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Toshiba 1905-S301 issues

Neat trick to restore system image to your partitions; other thoughts; for Toshiba Satellite 1805.

Like many PCs these days, my new Toshiba Satellite 1905-S301 laptop came with 3 "recovery CDs", which restores the system to the factory state. It did not come with Windows XP - which I paid for and doesn’t like - CDs. In short, I won’t be able to partition the 40GB drive the way I want it so that I can install additional operating systems. Even otherwise, I prefer keeping multiple partitions for Windows, because it makes backup and restore that much more simpler. I tend to keep my customizations, folders and software in another drive - Mark Pilgrim has similar advise.

Alexander Kushnirenko has explains how to install Linux on 1805 series. He has a pretty neat cheat-sheet to trick the restoration process to use your partitions.

I prefer to use system’s fdisk rather than Partition Magic. $69.95 aside, does any one know if I can DELETE Partition Magic after I partition the disk using it? I really don’t want to keep it on the system.

From Alexander’s page:

Repartitioning of the Hard Drive. The Laptop comes with 20GB NTFS with Windoze XP. I did not have Partition Magic and none of the free tools available now can resize NTFS partition. There also only 3 recovery disks that come with the Laptop and when you use them they blindly format ALL disk. By default installation procedure does not give you ANY control over installation process - no options to choose - nothing.

Well you still can use those to install windows on a part of the disk (I’ve chosen 8Gb). The trick is to Control-C from the installation process and run fdisk manually

  1. Start recovery procedure. It will inform you that ALL data is going to be gone. And it will :)
  2. It will get to the stage when it will Format C: all 20 Gb
  3. Control-C from formatting
  4. cd Q:/bin That is CD-ROM mounting moint
  5. Run fdisk . Delete 20 Gb partition, Create new primary partition (8Gb). That will occupy 1020 cylindes so you would fit into 1023 cylinders limitation of LILO boot loader. Don’t forget to make new primary partition Active
  6. Run seq -set 4 . This command actually informs BIOS that we are at the stage 4 (Partitioning hard drive) of Recovery procedure. Next stage after it is to format the disk.
  7. Run reboot and boot from Recovery CD (Hold F12 and choose CDROM too boot from)
  8. Now Recovery Procedure should continue formatiing the disk but only 8 GB of it, not all 20GB.
  9. Finish Windoze installation procedure. Check that your disk is only 8Gb NTFS

For 1905-S301, if you are using RH8 or Mandrake9, specify a horizontal synch of 60 instead of the default range. Range sometimes make the display unstable. This laptop comes with Intel EEPRO network card. This freezes when transferring large files. If I decide to install Linux on my laptop, I will post the solution if I find any here.

Trying out Knoppix

There is an easy way to verify if your machine is Linux capable. Get a bootable version of Knoppix, a live Linux CD. I got one in DVD with Linux Format UK, October 2002 issue.

  1. Boot from DVD by pressing F12 during Bios startup.
  2. At the prompt, type expert. This is very important. If you choose anything else, it will hang during scsi probe. Even if you choose knoppix noscsi :-)
  3. Choose n (no) for scsi modules - by default it is yes.
  4. Choose n (no) for floppy modules - by default it it yes.
  5. It will correctly detect the keyboard.
  6. I’ve an additional scroll mouse. I configured that. It should recognize touchpad too.
  7. It will correctly detect sound card. Test it. The volume of test sound is very very low. But that is ok.
  8. Say yes to configure X.
  9. Go to "Edit Monitor" and set the horizontal refresh as 60.
  10. Save the X configuration.
  11. And wait to see the glorious KDE desktop.
Posted: November 11, 2002 10:22 AM
linux

  1. There should be no problem with deleting Partition Magic after you are done partitioning the computer. In fact, you never have to install PM on your laptop at all if it is already installed on another computer ... just tell it to make an emergency recovery disk and then boot up off it. It should allow you to run the DOS mode of PM which will then allow you to partition as you like without requiring actual installation on the hard drive.

