'Unreadable/Corrupted' HDD, cant boot to anything.

Well, to start, i have Toshiba Satellite P855 with a pre-installed windows 8, I dont have any CD, like a backup or windows 8 cd if u know what I mean, so im guessing its an OEM machine (im still not sure what OEM's are)? please feel free to correct me if im wrong. So the problem started when one day, i woke up, turn on my laptop, and when i get to the login screen and put on my password, which i always do, i just get to a black screen after, no start screen, no dekstop, just plain black, even tried pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL, tried to reboot a few times, so i tried boot to safe mode which in fortune it worked, so I decoded to reformat my laptop, backed up my important files, and since my external drive is already full, I connected my HDD via an enclosure to another laptop which is a vista, to transfer the remianing files there and reformat, (ive done this twice before), but im having trouble in opening it since the files are in documents folder, i used to be able to open the path Windows>Users>ME>Docs, however i just get stuck on the 'administrative controls'. so i decided to put back my hard drive on my laptop where it should be, to move the files back, but now i get a black screen right after the TOSHIBA "leading innovation" logo, and if i wait long enough, sometimes it would just crash and show the " sorry blah blah" screen, restart and do the same process, even tried getting to the HDD recovery menu, but no luck, would just crash, means, i cant boot to safe mode, nor reformat through the advanced troubleshooting menu.

So i put it back on the enclosure to connect it to the vista, but now its asking me to format the drive before i can use it. The problem is, i dont have any CD with me, so if i format it, i would totally lose my windows. So i dont know what to do. Can someone help me? I'm truly sorry for the long post, just want to give the entire details.



P.S. on the Format menu, theres a button "Restore Device Defaults" what does it do?, would it format my drive without losing my OS? Heres a screenshot.

Format WILL ERASE your hard disk. DON'T USE IT ON YOUR HARD DISK. "Restore Device Defaults" are formatting defaults, such as Allocation Unit Size, it WILL ERASE everything on your hard disk.

Try contacting Toshiba and ask for a set of Windows 8.1 discs. I just contacted Dell for missing disks for my new laptop and they sent some for free.

OEM means Original Equipment Manufacturer, in other words in your case, Toshiba. An OEM version is not the same as a retail version of Windows 8.1. They install a specially configured version (OEM) of Windows 8.1 from master hard disk images on their production line. It is a version tailored to their production environment already configured for a new PC. The also install a recovery partition on the new PC. You have to make a set of recovery disks from software on the new PC. They should send you a backup of Windows 8.1 on CD or DVD that you can re-install. I would call Toshiba and tell them your computer crashed before you could make a backup copy from the recovery partition.

Antilope said:

Format WILL ERASE your hard disk. DON'T USE IT ON YOUR HARD DISK. "Restore Device Defaults" are formatting defaults, such as Allocation Unit Size, it WILL ERASE everything on your hard disk.

Try contacting Toshiba and ask for a set of Windows 8.1 discs. I just contacted Dell for missing disks for my new laptop and they sent some for free.

OEM means Original Equipment Manufacturer, in other words in your case, Toshiba. An OEM version is not the same as a retail version of Windows 8.1. They install a specially configured version (OEM) of Windows 8.1 from master hard disk images on their production line. It is a version tailored to their production environment already configured for a new PC. The also install a recovery partition on the new PC. You have to make a set of recovery disks from software on the new PC. They should send you a backup of Windows 8.1 on CD or DVD that you can re-install. I would call Toshiba and tell them your computer crashed before you could make a backup copy from the recovery partition.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that, but the problem is, my parents just shipped my laptop cause they bought it from U.S. and im here at Phil... :I is it possible to make a request for windows 8 discs from a Toshiba store branch here in my country? And btw, theres a 'Windows 8/8.1 tool' microsoft have in their site, which only runs in windows 7/8/8.1, and since this is a vista im currently using i cant run the program to make a 'Recovery Drive', do you have any idea if it would work, i was gonna borrow my cousins windows 7 pc for it, but his computer screen uhm...got in a sort of accident so he said he needs to take it to a repair shop first. So its been over a week since i last laid hands on my windows 8 laptop.

If your Windows 8 machine won't boot into a safe mode, you really need a Windows 8 or 8.1 disk. If your Windows 8 is an OEM version, Toshiba should be able to provide a Windows 8 or 8.1 disk, either for free or for a slight cost. If your laptop is an OEM version, the Windows 8 product key is embedded in the bios and will be detected when Windows is re-installed.

Is there any program or tool that can make recovery discs for windows 8/8.1 :I damn this is givin meh so much butthurt.. :I

If you can't boot your Windows 8 machine, you can't make recovery discs or a USB recovery flash drive from from its recovery partition. In that case you need either a Windows 8 or 8.1 disc or an .ISO image to make a Windows 8 or 8.1 disc.