I am having a toshiba portage m205 with win xp . Windows got crashed when I tried to load windows with recovery cd It doesnt recognize its recovery disk Pls help .

If your computer is still under warranty you can contact the Toshiba support site and order recovery media. They will refer you to the company that sells them. The cost is about 45 dollars + taxes.
Even if your computer is no longer under warranty you may still be able to obtain the recovery medias.

Failing that, you may consider buying a retail version of the Windows Operating system and install it on the computer. Some custom buttons may not work, and you will have to go to the Toshiba support web site to download the drivers for your computer. Before buying a version of Windows, check the Toshiba site for your computer and your intented OS (WinXP 32/64, Vista 32/64, or Win 7 32/64) )to see if they have drivers.

I have been installing XP on Portege M200 laptops.
I use a usb floppy to install the latest bios update from Toshiba's support site.
After the update the laptop will boot from a USB Cd/DVD drive.
be patient the first part of the up date goes extreamly slowly but it seems to keep working and the install will work.

Hello,

You should contact Toshiba service and order a recovery CD for that model. You can also install any Windows XP version, but it will not provide support for the tablet functionalities, which means that you will have a notebook that is not a tablet.

Note: Actually the original operating system is Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005: It is Win XP Pro + Tablet PC software.

I have heard that Vista provides support for Tablet functionalities, but you may still have to buy it from Toshiba because of the drivers for the specific hardware.

I installed Linux Ubuntu on a tablet. The latest version of Ubuntu provides some support for the wacom stylus pen, but not much else.

Hope it gives you some leads to follow through.

ok you wouldn't have been supplied a recovery cd, you have to create it, to create one have 2 blank dvd discs ready and go to start menu and select help type in a search for recovery cd, this will explain how to create one....if your computer won't load into windows you will have to re-install windows again, cheers, any other probs please get back to me.

Brett.

that sounds like a power problem to the mainbaord. I hope you backed up recently. See if you have any clogged fans with dust or bloated capacitors. You may need a new Power supply and mainboard. I would put the hard drive as a secondary in a new machine.

At this moment I have taken the HDD out of the case, bought an adapter for its 1.8" interfce and proceeded over the USB. I was, however, installing Linux, with practically no experience with Windows.

Clean the CD and see if that works. Are there any scratches on it?

The hard disk is not recognized from USB because of SATA drivers not present on XP setup disk.

That happens because the BIOS uses a SATA controller that is not included in Windows XP install disk.

Usually you can solve the problem going to BIOS settings and changing SATA/RAID settings.Check your BIOS settings, and disable SATA RAID mode.This is done in different ways depending on the BIOS.

On HP/Compaq computers for example you press F2 on startup to enter BIOS, then disable SATA mode on bios settings.
On other makes the procedure can be slightly different.

Another way to fix the problem, is by creating your own XP setup disk with SATA drivers included, see: Resolving "Setup did not find any hard disk drives" during Windows .

Hi

You can obtain the Recovery disk from Toshiba. Toshiba hotline number 1-800-457-7777 (US) 0844 800 6020 (UK). You need to provide your computer's part number correct to get the matching recovery disk. Usually they charges $39.95 including shipping to your address in US. Alternately you can go to http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/cgi-bin/ToshibaCSG/generic_content.jsp?service=UK&ID=Support_Homepage_uk

Good Luck