Toshiba NB505 - replaced failed drive, now cannot boot W7 starter from USB stick..

[eimkeith]

The SSD failed on the NB505, and I replaced it with another one - didn't occur to me to consider how I was going to get the OS back on it, of course.

Toshiba sold me a W7 Stater SNPC for Toshiba thumb drive. The NB505 will not boot from the USB ports, and the FDD boot setting - although present in the bios setup menu -cannot be selected (it can be reordered, but will not appear as a boot option under F12.

What's the workaround here? I only got about 5 months of use from this thing back in 2011, and I'm tired of looking at it in the corner - would like to put it and its new SSD to use...

Ideas?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, @eimkeith!

I'd recommend you check if you have the latest BIOS version installed for this laptop. You should be able to see this, once you select the product on the manufacturer's official website and check the available downloads & utilities for it. Afterwards, make sure that you have the USB as a boot priority and also make sure that the USB ports are enabled through the BIOS settings. IF you are still facing the same issues afterwards, try resetting BIOS through the interface settings.
Afterwards, I'd give it a try to install Windows onto it again. You mentioned that you haven't used it in awhile, what exactly was the issue with the laptop?

Keep me posted & good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[eimkeith]

How would I go about updating the BIOS on it, considering it has no OS at the moment and doesn't seem to want to play nice with the USB ports??

(Fairly certain I do NOT have the latest BIOS, will check on that this morning.)

The netbook had a hard drive failure a few years ago; after a year or so, I got around to replacing the drive and ordered the W7 USB; just yesterday unearthed in the office and decided to make something happen with it.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hello again, @eimkeith!

Unfortunately, you will indeed need another computer to create a bootable media with a newer BIOS version. However, you don't necessarily need an OS for that. For further details about flashing your laptop's BIOS, you need to follow the instructions given in the manual that came with the laptop or you could find an online version of it ( usually on the laptop's official product page).
I did some further research and found out that a lot of users have a similar issue with the same laptop model, more specifically not being able to boot through the USB ports. Another thing you should check is to see if you have enabled Safe Boot. Make sure you disable it and then try to switch the boot priority to the USB ports first.

Hope it works. Best of luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[eimkeith]

Well, cannot configure the boot menu to utilize the USB, despite having downloaded the BIOS update and having put it on a bootable USB (using RUFUS.)

Toshiba support is non-existent - I cannot even speak to someone about the W7 recovery USB they SOLD to me without paying for tech support. Amazing.

I'm wondering if I can load W7 directly to the SSD using another computer? I have a remote hard drive port...

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

You should most definitely be able to install the SSD on another computer indeed, however, I'm afraid that the Windows 7 recovery won't work. The operating system is tied to the motherboard of the computer, whereas a hard drive or a solid-state drive is just a carrier for the system files. If you have another computer where you wish to upgrade the storage to an SSD, you can do that indeed. However, you will need to use the same OS version that was previously installed on that computer or acquire a new genuine Windows installation.

Moreover, even if you get this laptop to work with the SSD, the SATA interface would bottleneck its performance. A solid-state drive is capable of reaching up to 500 MB/s (even more), however it needs a SATA III ( 6 Gb/s = 600 MB/s) connection. Older laptop/PC models tend to have a SATA II port which is capable of reaching only up to 300 MB/s.

I'm not sure what exactly do you mean by a remote hard drive port, but let me know if you have more questions.
SuperSoph_WD

 

[eimkeith]

Is Serial ATA-300 SATA III? (the Serial ATA-300 is from CNET's specs on this netbook)

I don't know the correct terminology for it, but I have a powered, USB connected device for powering up and reading hard drives outside of my computer - I use it to scan for documents we need to keep at work before I toss old drives. I didn't know if I could use it to load W7 on the SSD, THEN install it in the netbook...?

If so, I'll have to buy a license for W7, which is fine - the recovery USB has W7 Starter on it, so no great loss there aside from the $40 or so that Toshiba charged me for it...

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Unfortunately, @eimkeith, listed like this Serial ATA-300 is SATA II ( 3 Gb/s = 300 MB/s) and its SATA III alternative is usually written as Serial ATA-600 ( 6 Gb/s = 600 MB/s). This means that the laptop would bottleneck the SSD's performance and limit the transfer rate speed to ~ 300 MB/s.

I don't think that the installation plan would work mostly because the operating system is tied to the motherboard of the computer as I already mentioned. You can't install this Windows 7 version on an externally connected storage device because Windows setup refuses to recognize external drives as an installation target and it won't show up in the destination volumes/partitions list in the Installation media.

Moreover, a solid-state drive needs to be connected via SATA as the USB connection bottlenecks its transfer rate capabilities even further. Another reason why it needs to be inside the system is because you'd also have to configure the SATA mode in AHCI for optimal performance of the SSD.

Hope this helps you. Keep me posted if you have further concerns.
SuperSoph_WD