So i have been given an old compaq laptop which has a bust hard drive.
It has windows XP on it and when i try and boot it says "Disk error - press ctr + alt + del to reboot"

So i assume the disk is stuffed and have ordered another one - because its a 2.5" IDE hard drive it is going to take a week to get here so i was keen to try the laptop out before then.

Now i have used live CD's and USB's before and even tried a couple of full linux installs but i have had no real experince using linux.

I have now tried two different linux live USB's (Mint and ubuntu) and both have similar problems.

If i boot off the usb with the hard drive in then the linux loading screen takes a good 5-10 mins to boot and then goes to a black screen with commands - similar to the boot phase before windows starts. then it just freezes.

If i try booting without the hard drive the loading screen is only up for ~30seconds then a similar black page with commands starts scrolling until i hear the linux start-up sound and my mouse appears over this black screen with white text.

Then i can move my mouse for a few minutes and then it will freeze up.

Checked the MD5 hash on both .iso's.

As far as i know everything else in the laptop is fine - have tested anything this is just what i have been told.


Not sure what the problem is, any help would be great?

Cheers