I have a laptop, something happened where the boot program, and drivers for the CD rom have been wiped from the hard drive. So even though I have a new copy of windows 7, I can not load it on to the laptop because the cd rom in the laptop will not read anything. There should be no reason any physical damage would make it not work.

The only thing i can access is the BIOS. In the BIOS there is an option to boot from LAN. Any idea of how I would do this? Can I somehow use the CD Rom on my computer to load windows on the laptop. I honestly have never seen anything like this before. If anyone has the slightest idea I would be willing to send pictures of the screens so you can see what it looks like.

My first recommendation would be to google it, there are TONS of helpful articles and answers on there.

Another possibility to look into would be try to use USB, so like an external hard drive.

So did all your information get erased? I'm just curious as to why you need to boot to a CD.

nothing but the bios is left on this thing, not even the drivers for the cd rom to work. I have to stick a paper clip in the little hole to open the cd rom manually. I keep getting the message no bootable device. I have to find some way for it to even boot so it can load the OS, and then load the OS.

Oh, and I already tried googling it.

damn dude.... Yeah I would recommend trying to use an external hard drive and USB to try and install windows 7 on your computer.

thread started at the below link with images

http://www.techsupportforum.com/...d-751081.html#post4510745

HAVE YOU TRIED REBOOTING? WHENEVER WE HAVE A PROBLEM, WE FIND THAT REBOOTING USUALLY SOLVES IT!

FAILING THAT, HAVE YOU TRIED SETTING FIRE TO YOUR PC? IT USUALLY SOLVES NOTHING, BUT IS QUITE SATISFYING! AND HAS THE ADDED BENEFIT OF HELPING TO WARM YOUR DOMICILE DURING THE COLD WINTER MONTHS!

YOU'RE WELCOME!

HA!

SAM
TECH GURU,
THE MIGHTY CLAN [DANGER]!

install through USB

in the BIOS menu, arrow over to boot options. Arrow down to CD/DVD ROM drive, instead of HDD drive select with Enter. Hit F10 to save and exit

Put original windows 7 DVD, or your recovery DVD that you made while you were setting up your Backup and Restore center.

Turn the computer off and on to reboot from the CD/ DVD

What getafix said. If that didn't work, go borrow a USB cd-rom drive, and repeat the same steps, but to boot from the USB cd-rom drive instead of the one in your laptop.

on the off chance that the optical drive itself is fluffed...

iso download links http://www.w7forums.com/...so-image-downloads.12325/

get it onto a usb drive http://www.microsoftstore.com/....Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool

use getafix's bios instructions but select usb

bonus points for thinking outside the box and using something like your phone as the usb drive

Is the bios detecting a CD drive?

what does it say when you actually tell it to boot from the HDD? you're sure you told it to boot from the HDD right?

you guys have some great questions and some great advice.

Getafix the CD Rom drive is non operational

Xinhuan I have that option this weekend if I need it, but the way it is acting i dont think it would even respond to usb

qz it says "no bootable device found"

Now, it has been suggested to me to take the hard drive from the laptop and slave it to my PC. Which in theory is a good idea. I have some questions though.

1) can you slave a laptop hard drive to a desktop?

2) I cant find any jumper settings for it if the answer to number 1 is yes. I can tell you in the BIOs menu it says what I am reading on the label which is Toshiba HDD2D90. There is another letter/number combination that appear to be the part number MK2546GSX

Looks like a standard 250gb laptop internal harddisk.

http://www.ebay.com/...2D90-Hard-Drive-/71400554

yea ummmmm this is the first laptop i have worked on, all my experience is in desktops.

So that's a no to detecting the CD drive?

I doubt you can slave the laptop drive, install windows then pop it into the laptop. Well, you can but I doubt it will then load on the laptop. But if you do try it and it works let us know though. Some other more hardware techy can probably answer that.

I'd get a new CD drive. If that doesn't work, a new computer since your MB bus to the CD is probably done.

You should be able to connect your laptop HDD to your desktop.
I just don't know if you can install windows.

Ummm.. you could slave it to your desktop provided that you have the connector on hand which i doubt you do so...

Toshiba HDD are notorious for faults. I personally used a real hammer on a few of em fluffers few years ago cause i have not encounter so many defective laptop HDD on a single brand as frequently as Toshiba's. So watch out it might not be as you thought it to be (Instead of a boot corruption it might be hardware failure : Your HDD)

I took a quick look at the tech forum link you posted........... $600 worth of repairs ?! JESUS fluffING CHRIST

The bios won't register cause the drivers got wiped with the hdd. most likely the hdd is corrupt. here's what ya do: hammer to toshiba, replace with a better brand: i recommend acer (yes i am a professional pc tech)

Not being able to see the bios is a motherboard or video card problem. The hard drive being wiped has nothing to do with bios.

