Formatting problem

Spud5437 · 10-08-2008, 05:57 PM

Hey people I have a problem with my laptop (Toshiba Portege M200)

The problem is I need to format. The laptop has no build in CD or DVD drive so the only way is thru usb external drive. I have a DVD one of these. Anyways I can’t install a new operating system from within XP and I can’t get into the bios to try and get the laptop to boot from the usb drive.
There is no ‘press …… to enter bios’ that comes up and I was told to told E or f2 but none of these work. I was wondering could anyone help me out?
Thanks for any help

EricB · 10-08-2008, 06:35 PM

hit esc to go to bios. hit f12 to boot from something

Spud5437 · 10-08-2008, 07:21 PM

Thanks for your help, both those work. and it comes up
my problem is still i cant boot from cd drive:
Initializing and establishing link…..
But then after a few seconds
PXE: E61 Media test failure, check cable.

The DVD drive dose not even try to start up it seems. What can I do people??
Thanks again for time and help

carnageX · 10-08-2008, 07:44 PM

Do you know the key to get into your BIOS? Get into your BIOS, and go to the boot section, and disable the Boot from LAN (that's what's causing the PXE error; seen it hundreds of times now). You should be able to also change your boot priority to the CD drive in the boot menu somewhere.

Spud5437 · 10-08-2008, 07:47 PM

cd rom is 1st in boot priority, cant remove lan altogether but its after the cd rom. i have read somewhere that only some cd drive can be used at boot up with the m200??

95BlackGA · 10-09-2008, 12:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spud5437

cd rom is 1st in boot priority, cant remove lan altogether but its after the cd rom. i have read somewhere that only some cd drive can be used at boot up with the m200??

You have a USB DVD drive, and not an internal drive? If so, you have to be able to boot from USB-CDROM, not just CDROM.

Spud5437 · 10-09-2008, 06:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 95BlackGA

You have a USB DVD drive, and not an internal drive? If so, you have to be able to boot from USB-CDROM, not just CDROM.

yes i know i should be able to but the problem is that i cant.
dose anyone know any way of helping me here or do i need to go buy a Toshiba drive?

KurrentEweser · 10-09-2008, 07:49 AM

Many Toshiba laptops bios settings can only set by the Toshiba HWSetup utility in Windows.

Read this.

http://askiris.toshiba.com/ToshibaSu...%200%205618811

If none of the options work to boot from your external drive then your external drive isn't compatible. It's good they don't design things that way any more.

95BlackGA · 10-09-2008, 02:08 PM

Are you sure your CD is bootable? Is it a burnt copy, or a retail copy?

Spud5437 · 10-09-2008, 03:45 PM

looks like my drive is not supported, aw well gotta find one that is i guess.
thanks for the help

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