# Toshiba Portege 2000, how to use restore CD with external drive?



## greekmaster (Mar 22, 2005)

I would like to format my hard drive but I have a problem. My little toshiba portege 2000 has no optical drive. I purchased an Iomega drive and tried to use the restoration CD's but . . . the computer won't recognize the USB connection to the external CD-Rom. Any suggestions on how to make the computer think that the external drive is connected on startup?

NR


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## sochy (Feb 9, 2005)

are you trying to boot from a external cd-rom?


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## greekmaster (Mar 22, 2005)

Exactly. Any help?


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

I ran across this once, and I was able to use a 2.5" to 3.5" disk adapter connect the laptop hard disk to a standard desktop, boot the restore CD and restore the system. Obviously, I didn't try to boot from the hard disk, but rather turned it off and put it back into the laptop. The operation was a success.


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## greekmaster (Mar 22, 2005)

you are saying that you physically removed the hard drive? I don't want to sound condescending, but have you worked with the laptop that I am using, the Toshiba Portege 2000? Is this something that can be done for each and every laptop? I might use this method as a last resort. Is there a simpler way of just changing some of the start-up settings, the boot order or something, that will help the laptop recognize the external drive at boot up?

Thanks for the suggestion. I will investigate it further and could use your help if I actually do the dirty deed. 

NR


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## twajetmech (Jul 1, 2004)

If I'm not mistaken on the toshiba recovery disk it says to hold down ctrl+C during boot with the recovery cd in the drive.....it should then read the cd and restore the original image that the laptop had when purchased....you can find this info on the toshiba website....good luck


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## greekmaster (Mar 22, 2005)

Holding down ctrl-C is not so much the problem. The problem is that the computer won't even recognize the external drive on reboot. I start with the computer on, connect the external drive and load the cd. Then it tells me to reboot. I do this and the computer cannot find the external drive. Removing the drive and hooking it up to my desktop sounds more and more appealing. But is there still no way to change a setting of some sort to make the computer check the USB connections on startup?

NR


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

I have not worked with that particular Toshiba Laptop, however I've taken the hard disk out of several dozen laptops, and they all survived the experience.

How does Toshiba tell you to use the recovery disks if the machine has no CD?


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## greekmaster (Mar 22, 2005)

Toshiba is woefully unhelpful on this point. They assume that when you buy this machine from them that you are going to spring for the extras such as the external optical drive. I didn't. I bought an external burner instead. There are no specific instructions that I can find. That doesn' t mean that they don't exist.

This is not a fabulously fast machine. It runs at 750Mhz max, with speedstep taking it down from there to save the batteries (I get close to 4.5 hours of use). It also has USB1 connections not USB2. Is it common for a computer to not recognize the USB ports on startup? Is it always the case that the machine must be started and then the peripherals plugged in?

I would love to repartition this hard drive and run Linux and Windows side by side to get a feel for Linux. But I have to get this reboot issue solved first.

Thanks for any help you can give.

NR in Michigan


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

I suspect that an older laptop doesn't have the BIOS support for things like USB boot. Have you checked to see if there's a BIOS update for your machine?

I still think the path of least resistance is going to be to take the drive out. :smile:


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## greekmaster (Mar 22, 2005)

Ok, I give up. I will probably have to take it out. But I would like to install Linux at the same time, preferably Mandrake for now. That leads me to the next little roadblock -- I assume that I will have to take out my desktop hard drive. 

Correct me if I am wrong, but would this be a good order of events:

1. Download whatever distribution of Linux that I choose
2. Burn it to a CD
3. Swap Hard Drives
4. Load Linux first, creating a partition on the Hard Drive
5. Install the Restore CD's for my Toshiba
6. Replace the Hard Drives
7. Pray like Crazy

????


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

You don't need to take out the desktop hard disk. What I normally do is to remove the stuff on the secondary IDE channel, and then connect the laptop drive to the master connector on the cable. Removing everything is just done to avoid having to find the special little 2mm jumpers, and the instructions for the specific drive.

I did some looking at your machine, and it appears that it would boot from a standard USB CD, what makes the IOMEGA special that it won't boot from the CD? I also found this in my search:

"Finally I found the right CD drive which is bootable on Toshiba Portege 2000 laptop, this drive is PORT Noteworthy Model# NW24xCD, I bought this drive on Ebay for $61 and successfully installed OS from Portege recovery disk, no more hassle"

Also, I see mention of a BIOS upgrade, did you look into that?

A dumb question, does your laptop have a floppy drive?


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## greekmaster (Mar 22, 2005)

johnwill said:


> You don't need to take out the desktop hard disk. What I normally do is to remove the stuff on the secondary IDE channel, and then connect the laptop drive to the master connector on the cable. Removing everything is just done to avoid having to find the special little 2mm jumpers, and the instructions for the specific drive.



I have an aftermarket sony disk drive, also USB. I could not find the Bios upgrade, but I am still hunting. Toshiba's web sites are a little odd.

I, too, found the site that mentioned the PORT Noteworth NW24xCD but I couldn't find it on Ebay at any reasonable price. I am trying to avoid having to buy something that I don't absolutely need at the moment. But if all else fails . . . I don't know what the deal is with the Iomega drive. I did find where someone went into their bios, pressing ESC on restart, and changed the boot order. I did try changing the boot order somewhere in the settings without accessing the bios, but when I did it just gave me an error when it searched for external drives and then proceeded to find the Hard Drive.

I have only been inside my desktop once, to replace the hard drive of all things. I am not familiar with the "secondary IDE channel". Is that just the cable? I expose my ignorance here.

Freezing in Michigan


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

Unless your machine is very new and has SATA ports, you most likely have two IDE channels, each capable of connecting two IDE devices. I normally remove the stuff from the secondary channel and connect the drive there.