    Posted by: Sanjay on November 11, 2002 11:45 AM

  2. Did you find any solution to the freezing problem of the network card when transferring large files in Linux?

    Posted by: Meow on January 20, 2003 02:32 AM

  3. Yes. Use e100 module instead of the eepro100 module which is autodetected.

    Please see my installation instructions for Mandrake 9 on this machine for further information.

    http://vsbabu.org/mt/archives/2002/11/17/mandrake_9_and_toshiba_satellite_1905s301.html

    Posted by: Babu on January 20, 2003 08:42 AM

  4. Toshiba 1905-S301 issues

    hello i am writing in response to the above issue.
    I too have a 1905. I did have partition magi(c) and partitioned 10mb for my 'new os of choice'. However, one small factor, that i am a beginner, has me mainly using MS.

    Anyhow, i partitioned my hd on xp home, tried to instal caldera 2.4, and all of a sudden it hangs. I restart and get the ominous 'no operating system' hello.

    Well being the beginner i am i tried rebooting with every option that was advertised. No dice.LOst everything. I did not have a rescue disk for this laptop.all it listed under a linux diskette was listed under 'grub' : linux root partition and an other partition for linux(the main chunck).

    For future reference can you please explain to me how i could of avoided this, besides having a rescue disk. I am definitely headed for being a linux expert...one day, but until then probolemo's deluxico.

    Posted by: Superless Dave on January 27, 2003 06:45 PM

  5. i have Toshiba Satellite 1905-S301.
    i need to use mouse.
    is it possible to attach mouse?

    i am the beginner.

    please suggest

    Posted by: FIROZ on May 19, 2003 12:42 AM

  6. I am having a problem with the original os installed on there. When I first got my s301, it was amazing. The fastest laptop i've seen! But after a while, the speed diminished and was slowing up dramatically. In addition to this, my networking is really bad and slow. I don't know the reason for this, but I'm hoping someone here could give me an answer that would be helpful. Thanks a lot.

    Posted by: John Barbagallo on May 29, 2003 03:17 PM

  7. Hello all;
    I am having toshiba dynabook laptop, and windows xp licenced os is running on it. which is also recommended from the vendor. earlier it was working nicely. but now days my laptop keyboard is not in my controll. when i started my work after 10 minutes, the keyboard behave wrongly, like if i will press "s" it will ask to save my file, if i will press p it will ask to print my file..etc..etc...its seems like when i pressed any key the controll key automatically pressed.
    even i have re-installed three time but the problem is still there. i have also installed the linux but got the same problem in linux environment....
    could any body help me to kill the problem...
    still i am not much sure about that, is it a hardware problem or software problem..
    I am waiting for your valuable advice
    thanks & regards
    Brijesh shukla

    Posted by: Brijesh kumar Shukla on October 21, 2003 02:52 AM

  8. #7 - see if your control key is stuck. May be you can use a paper clip to slowly disengage it?

    Posted by: Babu on October 21, 2003 06:45 AM

  9. I have the 1905-S301 Toshiba Laptop i tried to run knoppix ive pressed F12 at startup got into the menu selected the CD drive and it didnt work any one know why? thanks in advance,
    -Toshiba 1905-S301 User

    Posted by: Toshiba 1905-S301 User on February 24, 2004 08:43 AM

  10. hello
    i'am from fairfax, VIRGINAI 22015. on sep 2003, i found a great deal that from the local store circit city, that kind of deal, no one can think for that, accoundingly $$$.00

    and 'i believ that it is the best laptop from sep 2001 till sep 2003.
    that is called that is called TOSHIBE SATELITE 1905-S301
    THAT BEST LAPRTOP, I'VE EVER USED, PERSONALLY, THE RAM, THE PROCESSOR, AND CD-RW

    Posted by: bilal agha on April 27, 2004 01:31 PM

  11. Como hacer que mi PC Toshiba 1905 lea DVD multizona?

    Posted by: Dario on June 1, 2004 05:30 AM

  12. Is any one know the best hard drive for Toshiba Satellite 1905-s301.
    I have 40gb, MK4018GAP, which have problem. System said "SMART: Failure Prodicted on the hard drive. ...,..."
    Is the toshiba 40gb, mk4026gax, fill the notebook?


    Posted by: jun chen on June 3, 2004 03:14 AM

  13. Hi,

    XP recovery discs, if your hard drive is fritzed, eg power surge and you then replace the hard drive with a nice shiny new one. I'm guessing here but will the "recovery disc" then be of no use ? If that is the case you would have to buy a copy of XP ? Is Microsoft making their money twice ? You would certainly be paying for it twice !

    Thanks,

    Angus.

    Posted by: Angus Mclean on September 29, 2004 05:39 PM
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