Problems recovering Toshiba Laptop

[arkgirl1989]

I sure hope someone can help me. I own a Toshiba Satellite laptop. It runs Vista Home Premium Service pack 1. It's almost 2 years old. A year ago Windows failed to load and  I had to recover my computer to the orginall "out of the box state"
Slowly I have had more and more issues, CD burner issues, Windows Explorer, and various other issues.... Today I restarted as it was running slow, and it would not fully boot back up. It would give my my desktop, but lock up whenever i clicked on anything. I would ctrl-alt-delete but it would just give me a black screen. After I attempted Safemode with no avail, I had to power off AGAIN and it wanted to chkdsk. I let it do so. It said it fixed errors but they went by too fast for me to know what they were. I booted up to my desktop again but had the same problem, again. So I decided to pop the recovery disk that came with my Toshiba in and revert back to "out of the box" again as I have all my stuff backed up. It went all the way through disk 1, asked for disk two and was somewhat though recovering when it said I had a "Toshiba Recovery error 10-FC12-045D" Everything I'm reading says it means my hard drive is defective...but I can't get a definate answer... I'm hoping not... HELP

[Salmon Trout]

I think either the recovery CD or the hard disk is faulty. The large number of chkdsk errors makes me think it is the hard drive. If that was my laptop I would be thinking that it should go to a repair shop for a test and maybe hard drive replacement. I would be comparing the cost of hard drive replacement with the cost of a new laptop.

Have you looked here?

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic130938.html

There is a discussion of that error code and a link on that page to download a Toshiba diagnostic tool which is in a zip file. You would need to (obviously) download it on a separate (working) computer. Then you would prepare a DOS boot floppy disk (your laptop has a floppy drive?) and place the unzipped diagnostic program on the floppy. Finally you would boot the laptop from the floppy disk, and following the instructions in the text file also in the downloaded zip file, run the diagnostic test. If you do not feel confident to take all these steps, you should realistically take the laptop to a repair shop.

[arkgirl1989]

I am afraid that my laptop does not have a floppy drive.... I do think that I could take those steps, things can't get too much worse, and I honestly do not have it in my budget for a computer tech. Also I have recently moved to a new area, a very small town, and don't know who I would trust.... I also know that I think that getting a new hard disk would probably be better for me. I spent about 1,500 on this laptop, and I am not one that can be happy with a basic laptop or netbook. But I also dont' know the prices for a new hard disk and getting it installed, as I know there is no way I could do that by myself.  I really do appreciate your idea... if you have anything else let me know....I'm desperate!!!

[Salmon Trout]

But I also dont' know the prices for a new hard disk and getting it installed, as I know there is no way I could do that by myself. 

A lot less than 1500 dollars. A hundred or (maybe) two. A new laptop hard drive costs from 80 dollars upwards depending on size. A repair shop might charge 50 dollars or so on top to remove the old hard drive, fit the new one, and reinstall Windows.

[arkgirl1989]

That is some comforting news.... one more question, and call me stupid on it.... haha I know alot about some things on a computer but def. not all this, this is new for me.... So here's the stupid question.....
I guess theres no way I could use that tool with a CD & not a floppy?

[Salmon Trout]

Not a stupid question at all; You can make a bootable DOS CD and put the Toshiba tool on that.

[arkgirl1989]

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I took my computer to a local repair place, and they were able to recover it without any issues. I just got it back Christmas Eve... I'm glad I don't have to have a new hard disk, but I'm still back to the beginning so I'm reloading everything. I just hope it stays fixed! Thank you for all your help!