Master Boot Record issue

My friend has an old NEC Versa LX laptop......256 ram 366 cpu. When it starts it says S.M.A.R.T.S. has detected a problem, I pressed F1 and got the initial WinXP screen, then it reboots. I tried a Linux Live CD, it reconised the CD but (could not find the Master Boot Record for CDROM). I set the bios to boot from floppy but got the same massage (could not find the Master Boot Record for Floppy)

Can some please give me some advice?

 

Set the bios to boot from CD not floppy.

 

I have already set the bios to CD, makes no diference what it is set to, it won't read the Master Boot Record.

 

If your OS wont boot from the hard drive, and its not possible to boot from a CD with that set at the Bios (and all other settings correct), it sounds more like a hardware dilemma.
Can you boot in safe mode?

Did you reset Bios defaults?

 

Yes I reset the defaults. There's no way it will start in safe mode, If it won't boot a Live Linux CD or a bootable floppy? maybe the M/B is stuffed. I tried to get a manual for it but all I could find was a user guide

 

It may just be, however there may be other culprits, how many ram modules do you have? Have you tested the board with alternate sticks, are they seated correctly?

Has heat been an issue? etc

Many alternatives!

 

Her son gave her the unit and I put winxp, antivirus, spyware etc on for her, it was working fine, the she fired it up a few days ago and got this message (Primary Master Drive: S.M.A.R.T. Status BAD, Backup and replace)

If I can get a manual for it? I will pull it apart and do some hardware testing........I haven't worked on a laptop before so a manual would be sort of handy.

 

Sounds definately like imminent hard drive failure!

Best to replace the drive ASAP using the link Tim provided as a guide!
This is not such a bad situation providing there is no important data that you need on the failing hard drive!

If so, you may have to install the failing hard drive on a desktop, set as slave or similar, to see if its possible to recover your data from it.

Regards....

 

I took the HDD out, I can't run it in a desktop, it won't fit, the IDE plug configuration is totallly different. I will try and find another notebook HDD to test with.

 

You can buy an adapter for that!....HDD 2.5 to 3.5 kit.

http://www.bixnet.com/adfor25to35h.html

bearing in mind there is no guarantee that you will be able to recover your data!


Regards....