Toshiba Satellite won't boot

Other day the power flickered while the Comp was on, when tot turn it back on, and it goes to the toshiba screen F2 system utilites, f12 boot manager. then white bar across of screen, after the bar fills, it goes to the windows corporation, with the little green bar that goes left to right over and over. and gets hung there. I've got recovery disk, and image disk, but even after forcing cd/dvd boot first in BIOS, still going the the little grreen bar. I can't even get it into safe mode. Vista home premium 32bit. Thanks for any help

 

one more thing, that white bar across the bottom of the screen says windows is loading files.

 

Hitting F12 and choosing CD/DVD still gives you the bar? It should be a one time boot option that only allows booting from CD/DVD not the usual going down the list of boot devices until it finds one that works.

It seems to me your goal should be to run a chkdsk /r on the Windows partition. Maybe download the Vista recovery disc and burn it to blank CD/DVD using imgburn's Write Image File to Disc option. Then try to boot from the disc and get to command prompt to run the chkdsk C: /r command to look for filesystem problems on the HD.

 

I've already DLed the recovery disc, used IMG burn to burn it, still nothing. I did manage to get it to boot to where I can see the pointer. but the screen is black. When I hit F12, it will give me boot devices option, HDD, USB, LAN, CD/DVD, and something else. Isn't there a way to get this thing into safe mode? This is a friends laptop, and I've not had it in prob over a year or so, but I seem to remember there being a separate partition for backup. Maybe it was the other Toshiba.

 

If all else has failed, and you have saved your data
Hard drive recovery Toshiba
http://aps2.toshiba-tro.de/kb0/HTD7C02140000R01.htm

Also
http://aps2.toshiba-tro.de/kb0/HTD1303440001R01.htm

 

I've tried pushing 0(zero) while the thing boots up, I've tried pushing F8, I've tried C, X, Y, Z. nothing working after post.

 

Using F12 and choosing CD/DVD you are getting the same screens as before? From the Vista recovery disc you should be seeing hit any key to boot from CD...

Which model Toshiba--maybe removing the HD to verify it can boot from CD would be worth a shot?

 

Sometimes Laptops can need pursuading, and it is often a case of repeating until it does the trick
The instructions (I have used them several times ) do insist thatyou
Press and hold down the 0 (zero) key on your keyboard and then press the computers power switch.

When trying to access the dvd rom, some Toshibas show little icons along the bottom, as thay startup, and these show a disc, hard drive, dvd rom (I think there are 4 altogether, and if yours shows them, quickly use the arrow key to scroll across to the dvd rom,if trying the cd/dvd-
Otherwise, when you press f12, use the arrow button to highlight the cd/dvd rom, then if I remember correctly, you either press f5, or f6 to take it up , or, down , or, press enter, and press spacebar, but look on the right hand side, or, bottom of screen, and it should tell you.I have found that when using the f12 fuction, it will work that time, but if you miss it, on firing up, you have often need to set it again.

 

You could also try this way to see if it will load as is and get up and running., as I notice you originally got to a black screen.

Unplug the plower supply, disconnect power connection
Remove the battery . Press and hold down power button for 10 seconds (drains board)
Re-plug in the power connection. (leave battery out for now)
Turn on the power, and press the button on the laptop- If you are lucky, the screen might well work. If this works,
Choose start windows normally.
. Go to Control Panel , Power Options , choose change plan settings, where balanced shows.
. Choose Change advanced power settings
In power management ,change the minimum to 100% for both battery and power adaptor.
Click Apply then click OK
Shut down
Switch off, and unplug power supply, and unplug the end from laptop
Replace battery , plug in the power lead, and the other end into laptop, and restart.

 

It's going from the white bar at the bottom of the screen that says, Windows is loading files, to a black screen, with the mouse pointer, which is moveable. I can move the mouse.

I've tried ever button on the key board during post, I've even taken the HD out, and tried booting from Cd/dvd, same thing happens, windows is loading files. black screen with mouse

I've seen this solution on Toshiba's site, nada.

When this happened to you, were you able to boot from cd/dvd?

Toshiba Satellite A215-S7437
model #PSAFGU-00L002

 

It's booting from the DVD/Cd, Thats when there is a white bar at the bottom that sas Windows is loading files, then it just goes to black screen, with pointer.

 

So booting from the HD you are stuck at the Windows copyright green bar.
Booting from the CD you get just passed the green bar and are stuck at the white movable cursor.

I just seems odd that it is locking at almost the same spot. What is the image disc you have? Is that bootable and what do you see when you try to boot that?

Just an added note is that F8 should be hit repeatedly during the Toshiba screen to make sure you don't miss the "sweet" spot. You probably know this but I wanted to make sure we are not missing safe mode because of something simple.

 

It's the HD. I tried a different HD and it booted to cd/dvd. Thanks for all the help guys. :cool

 

Right stuck just After windows green bar, with HD. and with a clean HD, it let me boot all the way into cd/dvd image recovery. Oh and the disc I've got is Toshiba Recovery and Apps/Drivers satellite A210/A215 series.

 

Sounds like there isn't much you can do with the old HD since Nick ADSL UK had the same problem and Toshiba is sending him a new HD.

You might be able to recover your files from it using Puppy Linux off a Live CD/USB. It is possible that the laptop will boot a Linux disc even when it won't boot Windows.

 

Linux... I never thought of that. I'vew got a copy of Ubuntu. I've got a separate platform so maybe I can plug it into my desktop, and recover some of the date.

 

Ubuntu should do it, especially if you can connect the HD to another computer. Otherwise, even the laptop might boot with the HD from Ubuntu since it is different drivers looking at the HD. Then copy to USB flash and over to another HD/Computer.

 

Another question regarding the same laptop.... since the HD is bad, the guy who owns the laptop is ordering a new one. When I get the new one, will I be able to reinstall windows using the Toshiba recovery disc?? Or will I need a windows disc? There is still a windows sticker on the bottom of the laptop with the serial #. I'm not sure the laptop came with a windows disc though. I do have a copy of windows vista.. Could I use any windows vista disc as long as I have these serial numbers on this sticker. Thanks again.

 

As Nick adsl uk says the Toshiba discs should load o.k, and you will find it includes the operating system, as well as drivers.
Don't use another Vista disc, as it is very unlikely that it will accept the COA. There are differences in the versions, and believe it ,or, not, microsoft don't like it - although if it accepts the Vista COA, on the laptop, its technically the same.I have read some funny little bits from Microsoft on these issues, and they have also conflicted on Microsofts older declarations.
If data is important, then copying as Sach2 suggested, or, with a hard drive caddy ,whilst using the Linux cd is as good a way as any.