Toshiba P25 will not boot from working dvd drive

I am stumped. I cannot get this POS P25-S607 to boot from its DVD/CD drive. I have several XP cds and it will not boot from them. Of course I did the F12 to select boot device.....it just boots to the HD. I even tried holding "C" down (thought this was funny).I have tried an external USB CD drive with no luck. The HD is failing and I need to put in a replacement. Any ideas? I did find this post, but it got no answer. It's the last post on the page.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=152123

Thanks
Justin

 

Hello,
Did you hold the C button down while powering up? Also, try to disable all boot devices in BIOS except the CD drive.

 

Thanks Tgell. I did the "C" thing. I also disabled all other boot options in the bios. What I do find strange is I cant get a + next to the CD or network boot options, but the damn thing defaults to the network boot when everything else is disabled. This is my sons laptop and he needs it for school, otherwise I would have thrown it out the window by now.

Thanks again
Justin

 

Try tapping F12 to enter the boot menu as it posting then select CDrom.

The boot menu key varies between computers it can be,F10,F11,F12 but try F12 first,some don't have a boot menu.

Just to double check disable 'boot other device' if you haven't and check the bios for an option call 'boot priority' or 'boot order' you may have already done this I'm just double checking.

 

Thanks. F12 is my key for the boot menu. I select cd and it tries to boot from the HD. If I disable the HD it tries to boot from the network adapter.

 

I think you answered this question but is it possible to disable only the network boot and then do the C key boot?

 

I did some research regarding your laptop and found this,it looks like there could be a problem with the bios recognising the CDrom.

The TOSHIBA support forum has a fix posted which requires you to make a bootable floppy.

http://forums.computers.toshiba-europe.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=54465

You may want to look for a bios update also,this will probably require you to have an add in floppy drive also.

 

Rikky. Thanks man! I wish I had a floppy drive. I cant fathom where I would get a USB floppy though.

Justin


I see some on evilbay. I dont have a boot from floppy option though. Also, I tries booting from dos on a usb stick with no success, so Im not sure this would work.

 

One other thing....I have tried to boot from the USB (removable device) with cd, usb, and external HD with no luck. So I'm not sure the toshiba solution will fly. I could be wrong.

Justin

 

You could try pulling a CDrom from another laptop,they are usually universal apart from the cover on the drawer which just clips off.

What you can also do is put the hard drive in another laptop or desktop using a universal IDE connector and install windows there.

This is a last resort and can cause problems due to the number of drivers windows installs.What you could try just after windows has finished "copying files to the hard drive" it restarts,pull the hard drive at this point and put it in the toshiba,it should then setup windows for the toshiba.

I've never tried this an only just thought of it:-D Other people have successfully switched over hard drives with a full windows installation on without any reported problems.

Something you may want to try.

 

Rikky,

I did try to install windows in another Toshiba (close to the same year even) Popped it in the P25 and I just get the quick BSOD and a reboot. I have had that work before and am suprised It didnt work.


Justin

 

Try doing the way I said,pull the hard drive just after windows has finished installing files to hard drive,put it in the Toshiba then continue the install with the windows Cdrom also transferred over to the Toshiba.

If you have another toshiba there yank the Cdrom from that and put it in for the install.

 

When i had trouble with my slow computer not booting i found out my hard drive was corrupted and also not recognizing my devices. hopefully a new hard drive will solve your problem

 

Greg,

Thats what I'm trying to get done

 

Rikky,

It's a different form factor unfortunately