Toshiba Laptop HDD Fail?

xtrfalcon · 10-22-2008, 10:17 PM

This forum has helped me and once again, I must turn to the aid of you guys in my problems. I've a quite old (approx 4-5 years) Toshiba Satellite A25-S207, that simply wont boot. It goes to the toshiba screen, and after that displays the error code:

"For Realtek RTL8139(X)/8130/810X PCI Fast Ethernet Controller v2.13 (021015)
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM."

So i went and tried to look it up and the error code led me to the conclusion that either the harddrive was bad, or i had to recover it.

I tried the toshiba restore forum posted above, and my laptop is a bit more archaic than the models that were listed.... so those recovery methods were out of the question. So, i changed the boot order to CD rom before HDD and i tried to recover it by using the recovery disk that came with the laptop.However, as it reaches symantec ghost it gives me the error "invalid destination drive"..

I then tried, almost as a last resort a windows xp cd that i had.... and it complied simply with the exact same error message that it gave me as i listed above...

Now I'm almost set on buying a new HDD for it, Im just not too sure what is compatible with it, since its an older model..
An ATA-6?
And i checked the standard specs for it.. it says upgradable to 60gb, but if i pop in a 60gb, will the current bios auto detect it? What if i put in a larger HDD? (as long as its the same form?) I noticed for ATA-6's 120gbs are cheaper than 60's.... will i be able to use all 120?

While i was on the subject i was hoping i could upgrade the ram as well... help on that department would be appreciated also, the specs said upgradable to 1gb... but when i opened up the laptop, the memory slots were UNDER the HDD, and i only saw one slot.... is it even possible to have a 1gb stick in this laptop?

I know there are SO many questions.. but i have to get the answers here.. nowhere else has given me any insight, whatsoever....

So speaking hypothetically, if i do buy a new HDD, and install it physically, what do i do next? Im assuming now, the bios maintains intact- and the boot sequence should be the same - if i put in the windows CD, I'd be able to install a fresh copy of windows xp right?

Hope you guys can aid me.... Thanks alot! John

**TriggerFinger** · 10-22-2008, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xtrfalcon

This forum has helped me and once again, I must turn to the aid of you guys in my problems. I've a quite old (approx 4-5 years) Toshiba Satellite A25-S207, that simply wont boot. It goes to the toshiba screen, and after that displays the error code:

"For Realtek RTL8139(X)/8130/810X PCI Fast Ethernet Controller v2.13 (021015)
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM."

So i went and tried to look it up and the error code led me to the conclusion that either the harddrive was bad, or i had to recover it.

I tried the toshiba restore forum posted above, and my laptop is a bit more archaic than the models that were listed.... so those recovery methods were out of the question. So, i changed the boot order to CD rom before HDD and i tried to recover it by using the recovery disk that came with the laptop.However, as it reaches symantec ghost it gives me the error "invalid destination drive"..

I then tried, almost as a last resort a windows xp cd that i had.... and it complied simply with the exact same error message that it gave me as i listed above... -- go into BIOS and set boot order. Make sure CD/DVD drive comes before HDD on the list.

Now I'm almost set on buying a new HDD for it, Im just not too sure what is compatible with it, since its an older model..
An ATA-6?
And i checked the standard specs for it.. it says upgradable to 60gb, but if i pop in a 60gb, will the current bios auto detect it? What if i put in a larger HDD? (as long as its the same form?) I noticed for ATA-6's 120gbs are cheaper than 60's.... will i be able to use all 120? -- support for higher capacity is dependent on BIOS. I think it is supported. See this: http://cgi.ebay.com/Hard-Disk-Drive-...011236016r9595

While i was on the subject i was hoping i could upgrade the ram as well... help on that department would be appreciated also, the specs said upgradable to 1gb... but when i opened up the laptop, the memory slots were UNDER the HDD, and i only saw one slot.... is it even possible to have a 1gb stick in this laptop? -- yes but you have to open it up as one slot I believe only supports 512MB. Check with Crucial.com. They have tool there that can tell you how big a RAM one slot can support.

I know there are SO many questions.. but i have to get the answers here.. nowhere else has given me any insight, whatsoever....

So speaking hypothetically, if i do buy a new HDD, and install it physically, what do i do next? Im assuming now, the bios maintains intact- and the boot sequence should be the same - if i put in the windows CD, I'd be able to install a fresh copy of windows xp right? -- should be but check boot order in BIOS first.

Hope you guys can aid me.... Thanks alot! John

xtrfalcon · 10-22-2008, 11:10 PM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822145176
Check that i think its the same one in the ebay link.....

And for bios it IS set cd/dvd drive before hdd.

http://crucial.com/store/listparts.a...20A25%20Series
For ram - it says my laptop has 2 slots.. weird when i took the HDD out it appeared to have only 1 slot, maybe i have to remove that memory stick, then i'll be able to see the second slot...?? hm....

Vegas also? =] late night man, i appreciate the quick response

xtrfalcon · 10-22-2008, 11:10 PM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822145176
Check that i think its the same one in the ebay link.....

And for bios it IS set cd/dvd drive before hdd.

http://crucial.com/store/listparts.a...20A25%20Series
For ram - it says my laptop has 2 slots.. weird when i took the HDD out it appeared to have only 1 slot, maybe i have to remove that memory stick, then i'll be able to see the second slot...?? hm....

Vegas also? =] late night man, i appreciate the quick response

xtrfalcon · 10-23-2008, 12:05 AM

Well, the good news is i found where the memory slots are.... i was taking the laptop apart from the front, assuming thats where it was, but the modem was actually under the hard drive, it just looked like memory....

it was underneath the keyboard........ and that website, helped alot! 40 dollars for a 1gb upgrade isnt that bad... i might stick with 768mb total depending on how much that hard drive is..

