Help with my Toshiba bootable problem

[Deleted User]

luci - you probably have either a restore partition on your hard drive or else a program on the computer that you can use to create a restore disk if you plug in a DVD writer. The restore partition would automatically put the computer back to the way it was when you got it, but of course it is no good if your hard drive ever needs to be replaced! Do you have a Windows disk (for the same version of Windows) from any other computer?

luci

I don't have an external DVD driver as I've never needed one for the desktop or laptop.

No I don't have a disk as this one is Windows 7 and the other 2 are Vista.

[Deleted User]

Well, I guess you have to hope that nothing goes wrong! Be sure to keep backups of everything and then it should be fairly straightforward to use the restore partition (which would probably erase everything else on the hard drive). If the hard drive ever fails and needs to be replaced, would you be able to replace it yourself? If you wouldn't know how to do it, then whichever repair service you use would probably be able to reinstall Windows at the same time as replacing the drive.
If you did replace it yourself, then the best solution is to borrow a disk from a friend. Failing that, you can download a Windows 7 disk image on the net and burn a DVD using one of your other computers. I can't post a link here because this would be illegal for anyone who does not already have a Windows license. Finally, Toshiba may be willing to sell you a disk for less than the cost of buying one in a shop (as you already have the license).

luci

I wouldn't have a clue how to replace the HD myself so it would have to go to a shop.

I'm not intending storing many documents or photos on the netbook so shouldn't lose too much if it all goes pear shaped.

I don't even have an external hard drive to back up to as I pretty much use the laptop to back up what is on the desktop.

Thanks for your help so far.

[Deleted User]

If you need to backup, you can store up to 25GB of files for free online using Microsoft's Skydrive:
http://skydrive.live.com

It works well for me, but it probably isn't a good idea for any personal or sensitive information.

luci

Thanks for that, I'll take a look.

I saw someone mention DropBox on here, but when I looked at the T&C's, it said docs in the public folder would be accessible by anyone and I'm not having that.

[Deleted User]

You don't need to put anything in the public folder with either DropBox or Skydrive!

DropBox is nice because it synchronises everything automatically with a folder on your computer, whereas Skydrive requires manual backup. However, DropBox uses over 40MB RAM on my computer all the time, which may be quite significant if you have a Netbook with not much RAM. DropBox also offers only 2GB free storage compared to 25GB with Skydrive.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Can you ' phone a friend ' to show you how to make a bootable USB stick with ' appropriate toolsets ', this will : -

- identify any hidden restore / recovery partitions
- diagnose the extent of any physical damage to the hardware
- diagnose and possibly repair any damage to your [ Windows ] software

I'm confused, kaybenson or luci, whose thread is this ?

luci

Apologies. I hijacked this thread as I had a similar question re a bootable Toshiba disk originally and got sidetracked.

elektra-2007

My freind had this prob he was brought the laptop his birthday, first time he turned on this happened, he took it back john lewis they gave a replacment. His was a toshiba satelite aswell must be a fault with them.