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## portegeguy1010 (Apr 2, 2005)

*I have a portege 2000 too..*

and I'm in the same boat as you as far as installing windows again. 

2 very important points

..the toshiba harddrive in this laptop has a very unique interface and will not work with most 2.5 to 3.5 adapters. I am unaware that any such adapters exist. This drive is used in the third generation Ipods and you can find the exact model number by searching Ipod forums...its something like "GAH2007..."
So anything related to standard IDE cables and adapters will not help.

also, the computer will not boot from USB...I just purchased a PCMCIA cd-rom drive from ebay for $45, much cheaper than what Toshiba wanted when I first bought the computer (a few hundred if I remember right). This is probably the hands-down easiest way to get windows back on there. Then use CTRL-C as someone already mentioned. 

Anyway, I'm out, I just came here searching for what keys to push to boot from CD. If Greekmaster wants to ask me any further questions, he's welcome to message me at Patrickjung AT hotmail DOT com anytime. Thanks.


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## johnwill (Sep 26, 2002)

It would be nice to know the exact model number of the drive so we could all know what you're talking about.


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## greekmaster (Mar 22, 2005)

The external drive is an Iomega CD-RW 48x24x48x USB2. It has it's own power source and is rather bulky.


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## greekmaster (Mar 22, 2005)

I finally figured it out and the answer is not good. It is impossible for the Toshiba Portege 2000 to boot from a USB CD-ROM. The only way to do it is to boot through the Card slot, and for me that means buying a new CD-ROM. But I am still open to taking out the hard drive and loading it into my desktop to use the restore cd, as was suggested. But I am a Grad Student and I have papers due in the next two weeks so I won't be doing anything for a little while. 

Thanks for all the help and suggestions. I will be back if I need help connecting the hard drive to the desktop.

Thanks a million!!!

NR, freezing in Michigan


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## A_D (May 29, 2006)

so....you're sayin that in theory you dont need to purchase an NW24xCD to be able to install windows, but rather any external bootable CD-ROM that connects via a PCMCIA card?


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## laboye (Apr 11, 2006)

Wait! If you have another laptop or a friend with another laptop [with a CD Drive], you can install Windows! I've done this with an IBM TransNote, ThinkPad 240, and many other models without a CD Drive. I am assuming that you want Windows XP. Take the target hard drive out of the machine and place it in the laptop with the CD Drive. Install some other version of Windows. Supposedly the recovery CDs have an option of Windows 2000 or XP Pro. Install 2000. When it is up and running, place the XP CD in and select Install Windows XP. When given the choice, select install new/fresh installation (not upgrade). Soon, there will be a button available that resembles "advanced options". Select it. Check "copy all installation files from the CD" When the system restarts from Windows 2000, dont let it load windows setup. Just shut it down. Remove the hard drive and insert it into your Portégé. It will start setup normally. As far as I know, without the PC Card CD-Drive, this is the only way.

Also, what style is your BIOS in?

There are 3 "styles":

The older style says: "Toshiba In Touch With Tomorrow"
The other is simply: "Toshiba"
The newwer BIOS: "Toshiba"

In the newwer one there are 4-6 icons near the bottom of the screen. Each represents a device that can possibly be booted off of. The first is generally the hard drive (3 stacked disks) The second is for a bay drive (the hard drive icon with a Bay Drive) the third is the CD-Drive (a CD). The fourth is for the floppy drive (a Floppy) or if the system has an SD card (a floppy with an SD Card). The fifth is for a network boot (2 networked laptops) and the sisth is a PC Card for booting off of a PCMCIA Card. Based on your computer, you should only have the Hard Drive, the SD, the Network, and the PC Card. If you do have the SD, I'm sure it is possible to boot off of it somehow, but that'll take some research.

To invoke a custom boot, press the power button, and quickly press and hold F12 before the computer's screen even turns on. After POST, the icons will have gray bars underneath them. The first will have an orange bar. Let go of F12 and use the arrow buttons to select the boot device. On older models, i beleive it is the same key combo, but the menu is just text. Try those before you spend money.


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## A_D (May 29, 2006)

ermm....a portege 2000 has a small HDD than an average laptop (not 2.5 inch)...so im not sure if that'll work


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## laboye (Apr 11, 2006)

Hmm, with a little research, it uses a 1.8 inch EIDE ATA-5. HDD. That was a very bad decision on Toshiba's part. Well, now it would appear that the only choice is that bloody PC Card Drive. Arg, I wish I could help further.


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## robertsmith26 (Oct 5, 2010)

ahem. reading one of these responses kind of upset me. a guy asks a question about loading an operating system on a machine without drives, and one of the semi-retarded responses tells him how to format a HDD in dos - in no way addressing that this step completely ignores the 8000 pound gorilla in the room, which is - how the #%9< do you even begin to format a drive with no ability to input anything. 

this is Tech Support forums, not a mac forum, so unless someone has done it, or is doing it, or has the most basic understanding of the question, then one should probably keep their mouth shut in the interests of keeping this site relevant. sentences starting with 'why don't you just...' and 'have you tried...' should be stifled.

anyway, i am working on this project right now. i ordered an adapter for the 1.8" hard drive on ebay for $2.18 from china. by the time it gets here in ten days, this will be solved anyway.

i got a usb floppy plugged into the left port (as faced) and i am using a floppy disk that some guy sold me on ebay that allows the computer to recognize any usb cd drive plugged into it. right now i am using a lite on. between those two things, i am now loading windows xp. linux may have a similar floppy available.

either way, STFU if you dont know the answer. guesses are misinformation which are almost always harmful. silence is better than speculation. nobody needs a craphouse computer science wannabe who cant even understand the general focus of a simple question. if you are that dumb, buy a mac and pollute their forums.


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