Maybe off topic - strange problem with external DVD RW drive

I really don't know where to go with this, so I thought someone on here
might be able to help.
I have a Netbook (Toshiba NB100) that has no optical drive. I have a
Liteon external USB DVD/CD RW drive.
I am trying to install XP on the Netbook.
The netbook consistently refuses to boot from the XP CD. It either just
flips into the current OS (Ubuntu) or gives the dreaded "Can't find
NTLDR" error.
And yet - it will boot from an Ubuntu disk perfectly well, AND if I plug
this external drive into my Windows 7 machine, (another Toshiba
Satellite laptop) that machine will boot quite properly from the XP CD
in the same external drive!!!!
Can anyone cast any light on what on earth is going on?

On 18/10/2011 18:24, Gordon wrote:
> I really don't know where to go with this, so I thought someone on here
> might be able to help.
> I have a Netbook (Toshiba NB100) that has no optical drive. I have a
> Liteon external USB DVD/CD RW drive.
> I am trying to install XP on the Netbook.
> The netbook consistently refuses to boot from the XP CD. It either just
> flips into the current OS (Ubuntu) or gives the dreaded "Can't find
> NTLDR" error.
> And yet - it will boot from an Ubuntu disk perfectly well, AND if I plug
> this external drive into my Windows 7 machine, (another Toshiba
> Satellite laptop) that machine will boot quite properly from the XP CD
> in the same external drive!!!!
> Can anyone cast any light on what on earth is going on?

Have a good look at your Netbook hard drive; from Ubuntu, that is.
What size is it? How partitioned? Any sign of a Windows folder?

Ed

In article <j7kerg$v9u$>, says...
>
> On 18/10/2011 18:24, Gordon wrote:
> > I really don't know where to go with this, so I thought someone on here
> > might be able to help.
> > I have a Netbook (Toshiba NB100) that has no optical drive. I have a
> > Liteon external USB DVD/CD RW drive.
> > I am trying to install XP on the Netbook.
> > The netbook consistently refuses to boot from the XP CD. It either just
> > flips into the current OS (Ubuntu) or gives the dreaded "Can't find
> > NTLDR" error.
> > And yet - it will boot from an Ubuntu disk perfectly well, AND if I plug
> > this external drive into my Windows 7 machine, (another Toshiba
> > Satellite laptop) that machine will boot quite properly from the XP CD
> > in the same external drive!!!!
> > Can anyone cast any light on what on earth is going on?
>
> Have a good look at your Netbook hard drive; from Ubuntu, that is.
> What size is it?

80 GB

> How partitioned?

One partion

> Any sign of a Windows folder?

Nope

How would that impact on booting from a bootable CD?

On Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:24:09 +0100, Gordon <>
wrote:

>I really don't know where to go with this, so I thought someone on here
>might be able to help.
>I have a Netbook (Toshiba NB100) that has no optical drive. I have a
>Liteon external USB DVD/CD RW drive.
>I am trying to install XP on the Netbook.
>The netbook consistently refuses to boot from the XP CD. It either just
>flips into the current OS (Ubuntu) or gives the dreaded "Can't find
>NTLDR" error.

Repeated attempts yield TWO sets of results? When given the same
input, computers are supposed to provide the same results every time.
The netbook seems to have a problem with consistency.

>And yet - it will boot from an Ubuntu disk perfectly well,

Are you sure it's booting from the Ubuntu disc, or is it simply
booting from the internal drive (which also contains Ubuntu)?

>AND if I plug
>this external drive into my Windows 7 machine, (another Toshiba
>Satellite laptop) that machine will boot quite properly from the XP CD
>in the same external drive!!!!
>Can anyone cast any light on what on earth is going on?

Sounds like a config issue or other problem with the Netbook. Is there
a BIOS update that addresses an issue related to booting from an
external drive? Is there any BIOS update at all? Sometimes release
notes are not complete.

