[Candace001]

Hello there,
I was wondering if it is possible to reformat a hard drive on a toshiba netbeook nb200 using another laptop with a usb transfer cable. The hard drive on the netbook is pretty messed up, I don't have a dvd drive or the original install pen drives. My daughter was trying to do a clean install of Ubuntu and something went wrong with the hard drive. So there is not an OS on this netbook and ubuntu won't install.
Thanks

[LiveBrianD]

If the hard drive itself is actually bad, your only choice is to get a new one. If you need to load XP onto the netbook, get an actual XP CD (NOT a recovery disc) and use this: http://www.techtipsg...-pen-drive/559/ It needs to be XP Home if that's what came with the laptop (likely the case) and maybe OEM. Why won't Ubuntu install? What errors are you getting? Did you use the instructions at their site? See step 2 here: http://www.ubuntu.co...ubuntu/download

[LincolnSpector]

Candace001, on 03 March 2012 - 02:01 PM, said:

Hello there,
I was wondering if it is possible to reformat a hard drive on a toshiba netbeook nb200 using another laptop with a usb transfer cable. The hard drive on the netbook is pretty messed up, I don't have a dvd drive or the original install pen drives. My daughter was trying to do a clean install of Ubuntu and something went wrong with the hard drive. So there is not an OS on this netbook and ubuntu won't install.
Thanks

Hi, 'Candace, and welcome to the forums.

The netbook probably came with a recovery partition. There should be a way to boot the machine into that partition, and then using it to restore the hard drive to how it was when it left the factory. You're bound to find instructions somewhere on Toshiba's site.

If you want to check to see if the drive still works, and that the partition is still there, I recommend PartedMagic. It's a version of Linux you can boot from a flash drive, and it contains hard drive partitioning and diagnostic tools. I discuss it in detail in The Bootable Maintenance Flash Drive.

If the partition is gone or otherwise doesn't work, I'd recommend contacting Toshiba before you buy another copy of XP. They may have a way to fix it for considerably less than purchasing a new copy of the OS.

Lincoln

[JarodMedart]

If the drive is actually bad there isn't much that can be done aside from have it repaired (or perform the repairs yourself if you have the skills)

But if the drive is still functional as it sounds like it should be, i would use the recovery partition on the laptop to restore the original OS if the recovery partition
wasn't removed when Ubuntu was being installed. For Toshiba computers you would hold down the "0" key while the computer is off and when the computer turns on and Toshiba
splash screen appears release the "0" key. If done correctly it should say "Windows is loading files". Otherwise I would recommend using gparted or any linux HDD tool to
format the HDD for a fresh install.

[henrywilliams]

Yes you can format several sections of a Hard Disk by using an external computer. You can format it partially or completely. Installing new windows can also be done with another PC.

[orlbuckeye]

Candace001, on 03 March 2012 - 02:01 PM, said:

Hello there,
I was wondering if it is possible to reformat a hard drive on a toshiba netbeook nb200 using another laptop with a usb transfer cable. The hard drive on the netbook is pretty messed up, I don't have a dvd drive or the original install pen drives. My daughter was trying to do a clean install of Ubuntu and something went wrong with the hard drive. So there is not an OS on this netbook and ubuntu won't install.
Thanks

Was Ubuntu the OS that came on the system? If not there is free software out their called Gparted that will allow you to great the partitian that is bootable. Once the partitian is created you can install Ubuntu. Since your planning on formatting I suppose there are no issues with saving the data.

[rain18]

have you solved it?