Toshiba laptop won't boot to Vista

[skywalker1]

Friends,

It's my son's (college student) laptop. Below are the details, please help:

Laptop details:
-Toshiba Satellite, model A305-S6916
-Intel Core 2 Duo
-Vista Home Premium
-320GB HD
-4GB RAM

Issue:
-Doesn't boot to Windows. It goes past the initial Toshiba screen, to a blank screen.

Steps taken so far:
(the laptop did not come w/Vista CD)
-Followed Toshiba's instructions from the website (hold down 0 (zero) while booting up, keep holding until the screen goes past Toshiba's initial screen, into system recovery. Found few options there, again followed Toshiba's instructions & chose to have a clean install (losing all the data).

-Message popped up: BOOTMGR is missing. Looked it up on Google, went into BIOS, and made sure that hard disk is the primary boot sequence. Still no luck. PLEASE HELP. My son has loads of important class lectures and notes in it (of course they are not backup up, stupid kids!!!).

Best regards

Any suggestions?

 

[dodger46]

Probably as well the Restore failed as it would defnitely destroy the data! One way or another you'll need a Vista Installation disk to try different options, and hope your HDD is intact. Download an ISO from here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/604187-legal-download-digitalriver-windows-7-sp1-13-languages.html
and burn it to a disk. If your HDD is visible in BIOS it may still be viable, and you can use the setup disk to install Vista, ideally without losing data
http://www.top-windows-tutorials.com/upgrade-install-windows-vista.html

 

[skywalker1]

dodger46:

Thanks for your response with the suggestion. Unfortunately, we do not have a Vista disk (or the key) to restore it back to the factory defaults, that would have solved EVERYTHING.

I visited the 1st link you posted, but that's for Windows 7, not Vista.

Trying to salvage this laptop (since it's only 3 yrs old), I am planning to install a brand new hard drive, buy and install Windows 7. Would that work?

If yes, I can buy a 2.5" external hard drive enclosure, pop-in the old hard drive, connect it to another computer, and hopefully be able to retrieve all his data files? Would that work?

Again, thanks a ton for your help.

Best regards,
Skywalker

 

[dodger46]

COA for Vista may be in the Battery compartment.Sorry for the wrong link, perhaps someone will post a link to a Vista ISO download if one still exists. I use one of these to read disks
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-2-0-SATA-IDE-CABLE-HDD-W-POWER-ADAPTER-UK-/320383801768?pt=UK_Computing_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item4a985cd9a8
If you find the key and decide to restore Vista I'll get you a disk...Win 7 should be no problem, i've installed it on much older Toshibas!

 

[skywalker1]

Best answer selected by skywalker1.

 

[skywalker1]

dodger46-

The COA is on the back of the laptop. How would I get Win7 from you?
Thanks for link to the cable to read hard disks. That item is no longer available, but I can get something similar to read the hard disk. Thanks a ton.

Best regards,
Skywalker

 

[dodger46]

dodger46-

The COA is on the back of the laptop. How would I get Win7 from you?
Thanks for link to the cable to read hard disks. That item is no longer available, but I can get something similar to read the hard disk. Thanks a ton.

Best regards,
Skywalker

Think you meant Vista disk from me? Just PM your address (Click Green envelope top left of post), I have a spare Installation disk with both 32 & 64 bit versions.

 

[dodger46]

Replied to PM, click on 'Show the Right Column' top right to access messages