Sata to usb adaptor , I use one all the time costs bout 12 usd @
http://www.microcenter.com/...NOs9eaR9roCFW9nOgodhBgAuA
or you can google for a better deal if u want, sounds to me the hdd went bonkers if it will not boot? only bios will thus no cd or anything else think its a mobo safety thing ps I use an external usb to sata drive as backup for my pcs as well as a nifty sized flash drive lol 500 gig even~

if the BIOS can't see either the cd or hdd I would think your sata chip is defective

since when acer has manufactured hdds too?

Looks like they answered your question on the tech site... Do what he says.

not the best option told aka throw some seabird with it and buy new.

LI: He can get to BIOS it won't register his drive.

marshal: please reread... i was talking the whole machine

The bios does not load any drivers off the hard drive. The bios does not even need a hard drive inserted for the boot options of cd/dvd drive to show up when in the boot menu. Its either defective disk drives, lose sata cable, lose power cable, bad sata port on the motherboard, or just a bad motherboard.

Going thru same issue. Lost my hard drive becuase of this and had to replace it. But since everything was preinstalled on old drive . I have no drivers to get back online to get the drivers I need to grt online. HA!

So glad I didn't post in this thread earlier, because it has turned to pure comedy gold.

-You can't install Windows over the network.
-This almost never would involve an issue with bios. The pictures posted show that the sata hdd is registered which all but completely proves that there is not issue with controller, firmware, or bios.
-Bios doesn't need drivers for an optical drive, certainly not one built into a laptop
-You would be hard pressed and actually intent on permanently deleting the optical drive drivers from windows, and is completely irrelevant to this issue
-Acer has been a terribly unreliable brand for going on 15 years.
-SATA doesn't need nor does it have jumpers.
blackcougar: if you are truly "professional pc tech", I weep for humanity and no longer wish to live on this planet. You should find another job on the double before someone finds out.

Optical Drive- First try removing it and reseating the drive. The screw/s that need to be removed first should be marked on the bottom of the laptop. If that doesn't work probably replacement. More than likely rather than replacing exact model or through the laptop brand, you would be better served buying a slim optical drive. This would make replacement cheaper and easier to return if the issue is not the optical drive itself. I should add to ensure that the optical drive is in fact just a generic slim optical drive before replacing it with one.

Hard Drive- You can try connecting it to desktop, once you fix the optical drive booting windows setup would likely fix any simple issue, or the recovery tools on the windows setup disk can fix some more advanced issues. Worst case the drive has failed and needs replaced. Usually other signs such as clicking noises, head stutter, not fully spinning up, or spinning up more than once per power on would indicate a bad drive.

I have made no claim that I was by any means an expert in computer technology. If I was an expert, I would have no need to ask such questions. Since you obviously know the answer, at some point, you would have had to ask the same question or you NEVER WOULD HAVE LEARNED TO BEGIN WITH. So glad that withholding information to a persons question, and then mocking for having ever had asked the question, when that person admits they don't know what they are doing is so amusing to you.

Career advise, don't ever go in a teaching job, would suck at it. You took a pretty decent message, and completely destroyed your ethos as an author by mocking the very audience you are speaking to. Did you not take English 101 in college, you are obviously educated.

Oh by the way, I am not claiming to be an expert in English, I am sure I made more than a few grammatical errors.... I am just trying to understand how you expect me to care about anything you have to say, good, bad, or indifferent? You talk like I am also a complete noob at this which should be equally apparent that I know at least a little bit about hardware. I know if mechanical issues are there, that there are usually noises associated. The LAST thing my friend was doing before the laptop stopped booting, was insert a cd rom that he thought was some sort of recovery disk. Mind you this gentleman, knows less than a noob about computers and thinks "facebook" is the internet. So he isnt exactly a reliable "source" i would say in the diagnostic process. Anyway he tells me he:

"sees something about deleting something, it asked me if I wanted to, and i clicked "yes" the computer rebooted, and then I got 'no bootable device found'"

Also I have mentioned this is the first laptop i have worked on but all my experience has been with desktops. 16 years worth of experience. I have been rebuilding and fixing DESKTOPS since it was necessary to load DOS on the computer before windows. It would seem to me, if the CD Rom was working before he deleted whatever he deleted, and nothing physically has changed with the system, why would it stop working RIGHT AFTER a CD Rom JUST worked in it?

Also, I did try to check the physical connections. The CD Rom, is not removable, it is built into the case. After unscrewing about 15 screws and prying the keyboard up, turns out there is a rivet in the middle that will not allow the keyboard to come apart from the case. What I could see from the portion I was able to pull apart, was all the connections that I could see without actually moving the CD Rom. Everything I could see from that point looked connected. That being said, because I can not get the keyboard apart from the case because of the rivet, I will not be able to replace the optical drive.

