BleepingComputer.com: Should I install a newer version

Hello Everyone,


My question is kind of a complex problem that I am having now.
Last Week, my sister borrowed a laptop from my brother and
it automatically create a restore point.
She told us that during this process, she unknowingly cancel it
and tried to reboot the computer.
Now the computer will not proceed pass POST.
I have tried everything that I can do, but it either stall or
can't read the boot.inf file or splash.

When I boot and go into advance options, I cannot do a system restore.
It even says That there's a unknown OS or No OS.
So should I try to re-install Vista or WIN 7?

It is a Toshiba L305 with Vista-x-86-32 bit

Are you able to boot into Safe Mode?

While the computer is turning on, tap F8 once every second until a black screen with white text appears. Using your arrow keys highlight the option Safe Mode and hit Enter.

If not, you have a few options:

• Reformat the drive using a recovery CD.
  
• Reformat the drive using a Recovery partition.
  
• Reinstall Windows Vista 32-bit.
  
• Install Windows 7.

The first three would be the best options, in that order.

If you're really interested in installing Windows 7, you should check to see that all your hardware has drivers for Windows 7. You can do this by using the Windows 7 Upgrade Adviser.

But obviously you're going to have to get your computer running before you can check that anyway.

This post has been edited by TheShooter93: 09 June 2011 - 10:28 PM

As well as the above good advice check the hard drive has not partially popped out of its housing, and maybe reseat all other hardware you can get at.
If the laptop is not getting passed the POST it would normaly suggest a hardware problem as the software (OS) would not have started to load.

If you're concerned about saving your documents, then yes, go into Safe Mode and backup the files you want.

But don't save them to My Documents or anywhere else on the harddrive, as it will be wiped clean in a reformat. Backup your data to a CD, DVD, Flash drive, external harddrive, or other means of external storage.

This post has been edited by TheShooter93: 10 June 2011 - 09:35 AM

Thank You all for the advice.
I going to try it, and re-install Win 7.
It also will not load or I can't get to the advanced
option screen to start in safe mode.
I will have to replace the hard drive because it's ma-
king a very horrific noise.
I am going to do what is suggested and hope the noise go away.

If your hard drive is making a physical metalic noise then it is a sure sign it is or about to be fatal. I would hook it up to another computer and retrieve any documents, photos etc that you need saving pending you can gain access ASAP, it may however be to damaged to retrieve anything.

This post has been edited by jodav: 11 June 2011 - 10:13 AM