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Tech Support Forum Windows OS's
1

Hi all, I hope Im in the correct forum…does anyone know how I can repair a laptop that gives out this error:

ERROR #88, unable to find specified drive

My son is in the USA studying and his laptop is giving this error.

Thanks in advance;)

2

[QUOTE=Sharr76]
ERROR #88, unable to find specified drive
[/QUOTE]
we could use some more info[ul][]make & model of laptop[]what OS[]when and where does this error occur (after POST)[]and possibly a brief spec of the laptop[/ul]

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Welcome to hardwareforums Sharr76 :beer:

Does your son by any chance have a Apple Macintosh Laptop? (Apple Mac)

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Hi, sorry for the delay have been waiting for my son to provide the information.

the laptop is a travelmate 290
Make: acer
the OS is windows XP home edition

He says:
when he puts the system CD in, it works then, he has to put the recovery CD 1 in, works for a while then the error comes up, error #88 unable to find drive specified.

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[QUOTE=Sharr]
Then he puts the system CD in, it works then, he has to put the recovery CD 1 in, works for a while then the error comes up, error #88 unable to find drive specified.
[/QUOTE]
:confused: so, is he booting from CD or HDD:confused:

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Booting from the CD

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is this the laptop, it’s the nearest to the travalmate 290 i could find

[ot]the problem sound familiar, i’ll just search the net[/ot]

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i just sent a PM to Karan, cos i can’t remember what the problem is and i can’t find anything about it

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No that laptop is nothing like the one i have.

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well i can’t find a travalmate 290, could you please have a look on the net

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This is the laptop

TravelMate 290 Home Page

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[QUOTE=Sharr]
TravelMate 290 Home Page
[/QUOTE]
thanks, i would have thought Karan would have had a look by now, do you want me to start re-diagnosing the problem ?[ot]even though i know it is a problem i know someone has had before[/ot]

13

Please and thanks..:slight_smile:

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right, why did he change the boot order in the BIOS (to enable booting from the CD)[ot]is the HDD not recognised[/ot]and while the system is booting from CD you coul ask him to try a live linux CD (like PCLinuxOS, Ubuntu or Kubuntu there all easy to use, you jus need to see if it will boot or he may be more comfotable with Bart PE

Edit: Bart PE was designed to fix XP

15

i didnt change the order becasue it will not allow me to boot from the HDD, it come up with the boot screen allowing me to boot from Hard Disk C, CD-ROM/DVD, DISKETTE A, PXE LAN. There the options to boot the system up, i use CD-ROM because i have the boot CDs and no other option works.

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[QUOTE=Sharr]
i use CD-ROM because i have the boot CDs and no other option works.
[/QUOTE]
what we need to do is find out why it won’t boot from HDD, which is why i suggested Bart PE and the other Live CD’s,lets take a step back,

is the HDD detected by the BIOS ?

if yes, the problem lies elseware

if not the HDD could be dead, try the HDD in another laptop & try a known working HDD in the laptop

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I guess then computer is detecting the HDD. I was luking at the Acers website and found that there are some updates available for your notebook but I think that wont be usefull till ur computer starts working, I was wondering that if Acer also provides Diagnostic tools like Dell but no…
As u said he can use the CD, ask him to run with the XP cd again and go into repairing…then enter command

chkdsk /r

I cant find anything on the search engines…
[ot]

Soi 4 d l8 rply, I waz out of twn frm last 3 days… at my uncles 50th bdae Party and didnt chk d HWF frm thea.
[/quote]

[/ot]

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[QUOTE=Karan]
[ot]at my uncles 50th bdae Party and didnt chk d HWF frm thea.[/ot]
glad u back, enjoy it ?
[/quote]
good point Karan, Recovery Console[ot]didn’t think or that:doh:[/ot]