Hi Matt

If the idea is to help you're friend with any issues wouldn't a remote desktop client such as Teamviewer or Anydesk be more appropriate. I use Anydesk to connect between my home and work PC's and friends computers running Linux, it's very simple to set up and use, it's fast and very stable

https://anydesk.com/en

Graeme

Just out of curiosity I created a folder and named it "Untitled Folder" and put it /home/Documents  then in the terminal typed cd "~/Documents/Untitled Folder "

[email protected] ~ $ cd "~/Documents/Untitled Folder"
bash: cd: ~/Documents/Untitled Folder: No such file or directory


then typed

cd ~/Documents/Untitled Folder
[email protected] ~ $ cd  ~/Documents/Untitled Folder
bash: cd: too many arguments

Then typed cd ~/Documents/Untitled\ Folder

[email protected] ~ $ cd  ~/Documents/Untitled\ Folder
[email protected] ~/Documents/Untitled Folder $

I'm not saying you're wrong Keith but it doesn't seem to be working the way I'm doing it do you see anything I'm doing wrong ?

Hi goalie

Your inputting 2 commands at the same time you need to remove the apostrophes & the ls -l at the end
another problem could be the blank space between PHILIPS & UFD

copy & paste the following command at the command prompt


then once you're in the PHILIPS UFD directory


then post the output



Graeme

Great news
Glad you got it working Matt I applaud your perseverance

Why was the problem drive causing the BIOS to ignore the HDD, despite it being first in line?

Wish I could answer that, but my guess is the DVD & HDD are connected to the same IDE channel in a Master/Slave configuration and the faulty DVD was probably taking out the whole channel

Does that make sense ?

Anyway all's well that ends well

Graeme

When you ran did you have a DVD with files written on it in the tray ?

if not can you please do that and post the output ?



Graeme

ok well if the HDD isn't booting only when the DVD drive is connected, then that would suggest the DVD drive is faulty or worse so if you have another DVD drive you can connect it would be worth the effort to confirm that, it would be helpful to know for certain that the drive is ok.

alternatively you can try completely powering down the laptop, remove the battery for 30 secs or so reconnect the DVD drive and try booting up ( I know that sounds crazy but stranger things have happened)

otherwise I don't know what else to suggest at this point.

RE the USB
it's possible that it's capable of USB boot but turned off by default and there may be some setting hidden away in the BIOS you can change to allow it, I had this issue a long time ago where I had to change something in the BIOS to allow USB boot but it's so long ago I can't remember and I've trawled the internet and can't find anything regarding your machine

Graeme

Not really.  At present, I have removed the DVD drive in order to allow the HDD to boot up.  The DVD drive is still showing in the boot order.  I think it's a standard setting.

yeah you're probably right

So am I right in thinking that when you reconnect the DVD drive it just slots inside a bay, you don't have to physically connect any cables ?

Graeme