Hello, I've been currently working on a laptop my mother in-law recently handed over to us.

It wouldn't boot up or reformat at all, so I tried having at It. I used the Toshiba recovery CD, and that wouldn't work. I checked the BIOS and no HDD was detected. After messing around with It more, I discovered that It will detect It every once and a while. So I kept using the CD over and over until It would finally reach set up. Upon set up, a message came up. "Output A:\GHOST.err?" Whether I hit yes or no, It would reboot. I don't fully understand the error, but the laptop doesn't have a floppy drive(someone suggested copying the file to a floppy from another computer to try and copy it from there during set up), so I tried seeing what else I could do with the laptop.

I tried my Windows XP CD. I've had to reformat that laptop alot with my XP CD in the past, so I knew It worked. After It loads all the setup files and such, the three choices came up. Setup Windows XP, Repair, and Exit. I tried setup and It told me no HDDs were installed on the computer. I saw that coming. I try a few more times, no luck. I also tried repair too, for the heck of it.

I figured the HDD was the problem, so I bought a brand new one. A Samsung MP0603H 60GB 5400RPM. We received it today, so I went upon using the setup CDs again. Same exact problems.

I don't know if something is wrong with the controller board or what exactly is the problem, but I could really use some help. I've been trying to take It apart to at least look at the boards and such, but the screws are being a real pain. I've gotten over half of them out, so I'm not giving up.

Any suggestions or help what so ever would be terrific, thank you!