Member Avatar for JohnnyPhantom

Hey Everyone!
I'm stuck and could use a hand ^-^

I have a Toshiba Portege M200 thats giving me a head ache :P

I just got the machine, it was working great but was used, and I wanted to erase everything on it and start fresh. I preformed the steps listed here and everything worked great!

I then messed up the software while trying a few things to configure the machine to more of my liking (software wise, have not changed the hardware at all).

Decided it be best to just start over again, so once again I do

but now, I get nothing.. :(

The M200 only supports a handful of Toshiba's CD/DVD drives to boot from, I do not have any. The recovery CD is just a bootable Ghost imager. When i preform the steps from I get the Ghost imager to come up, it formats the drive, loads the files, says complete, reboots and then all i get is the post, then a blank screen with a flashing DOS cursor in the top left "_" thats it. I've attempted to re-ghost the machine several times, trying different things like formatting the hard drive first, or creating a partition and not formatting first, or even removing all partitions first, and then running the Ghost app. each time the same result.

Then I tried a few hardware changes, I installed known good Memory, a known good hard drive, playing with the limited system bios (which are updated to the highest) and nada.

I even removed the hard drive from this machine and installed it into a sled to see if Ghost was actually writing files to it, and it is, every-things there.

Any suggestions?


Thanks everyone!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Member #758415

Dani AI

Generated

Based on 's report (Ghost runs, files restored, then POST followed by a blinking cursor), the problem is most likely at the boot-layer level: either the restored image did not make the partition bootable, the partition boot sector/MBR was not written, or the XP boot files are missing/misconfigured. and point in the right direction — repair of the boot infrastructure is required — but a few targeted checks often fix this without a full reinstall.

Because the drive has already been mounted on another PC, inspect the partition and boot files there. Confirm the restored volume is a primary partition and marked Active/bootable, then verify the XP root contains the three critical files used by older Windows boots. From a working Windows or rescue environment the following quick checks/copies are useful:

dir C:\
copy X:\i386\ntldr C:\
copy X:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\
notepad C:\boot.ini

(Adjust drive letters to match the host system and the attached disk; copy the files from the OS install source if they are missing. Boot.ini must point to the correct partition number.)

If those files exist and the partition is active but the cursor still appears, the partition boot sector or the MBR was not restored. When re-applying a Ghost image, restore it as a full-disk (MBR + partition table) image rather than a partition-only image. If the laptop cannot boot CDs, perform the MBR/boot-sector rewrite or a full MBR restore from the host PC while the drive is attached, or use a boot-rescue kit that can run from USB/another machine.

Quick checklist to resolve the blinking cursor after Ghost restore:

  1. Partition is primary + Active; 2) ntldr + ntdetect.com + boot.ini present and correct; 3) restore partition boot sector/MBR or re-image as a full-disk image; 4) confirm BIOS sees the drive first in the boot order. These steps complement the suggestions from @Rik_ and @Member#758415 and address the common Ghost-specific traps that leave an XP-era laptop stuck at a flashing cursor.

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Member Avatar for Rik_

Looks like you will have to install it with an original Microsoft Windows cd.

Member Avatar for Member #758415

Looks like you will have to install it with an original Microsoft Windows cd.

True, he could be pushing a bad image on to the drive. He could try re-installing the MBR.

Member Avatar for Rik_

That's exactly what I'm thinking!

Member Avatar for Member #758415

Steps to recover the MBR:
1) Get an original Windows CD.
2) Start your laptop from it and enter recovery console.
3) Do these commands.
fixmbr /rebuild
fixboot /restore

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