Re: How to do a Windows repair reinstall on a Toshiba laptop

Yes, the Toshiba restore media is image based.

Toshiba machines are very, very generic and unlike some machines are generally a pleasure to work with. In general they don't use any restore or diagnostic partitions, and it's easy to do an install with either OEM or retail media. In most cases, if you use OEM media of the same windows version, you can even use the Toshiba product key.

[There is a hidden partition on most newer Toshiba machines, but it's only a media player for playing music (and in some cases video) media (CD and/or DVD) without booting Windows. It's not essential if you don't want that functionality. On machines that have this partition, the Toshiba installation will burn a CD that can recreate it, be sure to make that CD before you wipe the Toshiba installation of Windows.]


C.Joseph Drayton wrote:
Barrabas wrote:
I'm considering options for an outlook express problem.
A fix might be to reinstall windows xp, but from the manual
the only way is to return to the factory condition, is there another way.
I might need this for something else one day anyway.
System restore never seems to work. I go back a couple of hours
and it says it cannot be restored.



Hi Barrabas,

From what you have said, I believe what shipped with your laptop is an OS 'image'. What that basically means is that they installed the OS, machine specific drivers and third party software. They then took a snapshot of the disk (IE. image'). They then either burned id to a CD/DVD or created a partition for the image.

The problem with an image disk is that it can not do a repair install. Depending on the brand/machine, you could use a 'retail' full version of WinXP to do a repair install. I have had some success with this. I have done it with IBM, HP and Compaq computers. I have never gotten this to work with a Sony or Acer laptop. I have never tried it with a Toshiba, so I have no idea whether it will work or not. At $300 for a retail version of WinXP, I would not feel comfortable recommending that you try it since your laptop may not let you do the repair install.

The basic problem, is that although 99% of the files on a WinXP disk are the same, the license type effects what kind of installs you do (including a repair install). I have run into the problem enough, that I have an unactivated/unregistered WinXP Home & WinXP Pro disk that I use specifically for this purpose.

Because laptops allow very little upgrading, it is very easy for the manufacture to create OEM install parameters. For my laptop, if I use the WinXP OS disk (not image), and can do an install and it doesn't even TRY to activate. It doesn't need to since that disk is tied to that laptop. If I put in my retail disk, I have to activate it.

I can accept that MS wants to protect its profit line, but as a result of them doing that it does make things that one would think should be easy either difficult or impossible. I will add though that the laptop manufacturer has to accept some responsibility for this problem. The manufacturer can by full licenses or OEM licenses to install on their product. They chose OEM because it is so much cheaper. A lot of manufacturers though do allow you to buy a full OEM license version for their computer (they of course pass the cost to you), for my computer a HP dv8000, the disk was $150. The disk though a full version is still OEM, so it has all install capabilities, but the license key for it will only work on the dv8000.

At this stage if everything else is working on the machine, you might want to go to a WinXP news group and see if there is a solution for your Outlook problem. Any other 'legal' solution that you can do as an OS solution will involve spending some money.

Ciao . . . C.Joseph
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