Working with SATA Hard Drive

Well, in the previous post, I started the installation of Windows XP on my new Toshiba notebook. I got an error message and I got shocked about it in the first screen of my installation.

I performed an internet search and I found that this is a common problem. Microsoft doesn’t support SATA hard drive in their installation of Windows XP. So, The driver of SATA hard drive shall be added to the installation. The common method is to press F6 at the start of the installation to verify the driver of SCSI or SATA drive.

However, this is a stupid method, because it will ask u to inset the FLOPPY drive which contain the driver. Most notebooks don’t have floppy friver, and hence we cannot go such way.

I performed another internet search and I found some solutions. First, we have to get the driver of the SATA controller and extract it. the main idea is to inject this drive into Windows XP installation files. Some people illustrate how to do this manuallay, and some suggested nLite. So, what is nLite? nLite is a tool that can create a customized Windows XP installation CD with many options, u can use it to create a fully automated Windows XP setup so that u just inset the CD, and wait for some time, and then u will have a Windows XP installation on ur computer.

nLite can be easily used to solve the problem of SATA, just select Drivers section in nLite program, and add the folder of the extracted SATA files, and nLite will add it to Windows XP installation files.

I tried this method, and I created Windows XP installation with SATA driver and the problem was fixed very easily.

Toshiba L40-17R Notebook

Finally, I got my new Toshiba L40-17R notebook. Although it’s little bit slower than the HP 6720, but it’s more robust. The computer is really well-made. The design of the notebook itself is nice. U can find USB ports in a very suitable locations. Network interface is in a very nice place.

The notebook comes with no operating system. However, I have my own copy from my previous notebook. So, I started to install it. Partitioning was very easy using Acronis boot CD. After this, I started the Windows XP installation process. Before the first screen of Windows XP starts (to select Install, Repair or Windows…) I got an error message. The dead blue error message that dumps memory to hard disk and then shuts down computer.

I was shocked to see this message. Is there a problem with the notebook ?!! I decided to perform some search in interent before calling Toshiba customer service. I found this common problem which is with SATA drive.

I will post the solution on the next blog.

However, I’m now running the Windows XP on the laptop and it’s comfortable for me. It achieves exactly my requirements. The most amazing point is that it saved asome good money for me, and at the same time, I got a good brand notebook instead of the bad-made HP notebook.

A Day Without my Notebook !! – Part 3

## Working with A Very Old Acer Notebook ##

I didn’t find an alternative to my notebook (which I’m waiting for) but this VERY old Acer Notebook. It’s a Pentium II notebook with 64 MB of RAM. It’s very heavy, and for the first time I see the power and battery leds in the side of LCD monitor !!

Although the notebook is old, the battery is working good. it stays for some good time until a warning appears on the screen. As a good point, the warning of low battery appears on screen at any condition. It can appear if working under DOS or Windows, or even while booting the computer. The warning is independent of operating system. As a BAD thing, I didn’t find a POWER button to close the notebook, so if it hangs, I have to remove the battery and plug out the power cable in order to turn the notebook OFF.

So, where is the battery? It’s a very good question. I looked for the battery but didn’t find it. I stayed for sometime looking for the battery until an older engineer came and told me where is the battery, it’s on the right side of the notebook, and he showed me how to take it out.

The notebook contains a Windows 98 operating system. I was happy at first, but I discovered later that because of the low memory, which Windows 98 cannot manage, the computer hangs when running a MS Word XP and Foxit PDF Reader together !!

I was shocked by this, and I decided to take another way. I want to run an online productivity system like Google Docs. But, Unfourturntly, The ethernet interface of the notebook cannot be connected to the standard ethernet cable !! and of course, there is not wireless in the notebook !!.

I started to look on another point, the LiveCDs. I tried ubuntu, but the low memory couldn’t hold it, kubuntu is the same !, SLAX is the same !!, PCLinuxOS2007 is the same !!!

How about booting from USB? Not supported by the motherboard of the notebook !!!!

DSL loaded after great effort, and special setting of VGA card. WWWWOOOOOWWW, Finally, It’s now time to put my memory stick and load my PDFs and Documents. The USB stick didn’t work with DSL !!!!!!

GRRRRR

Finally, I returned back to Windows 98, An idea got in my mind is to upgrade to Windows XP !!, I thought this will give me a stable system but slow one.

When I started the setup of Windows XP, an error message appeared on the screen telling me that Upgrade is not allowed on this system !!!

I removed the CD and started working on 98 using the notepad, which I used to write this blog.

This notebook made me tired, so BYE for now !!!

A Day Without my Notebook !! – Part 2

So, What is SLAX, PCLinuxOS2007 and DSL?

SLAX is a bootable LiveCD based on KDE Linux distribution. It contains the sufficient applications for productivity and for performing quick tasks on a computer. If the computer doesn’t have an operating system, u can boot with this SLAX and start use ur computer.

PCLinuxOS2007 is the same, but based on another Linux distro. It was ranked as the best LiveCD on 2007. I didn’t try it yet, but I will try it and write review later.

DSL is the smallest bootable CD I’ve seen. It’s based on Knoppix Linux, and it’s only 50 MB ISO image. When burned on a CD, U can boot computer with it, and open a GUI desktop that contains a lot of stuff. Good applications like editors, calculator, etc… Some Games, file manager, and shell. U will find also a side bar that tells u quick information about memory, storage, processor, tasks, etc…

When I tried the DSL on a very old Acer notebook, I faced alot of problems, and I will describe it in the next shot.

A Day without my Notebook

Two days ago, I found some problems with my new notebook, and decided to exchange it. From that day, I’ve been staying without a notebook. OH, I’m alone in the world !!!

I started to look for alternatives. I asked myself a question, What can I do without a notebook?

Actually, I reached many solutions, but all these solutions need at least a computer. My old notebook had a damaged hard drive. but the CD-ROM is working. Good !!

I got an idea to use LiveCDs. what is a LiveCD?

A LiveCD is a bootable CD that can run an operating system from the CD-ROM. All users have to do is to download the ISO CD image, burn it to CD, and boot computer from CD. That’s All!!!

I downloaded some examples to LiveCDs. One of them is the DamnSmallLinux, other is SLAX, and Ubuntu…

To be continued…