How do you factory restore these new fangled computers?

Mr Unoriginal

Mr Unoriginal

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Goddamn. I thought I was fairly computer literate, but new computers hold your hand so damn much I can't seem to get anything done anymore. I have a 4 year old Toshiba Satellite laptop. It did not come with any recovery discs or Windows Vista discs. I can't seem to find a way to reformat the entire thing and start fresh as the day it was born. Any help?
 
[quote name='retrodog4']go to your control panel and find system restore. I think you can find a system restore point there.[/QUOTE]


Meh, System Restore is an option that has never, ever, produced anything decent as a result. Unless you're talking about a machine that is constantly being reinstalled, a System Restore will do nothing for you.

A clean reinstall is needed when things start to get really ugly. Unfortunately with no discs, finding an Operating system install, and drivers is a big headache. Why can't they make it easier? Oh, wait, I know 'cause they want you to buy that useless warranty that will surely expire about a day before the sucker dies.
 
Retro, I tried what you said, there are no restore points (I think because of the problem I'm having), but I don't think there would be a factory restore point anyway.

Dragonjug, this is the crap that annoys me, even at first when you stopped getting restore discs with the machine, you could make one yourself, now I can't even find that option.

I did find a website that had something to try which apparently restores from a partitioned section of the hard drive. I may try that since I don't have much to lose.
 
You could just reinstall an operating system - when I need to wipe a computer and get it "factory fresh" I always install TinyXP and then add the other programs in as I see fit (I'm usually installing these things into an arcade cabinet so I don't need much functionality).
 
[quote name='javeryh']You could just reinstall an operating system - when I need to wipe a computer and get it "factory fresh" I always install TinyXP and then add the other programs in as I see fit (I'm usually installing these things into an arcade cabinet so I don't need much functionality).[/QUOTE]

I'm probably just going to use that computer for light word processing and the internet, is TinyXP free?
 
Unless you made the discs when you first got the computer (which you obviously didn't), you are SOL AFAIK. I've read that making those discs just takes an image of how your OS currently is, so if it is messed up it won't help. When I tried making recovery discs after shit hit the fan for my Toshiba laptop, they didn't work at all. I had to get them to send me pre-made recovery discs, though I was able to get them free of charge since it was in my first year of ownership.
 
There's usually a restore partition that you can boot to. When you power on the computer, pay careful attention what's displayed on the screen. Often times, it'll ask you to hit F6 or F12 or something similar to access the boot partition/system recovery.
 
[quote name='Mr Unoriginal']I'm probably just going to use that computer for light word processing and the internet, is TinyXP free?[/QUOTE]
If your just gonna type a little and use internet you might actually save yourself a lot of trouble and try ubuntu...
Download the iso, burn it, boot it. Try it out and if you dont like it you dont have to install it.
Its worth a shot imo and might save you some trouble.
 
[quote name='freddy_']If your just gonna type a little and use internet you might actually save yourself a lot of trouble and try ubuntu...
Download the iso, burn it, boot it. Try it out and if you dont like it you dont have to install it.
Its worth a shot imo and might save you some trouble.[/QUOTE]

I appreciate the idea, but the computer will be for my wife mainly and I think she would have a conniption if it wasn't windows on there.
 
TinyXP is free - you just burn it to a disc and then boot from it on the new computer. It is really easy. Just Google it and you will find places to DL it from - it's probably (read: definitely) not legal but whatever.
 
You don't have a restore partition somewhere? Probably labeled Phoenix. You should be able to boot to it instead of Windows and run a restore from there.

You could also attempt to google your particular model and see if someone has a restore disc image to download.
 
Like others have said, see if your laptop has a recovery partition you can boot to. You usually have to tap one of the function keys like a crazed monkey as you boot to access it. This assumes that you still have the original hard drive and you haven't wiped it previously by some other means.

Otherwise, if you're still running the original install of the OS, if your machine shipped with a windows utility to create a set of recovery CD's, it should still be there, no?

Maybe some nice CAG will mail you a copy of their Toshiba OEM Vista...what version? Home? what?
 
m6oo brings up a good point - do you have a license key for a copy of Vista? Because you can download isos from Microsoft directly, burn them, and run a full installation. Of course, you'll wipe the drive in the process, meaning you lose any programs loaded by Toshiba, but I highly doubt you'd miss anything that can't be replaced by a free/open source alternative.
 
You may have some software already installed that will let you create restore discs. Everything I've found on Toshibas seem to say they ship with recovery discs though, so it may not have a recovery partition.
 
Well I was partially stupid and partially helped by the thread. I did have to start the recovery project by hitting an F-key like mad while the computer booted up. It had the recovery in some menus there but asked me for discs. I had to search all over, but I did find them, so now I'm back in business.
 
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