Toshiba Boot Error F2-F200-0002 - No startup or recovery

[bashes1]

Okay guys, this has me stumped.

I'm fixing a computer (Toshiba Satellite L500) for a friend because he uses Frostwire, he accidentally downloaded a hidden virus and it fried his HDD basically.

So the only option was to do a fully factory reset as this is an older Toshiba system and they didn't supply any restore disks -.-

So i into the Windows 7 restore wizard and it asks for an admin password, and i know what all the passwords are because i set up the computer for this bloke, so i call him up and he agrees that he's not changed any passwords so it must be this ridiculous virus screwing about.

I managed to get around this by a direct recovery to Windows Vista through a disk, installed vista and everything was going smooth. obviously there were not drivers installed but no need because i should now be able to restore the original windows 7 system through the hidden recovery partition on the HDD.

And i did, i went through everything fine, no admin passwords needed, then halfway through the Windows 7 recovery, it fails saying there is an error in the HDD...

I try to restore again and it prompts the message no bootloder. Then i try to recover to vista through disk, gets halfway through this installation and then fails...

Now it wont boot to anything (even a recovery) and prompts the message F2-F200-0002...

A bit of digging said this can be solved by holding 0 on boot-up, but 'no it can't' in this case.

Don't have recovery disks...

What do i do?

Thanks for your advice!

 

[theog]

I would Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
HD Diagnostic

   Information

We always assume you have made your Recovery Disks using the OEM manufacturer's Recovery Media Creator app the first day you had your new PC.
& made the Startup Repair CD.
startup repair disc-create
​

Did you make the OEM manufacturer's Recovery Disks?


How to use Toshiba Recovery.
How to use the Toshiba HDD Recovery Utility

You can order Toshiba Recovery disks from here:
https://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/support/jsp/serviceUnitVerification.jsp

 

[gregrocker]

After checking HD with maker's diagnostics extended CD scan, then run Disk Check from Vista or DVD Repair Command Line.

You need to boot the Recovery Disks or Win7 DVD to clean reinstall. Why are you messing with Vista for a Win7 machine?