**TriggerFinger** · 10-23-2008, 07:03 AM

RAM upgrade?... see this:

http://www.laptopka.com/2006/04/28/r...omment-page-1/

and/or this...

http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptop...ry-upgrade.htm

xtrfalcon · 10-23-2008, 07:01 PM

alright, was wondering if you could clear up the HDD problem- should i just stick with a 60gb? ata-6?

**TriggerFinger** · 10-23-2008, 08:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xtrfalcon

alright, was wondering if you could clear up the HDD problem- should i just stick with a 60gb? ata-6?

-- as per the link I posted, it says the 120GB is also supported by your laptop. So given that, it is really your call if you want to stay with the 60GB. I personally will try the 120GB (even if I do not know if it is supported or not - just to satisfy my curiosity).

10-22-2008, 10:17 PM	#1 (permalink)
xtrfalcon Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 28 OS: WinXP SP2	Toshiba Laptop HDD Fail? This forum has helped me and once again, I must turn to the aid of you guys in my problems. I've a quite old (approx 4-5 years) Toshiba Satellite A25-S207, that simply wont boot. It goes to the toshiba screen, and after that displays the error code: "For Realtek RTL8139(X)/8130/810X PCI Fast Ethernet Controller v2.13 (021015) PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM." So i went and tried to look it up and the error code led me to the conclusion that either the harddrive was bad, or i had to recover it. I tried the toshiba restore forum posted above, and my laptop is a bit more archaic than the models that were listed.... so those recovery methods were out of the question. So, i changed the boot order to CD rom before HDD and i tried to recover it by using the recovery disk that came with the laptop.However, as it reaches symantec ghost it gives me the error "invalid destination drive".. I then tried, almost as a last resort a windows xp cd that i had.... and it complied simply with the exact same error message that it gave me as i listed above... Now I'm almost set on buying a new HDD for it, Im just not too sure what is compatible with it, since its an older model.. An ATA-6? And i checked the standard specs for it.. it says upgradable to 60gb, but if i pop in a 60gb, will the current bios auto detect it? What if i put in a larger HDD? (as long as its the same form?) I noticed for ATA-6's 120gbs are cheaper than 60's.... will i be able to use all 120? While i was on the subject i was hoping i could upgrade the ram as well... help on that department would be appreciated also, the specs said upgradable to 1gb... but when i opened up the laptop, the memory slots were UNDER the HDD, and i only saw one slot.... is it even possible to have a 1gb stick in this laptop? I know there are SO many questions.. but i have to get the answers here.. nowhere else has given me any insight, whatsoever.... So speaking hypothetically, if i do buy a new HDD, and install it physically, what do i do next? Im assuming now, the bios maintains intact- and the boot sequence should be the same - if i put in the windows CD, I'd be able to install a fresh copy of windows xp right? Hope you guys can aid me.... Thanks alot! John

10-22-2008, 11:10 PM	#3 (permalink)
xtrfalcon Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 28 OS: WinXP SP2	Re: Toshiba Laptop HDD Fail? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822145176 Check that i think its the same one in the ebay link..... And for bios it IS set cd/dvd drive before hdd. http://crucial.com/store/listparts.a...20A25%20Series For ram - it says my laptop has 2 slots.. weird when i took the HDD out it appeared to have only 1 slot, maybe i have to remove that memory stick, then i'll be able to see the second slot...?? hm.... Vegas also? =] late night man, i appreciate the quick response

10-22-2008, 11:10 PM	#4 (permalink)
xtrfalcon Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 28 OS: WinXP SP2	Re: Toshiba Laptop HDD Fail? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822145176 Check that i think its the same one in the ebay link..... And for bios it IS set cd/dvd drive before hdd. http://crucial.com/store/listparts.a...20A25%20Series For ram - it says my laptop has 2 slots.. weird when i took the HDD out it appeared to have only 1 slot, maybe i have to remove that memory stick, then i'll be able to see the second slot...?? hm.... Vegas also? =] late night man, i appreciate the quick response

10-23-2008, 12:05 AM	#5 (permalink)
xtrfalcon Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 28 OS: WinXP SP2	Re: Toshiba Laptop HDD Fail? Well, the good news is i found where the memory slots are.... i was taking the laptop apart from the front, assuming thats where it was, but the modem was actually under the hard drive, it just looked like memory.... it was underneath the keyboard........ and that website, helped alot! 40 dollars for a 1gb upgrade isnt that bad... i might stick with 768mb total depending on how much that hard drive is..

10-23-2008, 07:03 AM	#6 (permalink)
TriggerFinger Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: USA Posts: 11,144 OS: Windows 7 Beta, Vista SP1, XP SP3, PCLinuxOS2007	Re: Toshiba Laptop HDD Fail? RAM upgrade?... see this: http://www.laptopka.com/2006/04/28/r...omment-page-1/ and/or this... http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptop...ry-upgrade.htm __________________ DBAN - Memtest86+ - BartPE - Linux LiveCD - ImgBurn - HDD Diags - Everest HOW TO BURN AN ISO FILE Last edited by TriggerFinger; 10-23-2008 at 07:05 AM.

10-23-2008, 07:01 PM	#7 (permalink)
xtrfalcon Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 28 OS: WinXP SP2	Re: Toshiba Laptop HDD Fail? alright, was wondering if you could clear up the HDD problem- should i just stick with a 60gb? ata-6?