Re: Options w/ Non-Bootable CD-Roms (was Re: WTBorrow: Internal CD drive for Toshiba Laptop

Yes, if you can boot from ANY device, you can reinstall the OS from an optical (CD or DVD) drive that is non-bootable (assuming that you have drivers for it).

The 2805 has a floppy drive; all he has to do is create a DOS bootable floppy with drivers for whatever optical drive he has.

There are a dozen ways to resolve this, and any really knowledgeable computer technician could have the OS reinstalled in an hour or so. The only time that it gets really challenging is when you have NO boot device at all (e.g. the computer has only a hard drive, no floppy, no optical drive and no bootable USB device, and the hard drive also has no bootable OS).


Inquirer wrote:

Hari wrote:


Hi, I am trying to reinstall windows on my toshiba 2805-s202 laptop, but unfortunately the internal cd-rom drive will not read cds anymore. I do have an external one, but there is no boot option in the bios for a usb device.

[snip]

On Mon, 31 Jul 2006 19:22:46 GMT, Barry Watzman
<WatzmanNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


A better solution is to remove the hard drive from the laptop and connect it to an IDE to USB adapter, then copy the I386 folder from the CD to the hard drive (while the hard drive is connected to another computer). Reinstall the hard drive in the 2805, reboot (possibly from a floppy) and do the installation without needing the CD.


If able to boot from floppy, isn't it possible to reinstall OS from
non-bootable CD-drive?

Is this not always possible?



.

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