Ray1000 Posted March 28, 2013 Posted March 28, 2013 Toshiba Satellite A200-27Z Model PSA E3E-07J027EN Windows Vista Home Premium OEM Act I've recently been given the bottom half of a Toshiba Satellite A200-27Z Laptop ... the screen was discarded at some point ... at first I only wanted the HD to test another machine, but now I'm trying to bring it back to life. I don't have any original discs or a Vista Home Premium OEM Act I do have a new unused XP Home edition and license. The 160GB HD is formatted and has a primary partition of 100MB. For testing purposes it will see, and install, a borrowed Windows Vista Ultimate disc. It has also had Windows 7 installed albeit in a different Acer laptop. When I try XP Pro and XP Home it says "Set up did not find any HDD installed ... Make sure any HDD's are powered on and properly connected and any disc related hardware configuration is correct" I can change to a Vista OS disc and it will instantly start installing. Will there be something on the machine tying it to Vista? And if so is it possible to download Vista Home Premium OEM Act and use the original license? Thank you Ray Quote
Plastic Nev Posted March 28, 2013 Posted March 28, 2013 Hi Ray, for your first question= "Will there be something on the machine tying it to Vista?" Possibly something in the BIOS as a perhaps, however not sure on that so will leave that for someone who may know one way or the other for sure. your second question, "is it possible to download Vista Home Premium OEM Act and use the original license?" Download one from Digital River as per previous threads and you should be OK I think. Nev. Quote Need help with your computer problems? Then why not join Free PC Help. Register here. If Free PC Help has helped you then please consider a donation. Click here We are all members helping other members. Please return here where you may be able to help someone else. After all, no one knows everything and you may have the answer that someone needs. -------------------------------------------------------------------- I have installed Windows, now how do I install the curtains? 😄
Ray1000 Posted March 28, 2013 Author Posted March 28, 2013 I'll have another look Nev ... earlier when I followed the link I could only find Window 7 Ray Quote
Plastic Nev Posted March 29, 2013 Posted March 29, 2013 Sorry Ray, just realised you already mentioned it will install from an OS disk I assume you already have? If so, install it, and use the product key that should be on the label on the machine, just as you did with W7 on the other one. Nev. Quote Need help with your computer problems? Then why not join Free PC Help. Register here. If Free PC Help has helped you then please consider a donation. Click here We are all members helping other members. Please return here where you may be able to help someone else. After all, no one knows everything and you may have the answer that someone needs. -------------------------------------------------------------------- I have installed Windows, now how do I install the curtains? 😄
Ray1000 Posted March 29, 2013 Author Posted March 29, 2013 You were right first time Nev, The Vista disc I tested it with is not mine ... it is the Ultimate version as opposed to Home Premium the license is for. I need to download Vista Home Premium or find a way round the bios settings you mention in order to load XP. As much as I'm used to XP I'm strangely drawn to the idea of having Vista. Ray Quote
Plastic Nev Posted March 29, 2013 Posted March 29, 2013 Hi, a bit of a long shot but does the previous owner have any restore disks? Although possibly not as old as the one I used to have, there is a possibility that it was supplied with restore disks as mine was. Back to the refusal to install XP, is the hard drive totally reformatted? If not and there are Vista drivers installed they might also be the culprit. I will send a PM to Ken see if he knows why it won't detect the hard drive in XP. Nev. Quote Need help with your computer problems? Then why not join Free PC Help. Register here. If Free PC Help has helped you then please consider a donation. Click here We are all members helping other members. Please return here where you may be able to help someone else. After all, no one knows everything and you may have the answer that someone needs. -------------------------------------------------------------------- I have installed Windows, now how do I install the curtains? 😄
Plastic Nev Posted March 29, 2013 Posted March 29, 2013 Back again, Kicking myself as I have just realised something, it will not install XP as XP was not configured for SATA drives or systems, it will only recognise the older IDE type of drive, there may be a way round it though so have now asked Ken to look in. Nev Quote Need help with your computer problems? Then why not join Free PC Help. Register here. If Free PC Help has helped you then please consider a donation. Click here We are all members helping other members. Please return here where you may be able to help someone else. After all, no one knows everything and you may have the answer that someone needs. -------------------------------------------------------------------- I have installed Windows, now how do I install the curtains? 😄
Ray1000 Posted March 29, 2013 Author Posted March 29, 2013 Thanks Nev, I doubt if the previous owner has any discs. The HD is totally re-formatted ... unless there is a section not showing up ... and this HD did load Windows 7 on the other laptop. Before the "Set up did not find any HDD installed" message comes up it does appear to be loading ... it boots from the XP disc, loads the files then announces there's no hard drive. Ray Quote
Plastic Nev Posted March 29, 2013 Posted March 29, 2013 Hi Ray, check my last post, is the hard drive a SATA? If so as explained above XP will not recognise it. Nev. Quote Need help with your computer problems? Then why not join Free PC Help. Register here. If Free PC Help has helped you then please consider a donation. Click here We are all members helping other members. Please return here where you may be able to help someone else. After all, no one knows everything and you may have the answer that someone needs. -------------------------------------------------------------------- I have installed Windows, now how do I install the curtains? 😄
