Posted on 09/05/2012 9:02:46 AM PDT by GeronL
My Toshiba Satellite L305 has crapped out. It did not come with the reinstallation disk. I can get a new hard drive but I need an O/S. It is too old to run Windows 7, which I can't really afford.
Does anyone know where I can buy a Windows Vista Home Premium (or sumtin') disk or product key for a good price?
Personally I’d just hold out for a new laptop rather than install Vista. I have an issue with mine where my CPU is one of 0.001% of all they ever made that does not play nice with Vista SP 1. And because of that my tech guy is iffy as to whether Windows 7 can even be installed. My daughter just bought a screaming fast Windows 7 laptop with 6 gig drive for just over three hundred bucks.
Good. I shuddered when you said Vista. It's a dog and it's worse on older HW.
LIES!
If I run MSWord for some reason my machine takes for-frickin'-ever to shut down.
If I use OOWriter I can shut down instantly, no problems.
I assume this is because MS won't let my machine shut down until Word is done tattletaling back to mama MS.
Go to the bookstore, spend 18 bucks on a magazine with the word “UBUNTU” on it. It has a disk inside that holds the Linux based OS. I recommend it highly.
I had a 3.5 inch that seemed "fried." It wouldn't spin or make any of the sounds associated with starting up. I replaced the controller card that is attached to the hard drive, and it spun right up. That drive is running fine, and has been for about six months since I replaced the card. I had another drive (exact same model) to cannibalize, otherwise the card would have been $20-$40.
From the looks of the 2.5" drive in my hand, the card is removable without entering the disk area. Eight little screws.
If your drive rattles, then the head is probably off its pivot. I've never had any success in recovery from that, although I think it is possible, in principle, at substantial cost.
Mark this post as a Place Holder.....
....for a hilariously clever, self deprecating, witticism regarding Tenacious1’s technological ignorance and lack of real contribution to this thread.
If nothing else, burn a CDROM for a LIVE version of Puppy Linux and boot it from scratch without installation. You’ll see what your old PC is actually capable of and if you still want Windows, well you’ll know what the alternative is.
I ran a laptop with no HD at all, for a few weeks. Booted off the CD, saved work to a flash drive. A bit slow booting up and starting programs, but hey, it kept me online!
Maybe I'm missing something here but why contact Dell for a Toshiba machine?
My son installed Linux for us on a netbook. Linux performs wonderfully. It is surprisingly user friendly. And, I could sit back, drink cocoa and laugh at virtually all malware and viruses being shuttled around the web.
http://forums.toshiba.com/t5/System-Recovery-and-Recovery/Recovery-media/m-p/9148#U9148
Microsoft also provides replacement CDs to registered users, again I am not sure of the exact cost, but it is inexpensive, the last set I got from them were also $5:
I have a USB with Ubuntu on it now, and I can burn a disk
come to think of it, I already have a burned disk of Puppy Linux somewhere.
There is a good chance that your data is still intact; the last time my father’s laptop wouldn’t start up even in safe mode there was just a problem with a couple of start-up files that became corrupted. I had to use a Hyren’s boot CD (which is a freeware download) to get the laptop started and used one of the tools included on the disc to restore the original registry.
http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/
After that the laptop would boot into safe mode and I was able to use system restore to get the computer back to normal.
As others said, don’t toss the old hard drive. You may be able to recover a lot. And seriously consider Win 8.
Don't go to Best Buy!!!
They suck!
The Geek Squad are a bunch of a$$wipes and don't know $hit! In all likelyhood they won't do the work there and will send it out to Toshiba. They also overcharge up the Wazzoo!
Find yourself a local computer guy who has a hole in the wall storefront. They usually bend over backwards in terms of sales and service.
my 2-year warranty ended about a year ago, almost exactly
(...and I run the Nut-Job Conspiracy Ping List)
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