Re-Installing Windows on 'Broken' Laptop

[andycooly]

Hey a few months ago my laptop broke. When i tried to turn it on it said it had a data file missing in Win32. I had nothing important on it and don't mind if i loose everything. I just want to get it working again. I have the orginial windows xp pro with service pack 2 installation disk. How can i re-install windows on it so it works again.

[poehalcho]

System 32 is a windows OS file.
simply reinstalling windows will fix it entirely. unless maybe you lost it due to harddrive failure, but I'll just assume you didn't.

Just format the computer and install windows.

[andycooly]

format the computer?
Also what is a hardrive failure, it just randomly happened.

[andycooly]

OH GOD, i tried to re install and repair and it says this--

Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed on your computer.

Make sure any hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer, and that an disk related hardware configuration is correct. This may involve running a manufacturer-supplied diagnostic or setup program.

Setup cannot continue. To quit setup, press F3

OH GOD!?

[poehalcho]

harddrive failure LOL

[andycooly]

buy new laptop?

[iGod]

Nah, just go to a local computer shop and tell them what's the problem, they should be able to replace the hard drive for you. I'd let them check what the actual problem is themselves, because it might not just be the hard drive, you never know

[[SD]Master_Wong]

dont take it the shop sadly with laptops your going to pay a bucket load for a simple swap, turn your laptop upside down, unscrew all the panels until you find a silver or black rectangle box, remove it and take a photo of the ports post it here, or if you dont know which thing to remove take off all the panels, take a photo upload to here,.

honestly this way you could save bucket loads

[_Equal_]

maybe your laptop requires a specific driver, during setup you can hit F6 and set it up. OR, sometimes it's just loose, removing/reinserting the hard drive may get it back.

If when you boot it up you hear "click...click....click..." then you probably have a bad drive.

[poehalcho]

alright now that I'm back from school...

Here's how to fix your hard drive.
1. Get a large powerful magnet
2. Open up your computer
3. stroke the magnet in ONE direction over the Hard disk drive.
this will reset the hard drive to it's manufacture state...forever
[SERIOUSLY LOL, DON'T DO IT!!!]

[MrTwilliger]

It sounds like it is something hard drive related, possibly a corrupted driver or a malfunctioning hard drive. Although, by the sounds of the second error and the potrable nature of the laptop, it's very possible that the hard drive was simply disconnected from it's port and this can't be detected. Although my money is still on a faulty hard drive.



That's a simple video guide to changing laptop hard drives. Watch it first and if you think you can do this (and preferably if you have a spare hard drive, too, so you don't have to spend money on one encase you can't do it) than that should fix your problem. Hard drives are relatively cheap, around $80 for one of considerable size, although it does depend upon your location etc. Doing this would be a nice way to check whether or not the HDD has fallen out of it's socket, too.

If you don't believe you could do that, than you should just take it into a shop to fix it. It will cost you more money obviously but the problem should be easy enough for them to solve. You don't have to go buying a new laptop any time soon

[.curve]

alright now that I'm back from school...

Here's how to fix your hard drive.
1. Get a large powerful magnet
2. Open up your computer
3. stroke the magnet in ONE direction over the Hard disk drive.
this will reset the hard drive...forever
[SERIOUSLY LOL, DON'T DO IT!!!]

You're supposed to run the magnet over it 1 time per every 100 Gigabytes. Remember that.

[[SD]Master_Wong]

It sounds like it is something hard drive related, possibly a corrupted driver or a malfunctioning hard drive. Although, by the sounds of the second error and the potrable nature of the laptop, it's very possible that the hard drive was simply disconnected from it's port and this can't be detected. Although my money is still on a faulty hard drive.



That's a simple video guide to changing laptop hard drives. Watch it first and if you think you can do this (and preferably if you have a spare hard drive, too, so you don't have to spend money on one encase you can't do it) than that should fix your problem. Hard drives are relatively cheap, around $80 for one of considerable size, although it does depend upon your location etc. Doing this would be a nice way to check whether or not the HDD has fallen out of it's socket, too.

If you don't believe you could do that, than you should just take it into a shop to fix it. It will cost you more money obviously but the problem should be easy enough for them to solve. You don't have to go buying a new laptop any time soon

out of that video all i took away was MONOBROW

[Razorhead]

First check the bios
if the hard drive is found there, then u need a windows xp cd with the correct drivers in it.
(no hard drives found is caused cuz the cd doesn't have the drivers to correctly detect ur hard drive)
go to website manufacturer, download sata/raid driver
download nlite
insert xp cd in pc
use cd as source
insert drivers + make bootable iso
continue
save it
burn iso
try installing xp now

if the hd isn't found in bios, u'r hd is most lkely broken; unless someone has messed with the IDE/SATA/RAID configs in the bios, then it's possible that the hd isn't found in the bios cuz the bios is using the wrong settings to detect the hard drives

And yes, u should try to check the hd to see if it's still connected well.
I do hope u have an easy laptop to open, cuz there are some HP/Packard Bell/Acer laptops that require the removal of the backpanel (completely) and then the removal of the keyboard... (i really hate those)

[William-CL]

Any kind of newer laptop would tell you of imminent harddrive failure. "Smart Failure" is what would show up.