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My friend has a problem with her laptop. I offered her my help, but unfortunately I can't fix it.

The thing that happened is that once she started her Toshiba, it show a blue screen with some hardware error(never shown again). So I get that laptop and try to fix it.

I tried to start it. It gets stuck while booting system. Just a Win logo visible with a "System is booting" or something like that. And, you can see that endlessly. Just nothing happens.

So I tried to start it in safe mode. It was showing a list of files which have been booted. It gets stuck on ...\classpnp.sys. I tried repair using CD, bootable USB, etc. Then I tried to boot portable Ubuntu from USB. Here, everything runs fine. Everything was OK! It was really strange for me because I thought some hardware is off (I thought it might be the motherboard). But when Ubuntu runs fine?

Next day I tried to reinstall Win. I found out that it's not possible. So I get the disk from her laptop and put it in mine. I successfully installed Windows 7 32bit on it. On my laptop it runs fine. I tested also HDD and has no issues.

Next I put HDD back to her laptop, tried to start but it gets stuck on ...\disk.sys. I don't have any idea what the problem would be (Ubuntu from USB runs fine!). What can be wrong? Can it be a SATA cable to HDD or what? How can I find out or test it?

Please help guys.

Robotnik
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Gondil
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2 Answers2

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What was wrong:

I guess the filesystem had been damaged. Live Ubuntu ran fine, because it didn't use HDD at all.

First of all, you should check HDD's SMART status. If any parameters are out of the safe range (especially if there are any bad sectors) then the drive is dying and should not be used, because the damage will increase quickly. In this case you should replace the HDD.

Why you couldn't reinstall Windows:

Windows is bound to the hardware it was installed on. Unlike most Linux distros, it won't work when moved to another PC. You can strip it from any hardware-specific parts with sysprep and related tools, but it's quite complicated and probably is an overkill in this case.

You weren't able to successfully install Windows from a disk dedicated for different laptop for the same reason; it was preloaded with hardware-specific drivers etc.

How to fix it:

If you have a regular Windows license key, then download a generic ISO and burn it or use the Download tool to install from a flash disk.

OEM license key that can be found on the sticker on the bottom of a laptop may not be accepted by generic installer. The laptop should be equipped with a recovery partition that allows automated OS reinstallation. Exact methods of booting into the recovery mode differ between laptop manufacturers and models. The routine should be described in the manual.

If you can't access the recovery partition for some reason, laptop's manufacturer should be able to provide Windows disk, but you'll probably have to pay for it.

Community
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gronostaj
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So finally I made it. For me, problem was in touchpad(so as I though in some HardWare).

What have I done:

(1) I format disk partition with System(using other laptop)
(2) Insert a disk back to "broken" laptop and start it.
(3) Boot in the BIOS.
(4) Turn off all hardware you can(LAN, WiFi, pointing devices,...) except USB ports(used for
        Win install from bootable USB)
(5) Insert bootable USB with Win .iso. Restart laptop and choose device to boot from (USB)
(6) Install Win
(7) When everything goes fine, restart laptop and in BIOS repeatedly turn some hardware on 
        and boot to Windows. When Win works fine hardware should be OK. When not. There is
        some issue with specific hardware(hardware is off, there is wrong driver installed, cable connecting device to motherboard is damaged, etc.)

Hope this help somebody.

Gondil
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