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Booting off a Firewire CD-Drive?
Posted: 2008-05-07 09:50pm
by Mr Bean
Yay Laptop! Either a virus or Voodoo magic have given me a BSOD on load that has killed my laptop.
The BSOD states quote
A problem has been detected yada yada
UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME
Which I take to mean a boot-sector virus or a dozen corrupt sectors in the WRONG area.
However I need to know if it's possible to boot from a Firewire drive or even a USB drive. My laptop has no built in cd-rom anymore(Don't ask) so I need to boot off the external cd-drive
How?
Posted: 2008-05-08 01:47am
by Braedley
If it were a Mac, it would be easy (although I forget which key would need to be held down), but since you apparently have a PC, it's a little more difficult.
In your BIOS settings, see if there's an option to boot from external media. That's your best chance, although it's possible that it'll limit you to only USB.
Posted: 2008-05-08 11:46am
by Mr Bean
Braedley wrote:
In your BIOS settings, see if there's an option to boot from external media. That's your best chance, although it's possible that it'll limit you to only USB.
Dell BIOS so no chance there, it's an Insperion 8500 Laptop just over four years old now to give you an idea.
Any other suggestions?
Posted: 2008-05-08 12:00pm
by Braedley
From quick google search:
I have always found it easiest to pull the hard drive, put it in a different laptop (or get an adaptor and hook it up to a desktop), install Linux, return the drive to the original machine, then run any setup/installation scripts.
Unfortunately, Windows isn't as nice for doing this. Another option is to try and find a BIOS update. There's an open source BIOS project that you could check out, but I don't know how far along they are. (I don't use it, and have only seen word of it on /. )
Posted: 2008-05-08 12:32pm
by Kitsune
Is the connector for your CD Rom operational? If so, you might be able to just put in a new CD Rom...
I think I know of a fairly cheap place if you live in the US.....
Posted: 2008-05-08 04:30pm
by Mr Bean
Kitsune wrote:Is the connector for your CD Rom operational? If so, you might be able to just put in a new CD Rom...
I think I know of a fairly cheap place if you live in the US.....
Dell=Proprietary Laptops=Dell only drive=Shit out of luck
Shit I might end up sending it to dell in the end. Or junking it, it's only worth about 230$ thanks to hordes of cheap laptop's hitting the area.
Posted: 2008-05-08 04:44pm
by Kitsune
I have a Dell Laptop and I got mine used. It did not come with a DVD or CD ROM when I bought it and bought one second hand....That one broke so I got a new one....
http://www.priorityelectronics.com/dell/313-1540-1.htm
Forty smackers.......shrug
Posted: 2008-05-08 05:03pm
by Mr Bean
Posted: 2008-05-08 05:18pm
by Kitsune
Probably the easiest way to be honest.....
I have Dell C600 but it landed on its PCMIA slot with a wireless card and killed the slot...Yes, I tried another card in the slot
Just ordered a Dell C640 today from an E-Bay Shop as a replacement....
$229 before S/H with 2 Ghz Pentium-4M Processor with 1 Gig of Ram / 60 Gig HD / DVD Rom (don't need a writer for my laptop) / XP Professional
This way I can use my roommates wireless broadband card at work