--

Char Jackson

On 18/10/2011 19:03, Gordon wrote:
> In article<j7kerg$v9u$>, says...
>>
>> On 18/10/2011 18:24, Gordon wrote:
>>> I really don't know where to go with this, so I thought someone on here
>>> might be able to help.
>>> I have a Netbook (Toshiba NB100) that has no optical drive. I have a
>>> Liteon external USB DVD/CD RW drive.
>>> I am trying to install XP on the Netbook.
>>> The netbook consistently refuses to boot from the XP CD. It either just
>>> flips into the current OS (Ubuntu) or gives the dreaded "Can't find
>>> NTLDR" error.
>>> And yet - it will boot from an Ubuntu disk perfectly well, AND if I plug
>>> this external drive into my Windows 7 machine, (another Toshiba
>>> Satellite laptop) that machine will boot quite properly from the XP CD
>>> in the same external drive!!!!
>>> Can anyone cast any light on what on earth is going on?
>>
>> Have a good look at your Netbook hard drive; from Ubuntu, that is.
>> What size is it?
>
> 80 GB
>
>> How partitioned?
>
> One partion
>
>> Any sign of a Windows folder?
>
> Nope
>
> How would that impact on booting from a bootable CD?
>

The problem is with what the CD finds in your system; and it's found
something it objects to.

Ed

In article <j7kh3j$fpc$>, says...
>
> On 18/10/2011 19:03, Gordon wrote:
> > In article<j7kerg$v9u$>, says...
> >>
> >> On 18/10/2011 18:24, Gordon wrote:
> >>> I really don't know where to go with this, so I thought someone on here
> >>> might be able to help.
> >>> I have a Netbook (Toshiba NB100) that has no optical drive. I have a
> >>> Liteon external USB DVD/CD RW drive.
> >>> I am trying to install XP on the Netbook.
> >>> The netbook consistently refuses to boot from the XP CD. It either just
> >>> flips into the current OS (Ubuntu) or gives the dreaded "Can't find
> >>> NTLDR" error.
> >>> And yet - it will boot from an Ubuntu disk perfectly well, AND if I plug
> >>> this external drive into my Windows 7 machine, (another Toshiba
> >>> Satellite laptop) that machine will boot quite properly from the XP CD
> >>> in the same external drive!!!!
> >>> Can anyone cast any light on what on earth is going on?
> >>
> >> Have a good look at your Netbook hard drive; from Ubuntu, that is.
> >> What size is it?
> >
> > 80 GB
> >
> >> How partitioned?
> >
> > One partion
> >
> >> Any sign of a Windows folder?
> >
> > Nope
> >
> > How would that impact on booting from a bootable CD?
> >
>
> The problem is with what the CD finds in your system; and it's found
> something it objects to.
>
> Ed

Eh? The CD isn't accessing the system when it boots....

Gordon wrote:
> I really don't know where to go with this, so I thought someone on here
> might be able to help.
> I have a Netbook (Toshiba NB100) that has no optical drive. I have a
> Liteon external USB DVD/CD RW drive.
> I am trying to install XP on the Netbook.
> The netbook consistently refuses to boot from the XP CD. It either just
> flips into the current OS (Ubuntu) or gives the dreaded "Can't find
> NTLDR" error.
> And yet - it will boot from an Ubuntu disk perfectly well, AND if I plug
> this external drive into my Windows 7 machine, (another Toshiba
> Satellite laptop) that machine will boot quite properly from the XP CD
> in the same external drive!!!!
> Can anyone cast any light on what on earth is going on?

In general, software is a bit too nosy for its own good :-)

I have a machine here, where if you zero a disk (dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda),
the machine will hang in the BIOS on the next boot attempt, and it doesn't
matter what you offer as boot media. That drive has to be unplugged,
before the boot process will work normally (I can then put that drive
in a USB enclosure, and fix it). Even if the CD is ahead of the hard drive in
the boot order, that BIOS still insists on looking at the MBR (and
it gets pissed if it doesn't see a well-defined structure it
recognizes). The BIOS really shouldn't do that.

Before doing anything else, if you intend to keep the UBuntu that is
on the netbook hard drive, you may want to save it somewhere while
you experiment. Things important to Ubuntu, might be MBR, sector 1-62
(grub hides in there), main Ubuntu partition, swap partition etc. You
don't need to back all of it up... if you know how to reinstall grub :-)
I don't know how to do that.