After speaking to Watcher Observer later in the evening, please consider my previous message dialed down in scathing indignation.

Troubleshooting computer problems:
Step 1 - Did you pay your electric bill?

Step 2 - Is your computer plugged in to the electrical outlet? This is where the electric company pumps electricity assuming you completed Step 1. Electricity is necessary, so be sure there is an electrical current running into your computer.

Step 3 - Did you put your finger on the power button and press it downwards until the light turns on? Assuming you did step 2 the power button opens the flood gates for electricity to pour into your computer. Remember, electricity is what makes your computer go, and the power button is what brings the electricity into your computer. If you didn't press the power button then there is no electricity running into your computer, hence why it won't work.

Step 4 - Did you press the DVD-ROM Drive eject button on the front of the drive? This is what mechanically causes the DVD-ROM Drive to open. It triggers the gears to "slide" out a platform for you to put DVD's onto. The platform has a hole that's perfect for sticking DVD's, but pretty much nothing else. Therefore you should make sure to press the button.

Step 5 - Did you place the Operating System boot disc onto the DVD-ROM drive DVD platform? Assuming you did step 4, you will see a platform which is where you will place the Operating System boot disc. In later steps you'll come to understand why putting that Operating System boot disc onto the DVD-ROM drive DVD platform is an important step. But for now, do not worry, I just want to know that the disc (the Operating System boot one) is sitting upon the DVD platform (of the DVD-ROM drive).

Step 6 - Now here's a tricky one. Did you push the DVD-ROM drive platform back into the computer? I would hope that you completed step 5 before this, otherwise you will have to complete step 4 again. You can push the DVD-ROM drive platform back into your computer in a few ways: push the "eject" button, which may or may not be capable of mechanically triggering the platform to "slide" back into the computer, or you can place your fingers upon the platform and gently push the platform back into the computer.

Thanks Makolyte, thats what I was trying to say

not all laptop optical drives have platform where to put disc, some have just hole where disc is put.

Did you restart?

I solved my problem.
Here are the steps you will need to follow
1. Take computer to the shop
2. Pay
3. Go to bar and drink
4. Pick up conputer.
5. Go home
(Ok so I did it the expensive easy way)

new drive = ~30 bucks
repairing = ~50 bucks
drinks = ~100 bucks

sounds the best way Marshal ! ;)

yea, im the one get paid $50 to repair it LMAO

It was supposed to be an easy fix. Now he tells me he may have gotten frustrated and slammed the lid down on it pretty hard. Jesus Mary and Joseph, some peoples children...........

poor trinity.

*hugs trinity*

Well installed a new optical drive now that I figured out how to take the damn thing out.... I think that is light at the end of the tunnel

very dim light atm.

I wanted to updated that I am finishing victoriously. I will post a debrief to the tech forum linked above in the thread in case it will help anyone else in the future because i used almost every piece of information i got, but i got some information from other sources that aided in the final process.

As this is a new found victory, I am as you would probably imagine exhausted, yea you know the feeling.

I am very excited about piecing all the information together as my own personal victory:grin::grin::grin::grin:


Thank you to everyone that contributed! You are incredible for sharing the information to help someone else learn :pray:

If you want to boot from LAN, you'd have to have set up a server based image of the boot for it. There are directions to set this up on the Microsoft Support site. You can look it up by searching for "technet" articles.

I don't suppose that you've checked your BIOS settings for "Boot Device" and selected CDROM specifically have you?

You may want to check that before trying to build a bootable image on a server.

thanks, but as stated by previous post i already have the problem solved. A full debrief will be posted within 48 hours on a tech forum i submitted the same information to for those that really got involved and contributed. A combination of suggestions from here, and the tech form, and on irc chat contributed to the final solution. I am just finishing up working on it though and i am exhausted and want to go to bed.

Here is the link again so it is easily accessible like i said should be up in 48 hours for those that care

http://www.techsupportforum.com/...bios-banghead-751081.html

Yes, pure comedy gold

You sir, are an idiot.

Administrators of networks around the world have loaded Windows via LAN since the VERY BEGINNING of Networks.

It's a fairly straightforward process but you must have a way to host the image on the LAN to boot from it.

There is a product named "Ghost" out there, probably still owned by Norton that you could use to set up a bootable image that would allow you to install via LAN. :)

Pay no attention to Watcher Watcher, he has been watching the wrong stuff for too long. Probably a real Honey-Boo-Boo fan.

After reading that forum I can see I was right... Bad disk drive (optical drive).