Recovery with broken DVD drive

[jah191]

I have a Toshiba a a25-s207 running Windows XP. Toshiba included the
recovery disk on a DVD which includes a fresh windows install as well
as all the drivers required by the laptop. Unfortunately it seems as
if my DVD/CD drive laser is malfunctioning. While the drive still
reads CD, it refuses to read any DVDs. I believe the drive has two
different lasers/circuits so perhaps the DVD one is fried.

Anyway, what is the best way to obtain a relatively clean install of
XP without being able to use my recovery drive?

 

[Gary S. Terhune]

Fix the DVD drive. Really, can't think of any other way. You really need to
use the Recovery disk, not some generic XP install CD. While the latter
*might* work, it's iffy, since laptops are picky that way.

 

[M.I.5¾]

I have a Toshiba a a25-s207 running Windows XP. Toshiba included the
recovery disk on a DVD which includes a fresh windows install as well
as all the drivers required by the laptop. Unfortunately it seems as
if my DVD/CD drive laser is malfunctioning. While the drive still
reads CD, it refuses to read any DVDs. I believe the drive has two
different lasers/circuits so perhaps the DVD one is fried.

Anyway, what is the best way to obtain a relatively clean install of
XP without being able to use my recovery drive?

You can connect an ordinary DVD drive using an IDE to USB adaptor cable.
Both are relatively cheap.

The alternative is to replace the DVD drive in the laptop (it is a laptop?),
but suitable drives are often hard to find if the original part is no longer
available.

 

[jah191]

If I use the IDE to USB adapter will the computer be able to boot from
that drive first? Is USB enabled before windows starts?

 

[jah191]

checked my BIOS...no option for USB booting. Only CDROM, FDD, HDD, and
LAN.

The strange thing is that this drive, the Teac DW-224E-A, only has one
lens for both CD and DVD. Most of what I've read about combo drives
says there should be two lenses.

The drive works flawlessly with CD but only intermittently with DVDs.
I am too afraid to start the recovery process in case the drive
decides to fail halfway through.

Is the laptop hardware so proprietary that I can't just use a clean
Win XP install disc?

 

[M.I.5¾]

If I use the IDE to USB adapter will the computer be able to boot from
that drive first? Is USB enabled before windows starts?

--------------------

Yes - If your BIOS supports booting from USB. All recent BIOSs certainly
do. You may need to alter the boot sequence, but be aware that some BIOSs
only show the devices that are actually connected, so you may need to
connect the drive and then configure the BIOS.