Toshiba logo while it runs the Power-On Self Test and then it goes to a black screen with a blinking text cursor. It will boot a Linux LiveCD and from there it can read and write to the hard drive, but actually starting Windows is impossible.

Any suggestions for fixing this would be VERY welcome.


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Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• tech support
• boot errors
• Booting
• Tips
• Computer
• Help
• Windows
• Microsoft Windows
• Need
• Linux

[whackedgarfield]

you Hard drive should have a partition that has windows 7 installation on i, Alt plus one of the F keys would access that partition or possible just a F key, every computer is slightly different depended on BIOS setup and from there you can format disk and reinstall windows, f you were to boot up you live linux cd you should see that your hard drive has about a 10 gig space reserved for Windows 7 just to confirm.

[Thriell]

@whackedgarfield Holding 0 (zero) while turning on the machine is SUPPOSED to cause it to boot from the hidden "recovery" partition, but at this point I'm guessing that the MBR on the hard drive is trashed because it freezes up the instant it tries to boot from any partition on that drive. I'm almost ready to use the linux LiveCD to set up a dual boot just to see if that will re-write the Master Boot Record.

[askCHARLIEdotNET]

I'm sure as you have looked around the internet for a solution you came up with the same ones I am about to tell you. Most people dealing with this problem is causes because a file is not working properly that windows needs to completely boot up. Some of the solutions that I found on google say to try using CTRL+ALT+DEL and manually loading in the file explorer.exe . You say it's freezing up though, so I don't know if that would help you at all.

[Thriell]

@askCHARLIEdotNET As I said, Windows won't even begin loading, so there is no way to load explorer.exe or anything else.

[rctriplefresh5]

reformat the harddrive..wipe that bitch clean!!! press f1 when you turn the pc on repeatedly.

[Thriell]

@rctriplefresh5 As I stated in the video, the manual for this computer says that function is accessed by pressing the 'zero' key while turning the machine on, however the machine freezes up before it gets far enough to notice that you're pressing any keys. Thanks for playing.

[whackedgarfield]

you realize that booting a live version of linux will not impact any files on your drive or alter the boot sector, only if you choose to actually install linux then it will modify the boot sector.

[whackedgarfield]

if you have no real files to be concerned about on PC i would go for a format option from the start save time and frustration

[whackedgarfield]

so you have tried boot a live version of linux mint or what ever distro flavor you like, boot live and if it runs well at least you be aware of no hardware issue. And surely you can find a friend with a copy of windows 7 to use, just install using your key and reformat hd from disc.

[HeIljumper]

its also 100% legal

[HeIljumper]

ill PM you a link with some instructions on how to make the disc if you need it, just let me know. i would post it here but youtube gives me an error when i try to post it

[HeIljumper]

you can make your own windows 7 installation disc if you have a dvd burner in another computer

if you are able to make one, see if you can run the windows repair utility after u boot from it or worst case scenario you can use it to reinstall windows

[Thriell]

@tr70l3r Sir, it appears that you don't know my daughter at all. I have known her for 18 years. You learned a few days ago that she exists. I feel I am better qualified to say what she probably was or wasn't doing than you are. I also do not believe for a second that you are associated in any way (other than possibly as a customer) with Comcast, therefore your comment is irrelevant.