I need to reformat a Toshiba Satellite 5200-701 but the dvd drive has a bad laser. How else can I do this?

Question

I have tried holding down the C key as instructed but the optical drive doesn't seem to be able to read the recovery cd quick enough and the laptop continues to boot up normally. The internal drive does eventually read a disc but only after it tries for a good 30 seconds or so and I don't seem to be given long enough before the computer continues to boot from the hard disk. Also tried from the options available after pressing the F12 key but no joy. I have a USB external dvd drive available or memory sticks I could transfer the contents of the recovery discs on to but how would I boot from something that was USB connected? I don't know how to get into the bios as the ways I have seen on the net don't seem to work for this model. I didn't really want to buy a new optical drive to replace the bad one as after reformatting I only need to run one piece of software on this particular laptop. Has anyone got a workaround for this? Currently runs on XP home. Look forward to some helpful replies. Many thanks

Answer 1

Is there an option at POST to select the boot device? In my dell I press f12 to get a list of the boot devices, then I arrow down to the one I want. Then the computer boots from that. U could select the usb device that way.

OT (My optical drive went bad too, and it would cost nearly a 1/6th of the lappy's original price to replace, so I use a usb optical drive. I can boot from the usb drive, by changing the boot order in the bios.) end OT.



It is possible to transfer the contents of the xp disc to usb flash disc and and boot from that but its kinda involved. Google for XP usb flash drive .



Boot up the computer and when XP is up insert the xp disc; run setup.exe and try the repair option?



Can you detail the instructions for getting into the Toshiba bios you used?



Good luck. Cheers.

Answer 2

There is a hidden recovery partition in satellites for recovery purposes. unless you reformatted before including this partition you could try holding the number 0 key whilst booting up.



If you have everything on the usb try pressing f10 or f12 whilst booting , go to the bios find an option called 'boot options' and switch the boot options to boot from usb drives.



From MY satellite, (L510) in the user guide they mentioned of holding the F8 key whilst booting to access extra boot options. Not sure if it would help, Im copy pasting it here. ^_^



About 1.5 GB hidden partition is allocated on the hard disk drive for the

system recovery options. This partition stores files which can be used to

repair the system in the event of a problem.

System recovery options

The system recovery options feature is installed on the hard disk when

shipped from the factory. The system recovery options menu includes

some tools to repair startup problems, run diagnostics or restore the

system.

You can see the more information about Startup Repair in Windows Help

and Support content.

The System Recovery Options can also be run manually to repair

problems.

1. Turn off the computer.

2. While holding the F8 key, turn the computer on again.

3. The Advanced Boot Options menu will be displayed. Use the arrow

keys to select Repair Your Computer and press ENTER.

4. Follow the on-screen instructions from this point onward.



Hope it helps! :D

Answer 3

OK FIRST IF YOU HAVE AN USB HARD DRIVE OR AN USB FLASH MEMORY AND YOU HAVE A DESKTOP COMPUTER YOU COULD COPY THE CONTENTS INTO THE FLASH(IF YOU HAVE A 10GB FLASH DRIVE MEMORY IT WILL BE BETTER AND FASTER THAN 16GB OR 32GB) DRIVE WHEN YOU PLUG THE FLASH MEMORY INTO USB PORT PRESS AND HOLD SHIFT AND DELETE PLUS F12 IT WILL PAUSE YOUR LAPTOP FOR 10 SECONDS THEN AFTER THE PAUSE PRESS ONLY SHIFT IT WILL BOOT THE RECOVERY PROGRAM FROM THE FLASH DRIVE YOU WILL LITTLE BIT SLOW PERFORMANCE DON'T PANIC IT'S ONLY BECAUSE YOUR COMPUTER IS BOOTING AND INSTALING THE PROGRAM FROM I FLASH MEMORY ( THAT'S MEAN THAT YOUR COMPUTER HAVE TO READ EVERY CONTENT INSIDE THE MAIN FRAME OF THE MEMORY IN THE DVD PLAYER IT'S ONLY READ THE DVD LOAD LAYER THAT'S WAY THE DVD PLAYER IS MORE FAST THAN FLASH MEMORY SO DON'T BE WORRY) AND WILL INSTAL IT TO YOUR LAPTOP WAIT UNTIL IT DONE AND YOUR COMPUTER WILL BACK AS HE WAS GOOD LOOK P.S: IF YOUR LAPTOP GAVE YOU MORE SPECIFIC INFO READ IT BECAUSE THE TOSHIBA COMPUTERS HAS INSTRUCTION TO SIMPLE FY THE RECOVERY

Answer 4

Toshiba Satellite 5200

Answer 5

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