I want to connect a (corrupted) laptop to a pc via USB, but the pc will not recognise it- is there a solution?

Question

My laptop has a corrupt/missing \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM file and will not boot-up beyond that "DOS" error screen. (This occurred when my laptop ran out of power while running and presumably corrupted the system file in the process)

I would be happy to wipe my laptop and start afresh, but am hoping there is some way to enable my pc to recognise my laptop as a "Device with Removable Storage" on "My Computer". If this is not possible, is there a utility I could download which would enable my pc to access my laptop via the USB connection? (am worried the USB driver is not loaded and hence inoperable)

My laptop has no CD/DVD drive and Windows was supplied OEM (hence I do not have the Windows set-up CD-ROM which the message is requesting).

Bottom line: without the Windows set-up CD-ROM and a CD drive (neither of which I have), is there anything I can do?

Help much appreciated!

Answer 1

@Randall Flag, downloading an illegal version of Windows is ILLEGAL, when you pay for windows, you are paying for the software, AND the license.

YOU WILL NEED A CD DRIVE. (Try to get an external CD drive)

There is a way how you can address this problem. Your first, and easiest option is to download a liveCD (Linux, which is freeware OS), and burn it onto a CD/DVD. Once downloaded, and on a CD/DVD, insert it into the CD drive of the Laptop. Turn on the laptop, and keep pressing Delete, until you get into the BIOS. After, you should put the boot options from CD first, then HDD. Restart the computer, and it should boot linux from the CD. After that, linux should be running, allowing you to move/copy any files, or in your case format the hard drive so you can re-install windows.

Sorry for my laziness, and not putting it into steps, but I hope it helps.

Answer 2

Yes, get a cd-rom from the web, it's legal because what you buy is not the actual software, but the license to use it, and you have that because you bought it OEM. Restore the laptop to it's original configuration, and that's that. Have you tried entering the setup menu and restoring the last correct configuration? It usually doesn't work, but you never know... other than that you can remove the disk from the laptop and install it in the PC it will recognize it as another drive, but you have to know a lot about hardware to do this.