My HD got fried

[Dopples]

Well, sort of. Btw, for those who actually care, the reason I've been gone for a few days is because of this problem I'm about to talk about (And excuse me if my grammar is poor atm, this keyboard I'm using is a piece of junk)

Anyways, since I'm getting an extra GB of RAM for my laptop, I figured that it was time to reformat my HD so it would run at optimal speed. My main problem, however, was that my internet CD/DVD Rom drive can't read ANY disk unless I get lucky. So after about 4 hours of trying, I finally got the drive to read the System Reformat disk.


This is where things get awry. It was moving along just fine, until the drive stopped reading the disk. This froze the computer, forcing me to turn it off halfway through the reformat. Now I can't start Windows at all (It'll take me to the computer's brand logo, and then saying "Missing Operating System"), and I can't use the System Reformat disk because it'll probably quit again halfway through.

I lack a floppy drive, so I can't use a floppy disk. So I'm generally out of luck. Now, for my question

Is there a way to use some sort of external device to run the system reformat so it can finish? If not, does anyone know where I can find a replacement CD/DVD Rom drive for a Fujitsu N3511? Thanks.

 

[Tohsaka]

You should be able to boot from a flash drive. I know that I can, although you'd have to check your bios. You could just go and install a new OS, however, since there's no OS on there currently.

 

[holloway]

(How does he install an OS with no drive etc?)

But yeah, get onto the inter tubes, find a USB linux variant (make sure you can install it to the PC if you desire to), I think there is an ubuntu one, run it off a flash drive and install- any decent linux variant will come with the tools to wipe it.

And you won't be going back to Windows until you fix your CD drive.

 

[Dopples]

So, there's no way for me to use Windows, meaning nearly all of my programs are pretty much useless? :-/

 

[The Creator]

Do you have one of those "restore" disks or the actual operating system disk? Because Windows XP and Vista, you can format from DOS.

They both have a recovery console, yada yada yada. Believe ME does also.

Simple format line for DOS is

Format c:

With a restore disk you should still be able to do a system restore after a format.

You can run it from an external drive also, if you have one.

Never had a halfway format before...

Is the drive actually broken? Or is it not functioning for other reasons? Like BIOS reasons, etc. If you can get it working from the BIOS then you'd have an easy fix to the other issues.

I think I just talked in a circle...

 

[Dopples]

The CD ROM drive will attempt to read the disk, click a bunch of times, and then stop. I've tried lens cleaners, CD cleaners etc. and it still doesn't work.

Also, I tried putting the restore disk files on my external HD, but that didn't work. The computer screen just stayed blank.

 

[djzalzer]

Assuming that a warranty is out of the question, there are plenty of drives for interweb sale, and I'm fairly certain that almost all laptop drives can fit into almost all laptops.

 

[Venetia]

From what I've read, it sounds to me like you need a new CD drive. That's not unusual; CD drives burn out all the time.

Before you unhook it though, have you tried setting your CD drive as your Primary Master in the BIOS, then restarting with the Windows XP CD in the drive?

 

[Dopples]

Yes, I have, and that didn't work. Anyways, it looks like I'm off to ebay to buy a new CD drive I guess.

 

[Tohsaka]

I know your system has PXE, so why not do a network boot of the restore disc?

 

[Dopples]

That doesn't work with Fujitsu computers for some stupid reason. Can't really tell why