A friend has a Toshia Satellite 2530CDS Laptop which he re-formatted the Hard-drive and tried to load Windows XP Pro onto. (It previously had Win 2000) And now the thing won't start-up to a disc or even trying to load windows 98se from a CD fails. The CD does go round and round, but it doesn't do anything. The display "lights up", and occasionally a Splash page appears, but pressing F3 or F8 or any other key combination doesn't get into Safe Mode, even. Almost like it has lost its BIOS, I guess.

What to do??? I have a Windows 98SE disk and key to use from another dead machine, so can anyone tell me what I need to do to get it loaded? Is there a procedure which might work? Ideally, I wish to load the win98se system. Are Drivers going to be a problem here?

There is somthing I don't understand : you are saying the drive is formated
(does this mean a format only or changing the partition table as well ? ).

When your drive is foramted you can't go to safe mode since your drive doesn't contain an Operating System.

For placing Windows 98 SE , you may need to change the partition from NTFS (Windows 2k or XP) to FAT32 (Windows 98), since Windows 98 has no support for NTFS.

So now :

You can try booting from a floppy drive is you have a floppy drive.
You can even install Windows 98 starting from a floppy.

If you want Windows XP on the laptop you need to boot from a linux live CD.
Remove the main partition (watchout there maybe an extra partion for your BIOS , don't delete this !! ).
And then try rebooting from you Windows XP or Windows 98 CD

NOte : It goes a lot better with the recovery CD/DVD deleverd with your Laptop.

i'm as confused as kdr_98 above. is it just a partition format or a full HD format? if partition format, is the "old" win2k OS still residing on the non-formatted partition? if a full HD format, is that a bootable win98se installer cd you got there?

i'm not familiar with the laptop model you got there, nor if there is any difference when trying to get into the BIOS for different systems. i'm used to repeatedly pressing the DEL key while "booting" to setup my BIOS. did your access to the BIOS fail also?

if you have a bootable win98se installer cd, and you got access to the BIOS, you might want to check if booting from CD-drive is made available in the sequence of boots on your laptop (mine is set to boot on CD first, then on HD if no bootable CD is found).

if everything else fails, try booting from a floppy drive as already recommended. then install your "new" win98se OS from there.

The hard drive went, That happens to me before when I tried reinstalling on my Compaq lap a few years ago. It almost sounds like the cdrom drive went as well.

But if this is a completely brand new system then Toshiba got dome questions to answer, if not replace the hard drive and cd-rom drive and it should be working again.

I understand it as the laptop was re-formatted and the operating system hasn't been installed yet and you're trying to install the OS?

If so, the laptop first needs to be set to CDROM drive boot as the first device. This is done through BIOS usually gained access by pressing DEL key right at the boot up. Some laptops require F1 key to be pressed while the splash screen of Toshiba appears. Enter the setup and select boot sequence, and make sure the first booting device is set as CDROM or related device.

My Satellite A75 series requires F2 to enter BIOS setup and F12 to choose booting sequence without entering BIOS. So it's different from a laptop to a laptop...perhaps even within the same company maker.

Okay, more info.

Friend bought this machine USED c/w win2000. Tried to partition the HDD and load winXP. Failed, or what ever.
Then he tried winXP after re-formatting and things are where they were explained.
Using BH's BIOS approach, I have since been able to get a win98se startup disk to re-format the HDD and it won't recognise the win98se Install CD.
Error Message : Invalid System disk, Replace the disk, and then press any key.

I know the disk is good, because it is the Install disk I use on my own Laptop.

and I have set the BIOS to start on the CD-ROM...

so, what's next?

hi!
one qn.
Have you successfully boot to windows xp before?
and what is your laptop's spec?
I have this similar experience on my old desktop before, running on windows 2k fine but once installed windows xp, it wont run. It turn out that my graphics card cant support the interface of windows xp.. lol..

for your case, i suggest booting to bios, set boot device as CDROM. The rest all disabled. Pop your CD in and restart. If it can boot pass BIOS, rmb to press any keys when it has this message
'Press any key to boot from CD'

Hope this helps.

The problem that the CD drive isn't reconised could be a wrong DOS driver for the CD/DVD drive.
You have to edit the config.sys on the boot floppy to install a working driver.

When you are in DOS (from the boot floppy) also execute an fdisk /mbr to rewrite your masterboot record.
This could solve your problem booting from CD ROM.

Haven't you got the install disks of Windows 2000, because this is the original OS on your Laptop.
And it works prob. better then Windows 98.

You need Partition Magic,Acronis or other boot cd for format and repart. HDD.
After formating with XP CD you must install ,,only,, XP
Wrong CD message mean you must insert XP Install CD and do not expect boot from Win 98
Basic about partition
Partition for XP or other Microsoft product is primary part /when installing read on witch part. you installing OS/
Always is safest way formating with other then WIN install CD /my op./

Or you have very usual problem with Optical drive and ? maybe unclean CD media