How to get a repair / boot from Argos? No CD came with new laptop

[John D]

Hey,I bought a new laptop this year in Argos and now Windows has crashed and I need a disk to either repair or reinstall Windows, but I didn't get any type of disk at all in the box.Anyone know what I can do?Thanks!

[leigh04]

Now a days they put restall in another partition, no disk, are u able to boot up

[John D]

No, I even have 2 hard disks from 2 laptops I bought there, the other also isn't working but the laptop has other problems (The reason I bought this one) - 1 starts and gets to the windows is loading files screen, the bar completes and the laptop restarts - So I only have BIOS and the windows loading screen.The other one boots and BSOS and restarts immediately, I can't even see what the error is.

[griffzilla]

What version of windows was it running? As leigh said, it may be stored on a partition of the disk, which you can access during the boot process.

[leigh04]

Have you tried on start up hitting f12 , if that doesnt work u might have to go through all the f keys, u have to do it straight away on power up

[John D]

Yeah I checked that but there was no partition to restore - One laptop is Vista, the other is 8.I connected the vista HD to a USB caddy and I can see all folders and files are there (Docs and settings, program files etc.) - So the disk seems ok but still getting BSOD as soon as it should be starting up - I tried it on 3 laptops and the same thing, so it is the HD..

[biggeorge]

For the windows 8 download an ISO 32bit or 64bit depending on the laptop processor, May say so on the COA on the back which version it is.

Burn the ISO to disk and boot from it and choose repair, if that don't work you may be able to do a system restore in advanced repair settings.

 

Loads of windows ISO floating around the net, No need for serial number for repair, Just ensure any ISO you download is untouched.

 

George

[John D]

Thanks George I will try find an ISO now - Its a 64bit Toshiba laptop anyway - I don't have it here though because I'm in work.

[renegadeimp]

Could always take it back and tell them to sort it out.

[John D]

Also, just remembered - The other laptop is windows 7, not Vista - Too many laptops at home (None working ) - Most just need new HDs and windows reinstalled though.

[mjvaj123]

As part of the setup process you should actually create your own recovery media, so in future may be worth doing that.

 

Saves the retailer getting the stick aswell.

[labrat]

F8 on boot, repair my computer, log in, hdd recovery option

[Conniff]

As part of the setup process you should actually create your own recovery media, so in future may be worth doing that.

 

Saves the retailer getting the stick aswell.

 

As said above, it is your responsibility to make a set of recovery discs whether it has a recovery partition or not. Always make this the very first job you do with any computer.

If the hard drive should become faulty and it is replaced under warranty/soga, the OS should be replaced by the retailer as well.

Recovery discs can be purchased from the manufacturer but can cost anything up to £60.

[scouserat]

Yeah I checked that but there was no partition to restore - One laptop is Vista, the other is 8.I connected the vista HD to a USB caddy and I can see all folders and files are there (Docs and settings, program files etc.) - So the disk seems ok but still getting BSOD as soon as it should be starting up - I tried it on 3 laptops and the same thing, so it is the HD..

PIB: It's unlikely to be the hard drive. The situation you're describing is exactly what I'd expect to happen if I was transplanting a pre-installed HDD to a different machine.

 

The only chance you'd have of the HDD successfully booting Windows when it's on a hard drive that was installed on another machine was if the 'installation' machine was identical to the one you're trying to get it running on. If you install Windows on machine A and then take the hard drive out and put it in machine B and fire it up it will crash. I've had hard drives do exactly the same thing on machines that are identical to one another (I know they are because I built them). When Windows installs it looks at what is in the machine and then installs the drivers for everything it recognises and flags anything it doesn't so you can go and find the drivers yourself. If the drivers that it runs on boot are different to what it's expecting to encounter then it bombs.

 

What I'd suggest doing is hooking up the drive to a working machine using the caddy and then using something like a trial version of Active SMART and see what it says about the general state of the HDD. That will let you know whether the hard drive had failed. If it had truly failed I wouldn't expect the machine to get past POST stage (the bit where you turn it on and it beeps) or just hang on booting. Yes, BSODs can be caused by a failing drive, but it tends to be just file corruption or people managing to delete something that's system critical.

 

After that, I'd download something like Ubuntu or Mint Linux (if you're just using it for net use then Linux is pretty good, a lot lighter on system resources and it's free as are a lot of programs for it), install it properly (NOT just running it from the CD) and see if it runs relatively stable for a few days. If it runs fine or with the minimum amount of hassle then the HDD is probably OK. You may have an issue if you have any USB hardware like a printer or something as a lot don't have drivers for Linux, but I dual boot and the only thing Linux can't do on several of my machines is see the WiFi printer unless it's plugged in via USB to one of the machines.

 

You could try contacting the vendor of the laptop (Toshiba in your case) and ask what they'd require for you to prove you own the machine and ask them if they'd be kind enough to send you a set of installation media. I managed to completely format a HDD on a Vaio a few years ago, wiping out the restore partition, and then realised I didn't have the installation media. I got in touch with Sony and after sweet talking them they actually sent me the 3 disks I needed to reinstall Windows (it would have been next to useless without the key on the machine anyway).

Edited February 23, 2014 by scouserat
typo