Do you have a live CD/DVD/USB/SD? You might ask your friend to let you download Knoppix, for instance, and burn it to a CD.
Or the install disk should do, really, if you are comfortable with the command line. Go into the BIOS with the drive detached. Set the BIOS to boot to install media first, whether you are using CD/DVD or a flash device. Then let it boot the live/install, just to be sure it does. (I'm thinking it might.) If it doesn't boot a live CD/DVD/USB/SD image, well, we'll think about that if it comes to that. If it boots the live/install image, power back down the proper way and attach the hard disk that is being recalcitrant. Then watch it like a hawk while it boots, to be sure you got the boot priorities in the BIOS right. BIOSses can be recalcitrant, too. It might take several tries to get the priorities right. If it really does hang the system to have the HD plugged in when you are booting a live image or an install image, given the history you've described, I'm going to suggest giving it about 10% odds that the HD was already failing. Not positive, but a possibility. Joel Rees -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/caar43ipgz8zk08nphtjmx-eb5uqs0koktan7_kbtsauqtdn...@mail.gmail.com
