Disk full up - Preschool laptop

bushmins · 18 Jan 2012 at 22:17

I have a friends laptop that his wife uses in their preschool. Im getting a BSOD before the thing boots up into windows. The BSOD error seems to indicate that the HDD is full. I tried getting into DOS to delete some files but the keyboard is in some crazy format, (print on the keys is fine, they just dont do what they say they do!) It also says it cant find drive C.

So i was thinking of plugging the laptop HDD into my desktop and deleting stuff like that. My desktop is a heck of a lot newer than the laptop. Im i right in thinking think all SATA motherboard can still accept IDE HDD's via the normal ribbon cable?

stulid · 18 Jan 2012 at 22:18

Well does you motherboard have a IDE connector?

horrorwood · 18 Jan 2012 at 22:22

Even if the motherboard has IDE you will need an adaptor. See here:

http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2006/02/16/connect-laptop-hard-drive-to-desktop-computer/

However if the laptop hdd is SATA it will work fine.

Alphane · 18 Jan 2012 at 22:29

If you don't need the data on the drive can you not boot from your windows disk and format/reinstall from there?

bushmins · 18 Jan 2012 at 22:52

I know i havnt thought this one through properly yet. Ill have to check out my motherboard and what cables i have lying around.

They dont have a key code for the xp so reinstalling is not an option.

rob-ward · 19 Jan 2012 at 09:25

The other option would be to use a live cd(assuming that the laptop has a cd drive) or a USB live disk, if you boot an OS off of that you should be able to then mount the c drive and delete files, should be easier(and cheaper) than plugging the HDD into another machine.

Hagar · 19 Jan 2012 at 09:46

rob-ward said:
The other option would be to use a live cd(assuming that the laptop has a cd drive) or a USB live disk, if you boot an OS off of that you should be able to then mount the c drive and delete files, should be easier(and cheaper) than plugging the HDD into another machine.

+1, this would be the best solution.

bushmins · 19 Jan 2012 at 20:05

rob-ward said:
The other option would be to use a live cd(assuming that the laptop has a cd drive) or a USB live disk, if you boot an OS off of that you should be able to then mount the c drive and delete files, should be easier(and cheaper) than plugging the HDD into another machine.

Any pointers on how to make a live cd?

PhillyDee · 19 Jan 2012 at 20:11

Get UBCD and burn it to a disk. Its linux based, but if you have used DOS then you are fine. Can also be stuck on a usb, but its more involved.

Alphane · 19 Jan 2012 at 20:15

Got to say on reflection I'm hoping that that drive isn't dead quite frankly.

How do you fill a drive so thouroghly that it won't even Boot (thought it was mostly a read process but it must make some notes while doing it, surely not a lot though)