mapleleaf

Hi, Well, the good news is that my friend has a copy of Vista Home Premium, which I'd imagine I can use, as I do have a valid product key for it, on the back of the laptop. Toshiba's site does seem to have all the drivers available for download, so I guess I'll have to whack them onto a USB drive or something and then transfer them as applicable? x

Ouchy!, sounds like I need to get myself a new hard-drive then!, I was budgeting for some new GHDs as well!. Would I not be able to hunt down the necessary drivers online as a complete d/l as opposed to requiring a disc from Toshiba? Thanks for your help x

Not at initial start-up, but if I attempt the boot from the vista disc I can depress F8 and get one. However, it doesn't list any type of recovery there, just the options of start with safe mode, start with last know working configuration....all of which still lead to it just hanging.

Hiya, Firstly must point out, im a total PC clutz, so if anyone's kind enough to offer help, please use basic terms!. Ok, I have a Toshiba Laptop Equium U400-124, with Windows Home Premium 32 installed. I was surfing last night, and the PC kinda froze up on me, so I rebooted. The bootup screen went past the initial opening screen where it says F2 for setup blah blah, but the next screen was black with the comment ""a disk read error occured, press ctrl+alt+del to restart". Restart repeats the above. I've looked about on my desktop pc on the net for answers - some have suggested the HDD is dead but it does show up when I access the bios. Being a clutz, I didn't make a recovery disk (aaggh), but have borrowed a friends Vista disc and tried to boot from that - the screen said "windows is loading files" and then onto the black screen with the egg timer, before finally another black screen (with white arrow pointer visible) which is where it hangs. I really don't know what to do - I've been told that a recovery disc from Toshiba is 29-99 GBP which I would purchase if I was sure it would boot from this. Can I find out if it's something more sinister? Any help would be much appreciated....thanks! Kathryn x

Hi, I'm Kathryn, originally from Canada, now in South West England. Total PC dufus, so I've come whining for help. xxxxx :o