Ray1000 Posted March 30, 2013 Author Posted March 30, 2013 Sorry Nev, I hadn't seen your 9:52 post before I replied ... It is a SATA drive so that accounts for the mystery then ... something else I've learned! I'll continue my search for a Vista disc. Ray Quote
KenB Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 I need to download Vista Home Premium Hi Ray As far as I know Digital River is Win7 only. Take a look in the BIOS. There may be an option to disable / enable Sata there. If you can enable SATA the drive should be seen. This should be in Advanced SATA mode can sometimes be set to IDE / RAID / AHCI Select AHCI. If that isn't an option take a look here: click here Quote There is an email going around offering processed pork - gelatin - and salt in a can ......this is simply SPAM !! MiniToolBoxNetwork TestWireless Test
KenB Posted March 30, 2013 Posted March 30, 2013 Hi Ray If you also try using the IDE option it may see the drive as PATA. You would lose the SATA functionality ........ but I doubt that you would be too bothered. Quote There is an email going around offering processed pork - gelatin - and salt in a can ......this is simply SPAM !! MiniToolBoxNetwork TestWireless Test
Ray1000 Posted March 30, 2013 Author Posted March 30, 2013 Hi Ken, There is no reference to the hard drive in BIOS unfortunately. limited to ... Legacy USB support Core multi protection Dynamic CPU mode Built in LAN Wake up on LAN Wake up on keyboard Critical battery wake up Front edge logo I don't know if it is significant but, on the Toshiba web site there is all the information and drivers for XP for this particular machine. Ray Quote
KenB Posted March 31, 2013 Posted March 31, 2013 Hi Ray Not many options in the BIOS ! XP does not come with the facility to run SATA and as such you will need to install the drivers when installing the OS. If you have a floppy drive this can be done quite easily. Failing that you would need to take a close look at my previous link. Quote There is an email going around offering processed pork - gelatin - and salt in a can ......this is simply SPAM !! MiniToolBoxNetwork TestWireless Test
Plastic Nev Posted March 31, 2013 Posted March 31, 2013 Just a small question, if no floppy drive available, can the drivers be loaded from a flash drive? I seem to remember seeing that providing the USB is active that they can! Just another thought, if all else fails why not try a linux system on it? Nev. Quote Need help with your computer problems? Then why not join Free PC Help. Register here. If Free PC Help has helped you then please consider a donation. Click here We are all members helping other members. Please return here where you may be able to help someone else. After all, no one knows everything and you may have the answer that someone needs. -------------------------------------------------------------------- I have installed Windows, now how do I install the curtains? 😄
Ray1000 Posted March 31, 2013 Author Posted March 31, 2013 Thanks for the replies, I have someone looking for a Vista disc they had at some point ... he thinks one of his family members borrowed it ... he his interrogating them as we speak! In the meantime I'll have a read of the link re: XP onto SATA. Linux might be a good last resort. Ray Quote
KenB Posted April 1, 2013 Posted April 1, 2013 he thinks one of his family members borrowed it Hi Ray, I am sure you are aware that if one of his family installed it on a system then if you install it too .....this would be illegal ( according to Microsoft ) he his interrogating them as we speak! Not the water torture again :) :) Quote There is an email going around offering processed pork - gelatin - and salt in a can ......this is simply SPAM !! MiniToolBoxNetwork TestWireless Test
Ray1000 Posted April 1, 2013 Author Posted April 1, 2013 Thanks Ken, I had been thinking with the laptop being licensed for Vista it would be the same as downloading an ISO from Digital River and using the numbers from the base of the machine. :( I had assumed if you had a reason to buy a new, but same, Windows OS from Microsoft you could use the new numbers or the old ones. Ray Quote
KenB Posted April 1, 2013 Posted April 1, 2013 with the laptop being licensed for Vista That's different. If the OS is exactly the same there should be no problem - as long as you use your own Product Code. Quote There is an email going around offering processed pork - gelatin - and salt in a can ......this is simply SPAM !! MiniToolBoxNetwork TestWireless Test
KenB Posted April 1, 2013 Posted April 1, 2013 No problem Ray - let us know how you get on :) Quote There is an email going around offering processed pork - gelatin - and salt in a can ......this is simply SPAM !! MiniToolBoxNetwork TestWireless Test
Ray1000 Posted April 14, 2013 Author Posted April 14, 2013 A quick recap ... I was given a Toshiba Satellite A200-27Z laptop with no screen or top cover but the spec was too good to abandon it. With an unknown admin password I reformatted the drive … then found Vista OS wasn’t readily available. When I tried XP Pro and XP Home it said "Set up did not find any HDD installed” It turned out SATA and XP are not compatible. I eventually found a downloadable Vista OS system on the Internet in order to use the original license number. After separately downloading SP2 and 116 updates the machine is working perfectly. I have a number of questions about Vista and VGA cables … for which I’ll start a new thread. Thank you for your help Ray Quote
KenB Posted April 15, 2013 Posted April 15, 2013 the machine is working perfectly. That is good to hear Ray :) I will mark this as "Solved". Quote There is an email going around offering processed pork - gelatin - and salt in a can ......this is simply SPAM !! MiniToolBoxNetwork TestWireless Test
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