LT20 Recovery Issues

[tempco]

Got a big problem with my LG LT20. The problem started when I dropped my laptop from about 1 metre high onto carpet. It landed flat on the ground so I assumed there wasn't much damage, but after dropping the computer it slowed down so much. So I took the following steps:

1. Ran scandisk in Windows. After running a scandisk, I was given a lot of "unreachable sector" errors.

2. Used the recovery function which comes with the LT20, which involves pressing F11 during boot up. Did that and tried to re-install Windows without formatting the computer but during the recovery, an error popped up saying that the recovery process could not read a certain file. I then reset the computer.

3. Tried to use the recovery function with a clean format, but during the process, the computer screen changed from the recovery screen to a plain white screen with huge red letters spelling out "FAIL", and the computer was beeping 8 times, and then 7 times and then 8 again and so on. I then reset it again.

Now every time I try to use the recovery function, nothing happens when I press the recovery buttons (but the recovery screen itself loads).

Is there any way for me to access the MS-DOS prompt in order to format manually, or is my hard disk completely screwed up? If so, does any one know where I can buy a replacement hard disk?

[P8RSON]

Well... the official channels will tell you:-
8 Beeps ~ Video memory error. The BIOS cannot write to the frame buffer memory on the video card. Which indicates a memory error on the video adapter.

7 Beeps ~ Virtual mode exception error. There's only one answer for this one... Send System Board in for Repair!

However, it could all be related as you say to the Hard Drive.
I would first contact the manufacturer and see what they have to say before taking any other action.

[tempco]

OK, I've sent a customer service application to LG. Waiting on a reply.

Thanks for your reply btw, and if anyone else has any information/suggestions, please post them up.

[fishmahn]

I'm certain that at least your hard drive is unuseable. As P8rson says, those other errors are ominous but they could easily be caused by the hard drive having problems. If you know the brand of hard drive, go to the mfg's website and download their drive diagnostics, or go to Seagate.com and download Seatools. Burn it to a CD or create floppies and that will let you test the drive and see if its physically damaged or a simple reformat will work.

I don't know an LT20 from a norelco razor, but most tablets use standard 2.5" hard drives, either IDE for older ones (more than a couple years) or SATA for newer. You can probably confirm that from the documentation or LG. Once you know the right size to get, many online retailers have them. Newegg, Zipzoomfly, Tigerdirect, etc. are all US-based ones, don't know where you are.

Mike.

[tempco]

Well, if I did buy a new laptop hard drive, would the LG recovery system work as it should? I don't know much about laptop recovery systems... would the recovery feature be stored in my current hard disk, or on some smaller hard disk that is made specifically for the recovery feature? I removed the hard disk from my laptop and was not able to boot up the LG recovery feature at all. I guess that means that the LG recovery files are in the hard disk.

And how would I go about reinstalling Windows XP Tablet when my computer does not have a CD/DVD drive? Would a USB CD/DVD drive be able to boot up the Windows XP installation procedure?

Still no reply from LG.

[fishmahn]

I don't know LG in particular, but 'recovery systems' are stored on the hard drive so if that drive is unrecoverable you can't use the built-in recovery system.

My Toshiba has a utility to burn a CD/DVD copy of the recovery partition (which I used right away just in case this happens), but in your case even if your LT20 has that utility it won't help unless you previously created the disks. LG hopefully will be able to get you some sort of recovery disk, or (and I don't know the specific legality of this - I'm not a lawyer) maybe someone else with an LT20 can use their utility to create a set of recovery disks for you. The only other legal option I can think of would be to buy another copy of XP, but I don't know if you can get the Tablet PC Edition that way. Hopefully LG will have some suggestions...

Most if not all USB optical drives are bootable, and most PCs/laptops allow you to boot from them, so once you get a CD/DVD of XP Tablet you should be able to install no problem.

Mike.