# Toshiba Satelite won't go past startup page



## mountainhigh1 (Jan 16, 2011)

Hi,
newby here to the forums. 
My nephew has a 1 yr old Toshiba satellite pc with windows 7. After clicking the "ON" button, the pc will only load the TOSHIBA startup screen- over and over. I can try F12 and get options of 
LAUNCH STARTUP REPAIR [recommended]
START WINDOWS NORMALLY
the Startup repair does nothing but load the Toshiba startup screen and to TRY to start normally does the same.
F8 - for Safe Mode - does same as above
- safe mode with networking [on a home network] same as above
- start with command prompt-- command prompt window does NOT open
get this message---"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change may be the cause of the problem"

clicking F12 [when toshiba first appears on screen] does nothing but right back to 
this message---"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change may be the cause of the problem"
no matter how I try to boot, I get the same window which is the startup window for toshiba, -or for a troubleshooting mode goes to the 'windows failed to start normally' message.
I don't have a start menu or any options because it will only do one of the above 2 options. Can someone tell me if there is some troubleshooting steps to take or is there a hard drive failure?
Thanks to forums such as this one, and geek squad, I have always successfully been able to figure out my pc problems, but I am at a total blank with this one.
---- shutdown last night as usual. no errors, no msg's. No known history of blue screen at all.
One thing- when I do choose option - "repair windows manually" [after clicking F12] it takes approx 15 minutes to revert back to the toshiba startup screen. :sigh:
Thanks in advance. MountainHigh


----------



## DT Roberts (Jun 22, 2009)

Hello and welcome to TSF.

It does sound like the hard drive is on its way out. I recommend backing up any necessary files before we do anything else.

The first thing to do is find out if the hard drive is physically in working condition. Download, burn and run *SeaTools for DOS*: SeaTools para DOS | Seagate

Burn the CD and boot the laptop from it. Run the long test on the hard drive and hope for the best. Let us know the results.

Best of luck.

Devin


----------



## mountainhigh1 (Jan 16, 2011)

DT Roberts said:


> It does sound like the hard drive is on its way out. I recommend backing up any necessary files before we do anything else.
> 
> The first thing to do is find out if the hard drive is physically in working condition. Download, burn and run *SeaTools for DOS*: SeaTools para DOS | Seagate
> 
> ...


Thank you Devin for your quick response! :wave:
I will burn the advised tool and do as you advised.
I am going to assume you suggest to burn the tool to disk, and then run it in the toshiba to check the hard drive-* then* back up any needed files IF I can then get into that pc- right? I mean I can't back up what I can't get into! Just making sure I worded the first msg so you know I was not using the toshiba.- you never know, some people read things without really reading them. lol
On my way now to the url above and download the tool. I called my niece and shes bringing the toshiba here to run the disc, _hopefully._
I will let you know what happens.
Thanks again. MountainHigh


----------



## DT Roberts (Jun 22, 2009)

Yep, I understand. If there's anything of importance on there then we can try using a bootable operating system to salvage it.

Good luck with the test.

Devin


----------



## mountainhigh1 (Jan 16, 2011)

Hey Devin, yep. its the hard drive. figured as much.
short test passed- long test failed- bad sector.
so I guess the next question is about retrieving the data. after running the test, it had on the screen "now would be a good time to back up any important files"- kinda thought last week would've been a better time!
thxs again- you rock!
MountainHigh

Mountainhigh Happenings


----------



## DT Roberts (Jun 22, 2009)

We may be able to temporarily fix a bad sector, but it's definitely on its way out. The recovery partition on the laptop is probably being effected by the bad sectors, so we can't rely on that. Instead try downloading the *Ultimate Boot CD*: Ultimate Boot CD - Download the UBCD

Burn that in the same manner as *SeaTools for DOS* and run the *TestDisk* program. Try running a scan on your hard drive with that to see if it can recover what has been lost. If not, we'll have to use a *Linux* live CD to salvage the information.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Devin


----------

