New HD and old Operating System disk?

I have an old Gateway laptop, and every time I try and turn it on, it goes to the Windows XP loading screen, and the loading bar goes back and forth, and never loads the OS.

When I try and load the Operating System disk (the disk that re-formats the drive, and basically turns the computer as it was just out of the box. Installs the trial programs, drivers, etc).

My question is, since the OS doesn't load, and the disk wont load, I am guessing the HD is shot.

Can I go out, buy a new, blank HD, run the CD, and will the CD install XP and all the drivers on the HD so I can bring this old computer back to life?

 

You can most certainly do this if a faulty hard-drive is the culprit.

Is the CD is an image of the hard drive, or is it a Windows XP CD?

Have you tried a clean Windows XP installation from a different CD?

 

This is what the CD says:

Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
Operating System Disk
Use this disc to re-install your operating system

And no, I don't have a regular XP CD.

The disk I mentioned above wont even boot, when I select "Recover press F11" when the CD is loaded and I start the computer. It trys to boot up the CD, it freezes saying:

Gateway
Please wait....

 

Can the computer boot Windows into safe-mode?

 

No, the screen just freezes with all the information stuff on it:

multi(o)disk(o)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS

Etc, etc.

 

So does anyone know if this is a HD problem, seeing as if I can't boot into Safe Mode, or a normal boot up.

 

Booting a Windows reinstallation CD has nothing to do with the hard disk. If your Windows CD won’t boot then either your CD is damaged or your CD drive is broken (or in highly unlikely case, there is something wrong with the motherboard or RAM). Try the CD on a different computer to check if it is still readable.

One more thing you can try : press F8 while the computer is booting and select "Last Known Good Configuration", see if that helps.

You can also try a repair reinstall of windows to fix any corrupted files, but you should be able to boot from the installation CD to do that.

 

Could you put the hard drive into an external enclosure and hook it up via USB, and do some sort of surface check?

Maybe you have a boot disc of some sort that you can use to do a scan.

 

I will try the disk on another computer, because I booted and ran fine my Ubuntu 8.10 Live CD, so I know the drive is working.

 

I tried the CD on my laptop, and I could browse all the files. But when I restarted my computer with the CD in it, it ran my AlienRespawn instead of the Gateway one, so I am not really sure how to check if the CD can still work.

Would it be better if I just installed Ubuntu as my main OS? I know how to use it, and don't mind it. But I don't want to install it, and it not be able to work.

 

That depends on what kind of programs you use on your notebook. For web browsing, music, movies and word processing (with OpenOffice) Ubuntu is fine.

If you can read the contents of the _Windows XP disk on another computer, then burn a copy of the entire disk to a new CD. Sensitiveness of optical drives varies from drive to drive, some drives are better at reading slightly damaged or scratched disks than others. By burning a new copy, you might be able to boot your Gateway with it.

 

When you boot Ubuntu, can you mount the Windows drive?

 

Ok, I will try that.

No. I tired to install Ubuntu through the CD, but it keeps freezing during installation. And now when I start the computer, it just says:

MBR error


Does anyone know if I can put Ubuntu on my External HD with all of my music, games, photos, etc on it, and be able to boot from USB on the computer?

 

If you are getting an MBR error, it is a corrupt or faulty HD. If this is an old machine with nothing useful on it, I'd try to use the disc tools in your Ubuntu CD to diagnose the drive, or use the Windows install disc to run chkdsk on the drive. You can easily put in a new drive and install either XP or Ubuntu if you can't repair the old one.

 

Ya. Since the Ubuntu Live CD ran fine, I guess the rest of the computer is fine (apart from some dead battery cells which is fine).

I can find a cheap HD for around $60 or so, which is fine. Then I will run the OS disk, and see if it doesn't install the OS and drivers. If not, I will see if I can get another one from Gateway.