screwed the pooch this time

[IceBergEB]

All of a sudden Vista is not booting up past the logo screen (with the green
animated progress bar). Actually, it goes into blank screen mode after 1-2
minutes and nothing happens ever after that.

Worse yet, the Toshiba recovery cd is NOT loading past the same screen (logo)! it first goes
through the 'loading windows files...' then boots to the logo screen and
nothing happens for several minutes!

Originally before all this I simply booted (not installed) from Ubuntu CD to
test it out. I attempted to install and was stuck on step 5/6 where it asks
for partition. I made it 40GB (120GB total drive) and nothing was happening,
I successfully canceled and then all broke loose after that.

What should I do? I'm really stuck, can't boot of Vista CD nor drive. I have
critical data on my hard drive.

Vista RTM Ultimate

Maybe someone has access to the recovery tools on Vista DVD? I don't have a DVD, just the Toshi recovery cds.

[boomheadshot45]

This should be in the OS section, but funny thread title ftw!!!

[seablade]

Um first thing I would do, boot into a live CD and BACK UP YOUR DATA!

Second thing I would do, clear all partitions and start from scratch. Personally I just wouldn't use windows, but that is just me;) Either way a clean HD should provide a level playing field. And if you have to send off to toshiba for defective hardware they will wipe anyways, which is why step one is very important. Also depending on what the recovery disks do, they may wipe your system anyways, again back up your data first thing.

To be honest, none of this should affect the Toshiba CD at all, it seems like you may have a bad press of the CD if it halts like that.

Seablade

[IceBergEB]

Well, found out that my HD died. My laptop has been at the repair depot for a month now. The new HD is on order.

Still planning to dual boot this with Vista, but I have fallen in love with Mandriva spring. Anyone running this? I am going to dual boot my work Dell.