Disk Read Error.....dead?

sandy10

sandy10

sandy10

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Joined
21 Feb 2004
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2,128
Hi guys

I have(had?) a Toshiba Equium u400-124 laptop with Vista Home Premium 32 installed.

Last night it just crashed, so I rebooted, and a message came up with "a disk read error occured, press ctrl+alt+del to restart".

This reappeared when I did the above. I received no disks/dvd's with the pc when i brought it, so created a "vista recovery disk" on my desktop pc and tried it.

It says "windows is loading files", goes through the "egg timer" windows part, but then just hangs on a black screen (the arrow cursor is visible and moveable).

I left it all night after trying it a multitude of times, but still black.

Any clues?

I have read that I will need an original Vista disc to boot from?


Regards
 
Ok you will probably have to phone up Toshiba Technical Support but, I can save you sometime.

When you turn the machine On press F2 to see if you can go into the BIOS. Once in the BIOS look for where it says about the HDD (hard drive) if it says none -> phone up toshiba technical support and as long as it is within the warranty they will get it repaired for you.

If it is listed there then before they will take it in they will insist you try a PR or a product recovery. Which is essentially restoring the laptop back to the factory defaults. It will almost likely fail as long as it is more serious than the MBR being corrupted.
To do a PR you will need the PR discs. Your laptop would either of come with the discs OR it would have asked you to create them when you turned it on for the first time. If you didn't do this then they will make you buy them for £29.90
 
Hi.

The HDD is listed.

Is there anywhere I can download the HR disc as opposed to purchasing it?

Would it be worth inserting a copy of Vista - I thought this would offer a repair tool?
 
Toshiba charge 29.90 for the recovery discs and they will never give them out free of charge. They will just tell you to get the discs from here http://backupmedia.toshiba.eu
However, if u have a windows installation disc then you could always try that instead

If the HDD is listed they get you to run a product recovery. As if it runs and works ok then great if it fails they will then say it is a hardware problem.
 
I've tried using a windows vista disc I borrowed, but it doesn't work - still hangs.

Is it worth getting the Toshiba Recovery disc then?
 
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