*******

There is a tool here, which can write the MBR. It's supposed to
write some kind of Windows MBR, from Linux.

http://ms-sys.sourceforge.net/

Step 1, use GNU parted to create your FAT32 partition and file system:

parted (then create partition and file system)

Step 2, write the MBR:

ms-sys -w /dev/hda

Perhaps that would be enough, to clean out the MBR. And then,
maybe the picky installer CD will work.

In the past, I would have made the assertion that zeroing the disk
would be enough, but that's no longer a suggestion on my list.

I have a relatively small collection of machines here, and
I've seen enough flaky behavior like you're seeing, to not
be surprised by this. I've had trouble installing Windows (on
a previous Linux HDD) and Linux (on a previous Windows HDD).
"If in doubt, hammer it out..."

Just a guess,
Paul

On 18/10/2011 20:12, Gordon wrote:
> In article<j7kh3j$fpc$>, says...
>>
>> On 18/10/2011 19:03, Gordon wrote:
>>> In article<j7kerg$v9u$>, says...
>>>>
>>>> On 18/10/2011 18:24, Gordon wrote:
>>>>> I really don't know where to go with this, so I thought someone on here
>>>>> might be able to help.
>>>>> I have a Netbook (Toshiba NB100) that has no optical drive. I have a
>>>>> Liteon external USB DVD/CD RW drive.
>>>>> I am trying to install XP on the Netbook.
>>>>> The netbook consistently refuses to boot from the XP CD. It either just
>>>>> flips into the current OS (Ubuntu) or gives the dreaded "Can't find
>>>>> NTLDR" error.
>>>>> And yet - it will boot from an Ubuntu disk perfectly well, AND if I plug
>>>>> this external drive into my Windows 7 machine, (another Toshiba
>>>>> Satellite laptop) that machine will boot quite properly from the XP CD
>>>>> in the same external drive!!!!
>>>>> Can anyone cast any light on what on earth is going on?
>>>>
>>>> Have a good look at your Netbook hard drive; from Ubuntu, that is.
>>>> What size is it?
>>>
>>> 80 GB
>>>
>>>> How partitioned?
>>>
>>> One partion
>>>
>>>> Any sign of a Windows folder?
>>>
>>> Nope
>>>
>>> How would that impact on booting from a bootable CD?
>>>
>>
>> The problem is with what the CD finds in your system; and it's found
>> something it objects to.
>>
>> Ed
>
> Eh? The CD isn't accessing the system when it boots....

It depends how you define "system".

Ed

On Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:24:09 +0100, Gordon <> wrote:

>I really don't know where to go with this, so I thought someone on here
>might be able to help.
>I have a Netbook (Toshiba NB100) that has no optical drive. I have a
>Liteon external USB DVD/CD RW drive.
>I am trying to install XP on the Netbook.
>The netbook consistently refuses to boot from the XP CD. It either just
>flips into the current OS (Ubuntu) or gives the dreaded "Can't find
>NTLDR" error.
>And yet - it will boot from an Ubuntu disk perfectly well, AND if I plug
>this external drive into my Windows 7 machine, (another Toshiba
>Satellite laptop) that machine will boot quite properly from the XP CD
>in the same external drive!!!!
>Can anyone cast any light on what on earth is going on?


Try changing a BIOS setting from AHCI to IDE mode...

Unk

On Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:25:47 -0400, Unk wrote:

> On Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:24:09 +0100, Gordon <> wrote:
>
>>I really don't know where to go with this, so I thought someone on here
>>might be able to help.
>>I have a Netbook (Toshiba NB100) that has no optical drive. I have a
>>Liteon external USB DVD/CD RW drive.
>>I am trying to install XP on the Netbook.
>>The netbook consistently refuses to boot from the XP CD. It either just
>>flips into the current OS (Ubuntu) or gives the dreaded "Can't find
>>NTLDR" error.
>>And yet - it will boot from an Ubuntu disk perfectly well, AND if I plug
>>this external drive into my Windows 7 machine, (another Toshiba
>>Satellite laptop) that machine will boot quite properly from the XP CD
>>in the same external drive!!!!
>>Can anyone cast any light on what on earth is going on?
>
> Try changing a BIOS setting from AHCI to IDE mode...
>
> Unk

You know, I think you're on to something...Good thinking.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)