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I have a laptop here that is failing to boot to windows. Does anyone know a program that I can run from the DVD drive to test the hard disk, without booting up? I just want to know if the hard drive is fubar.
modified 27-Jan-13 18:03pm.
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Without booting? oO
You're looking for some magic thingamajig that will make your 'puter work without booting into any kind of system?
I think you better stick with that comedy stuff you're into. 
"I had the right to remain silent, but I didn't have the ability!"
Ron White, Comedian
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Not asking it to work or fix it without using an OS of any sort. I don't think it is completely absurd to test a hd without booting to Windows, on that hd.
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You can burn an Ubuntu CD and boot it up from there and then try to access the hard drive (possibly have to mount it first).
But the first thing you need to do with a hardware problem is to check the BIOS. 
.
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Hiren's Boot CD has a lot of hdd test apps.
Good luck.
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You can use a "live CD" from just about any linux distribution. Another option you can go with is a bootable USB thumb drive (also usually linux).
--
Harvey
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Go to the BIOS settings (different hot keys at startup for different brand systems. Look for what key to hit when the machine starts up) and look to see if the hard drive showes up.
If the hard drive doesn't show up it id dead. 
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It does see the hard drive in the bios. Just gives an error when Windows tries to start.
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If the drive shows in the bios then it is probably something wrong with the Windows installation.
Do you have a restore point? If so use the system media to restore to that.
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sourceforge: ultimate boot disk. There are instructions on how to make a WinXP version too.
Steve
_________________
I C(++) therefore I am
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I'd try starting it without any drivers, before doing too much work (the F5/F8 boot options).
One thing I did find, with one machine, is that the proprietary boot-up shell wouldn't let Windows start if more than two USB drives (DVD + HDD) were attached, so unplugging any USB peripherals might make a difference (plug it all back in after Windows starts booting).
These[^] are worth their weight in gold, though, for testing/fixing HDDs.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I'm going to buy a hard drive docking station for an old fried laptop anyways. Thank you for all the advice.
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I know you already got suggestions for a Linux live CD. This weekend, I hade the same problem and downloaded Knoppix Live, version 7.0. (The CD-version, there is a DVD version as well).
Worked like a charm! So I could just copy files from the hard drive to an USB memory.
A true saviour!
Alcohol. The cause of, and the solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson
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Hiren's Boot cd is a good one. There are actually a few tool disks running around out there that do similar work.
Beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder
Be careful which toes you step on today, they might be connected to the foot that kicks your butt tomorrow.
You can't scare me, I have children.
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I'm going to try Hiren after work work, dl'ed it last night. If that doesn't help, I'll try Linux. Either way, I think the disk is not fried (it had a lot of our wedding plans on there, invite design, guests + addresses, etc).
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