I am trying to recover the factory software image on my Toshiba Portege notebook.
I have an old Toshiba Portege 2000 and I am trying to recover the factory software image. I have the CDs and it recognizes the CD drive. The problem is that the recovery CD boots up in DOS and the recovery utility never runs. All the setup files are hidden.
When I put that same CD into another computer the recovery begins automatically.
Any ideas on how to get the process going on the Portege?
If the notebook CD drive works fine, the software recovery process for this model shouldn’t be different than for any other laptop. You place the recovery CD in the drive and restart the notebook. If you have default settings in BIOS, the CD drive should be listed in the boot order before the hard drive disk and the notebook should start booting from the recovery disk. You can also try to press the “C” key on start up as soon as Toshiba logo appears on the screen to make sure that the notebook boots from the CD drive.
I just found a support bulletin for Toshiba Portege 2000 notebook that explains how to fix “ERD difficulties with Windows 98 preinstalled machines”, not sure if it somehow related to your problem so check it out.
If you get a “Wrong Machine” error message when you try to run the recovery disk, check this support bulletin.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Brian,
I was reading on one of the ThinkPad forums that you can enable/disable the F11 function in the BIOS. Can enable that?
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:08 pm
i have a ibm thinkpad t30 and i wanted to know to restore to factory settings. i called ibm and they told me to press f11 on bootup. it doesn’t do anything but boot right into windows.
May 30th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Hey there Freak,
I have a Toshiba A215-4697 laptop and I’m attempting to make a recovery disk (or access the utility while booting). The Instructions were that the HDD Recovery Utility program would be in the start menu or my desktop, neither of which is there. Also, the supposed “hold 0 [zero] and press the power button” doesn’t work. Trying to figure this out as I’m attempting to restore default OS/programs it came with from the factory. Money is an issue as far as ordering a *possibly available* recovery disk from Toshiba.
~Balding4answers (and pulling hairs by the hour)
May 7th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
pete,
Make sure the restore disc is clean. Clean the disc with a soft cloth. Clean the DVD drive laser with a cotton wipe and alcohol.
I would run diagnostics for the hard drive and memory. It’s possible that one of these components is failing. You can test the memory module with Memtest86+ (make sure it passes test multiple times) and test the hard dive with Hitachi’s DFT test. I linked to both utilities in “Useful Links”. Test these components first.
May 5th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
hi i got a toshiba m45 and i try to restore it while in process it say ghost err and my computer wont load up anymore just f2 or f12 other than that my comp is blank with a blinking dash light
April 5th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
hi
i got toshiba satellite L 40, owning vista home basic, when i wanted to install windows vista ultimate it was showing error message like windows cannot install required files. the file may be corrupt or missing . make sure all required or installation are available, and restart the installation. error code 0×80070017.
plz help in wat i gotta do?
January 6th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
SH,
Could be dirty CD, dirty laser inside the DVD drive, bad hard drive, bad DVD drive or bad CD. I’ve posted some suggestions that can help you to get rid of this error message in a separate post.
January 6th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I have Toshiba A75-S211, and I’m getting “Output A:/ghost.err” error like you while restoring the configuration. So, I called Toshiba Tech support. They referred me to an authorized Service company. It looks like a known issue for users, but I don’t know why Toshiba doesn’t have solution. : )
I’ve already spent $59 for check-up at Bestbuy.
December 8th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Actually, it’s not the disk per say that is the problem. I had a brand new out of the box Toshiba laptop. Basically the DVD is set up to be run with some image or hidden file on your hard drive.
Why do I say this? Because when I formatted the hard drive to see how well the factory reinstall would work, it would not, and Toshiba technical support located in Singapore had no clue what was wrong with my “recovery dvd” and had no problem insisting to me that I had not properly put the DVD in the DVD drive.
What you need to do is use the Windows installation disk that is always packaged with the Toshiba machine, install it first, and then do a recovery following the instructions printed on the back of the recovery DVD casing…unfortunately for me, I had already formatted the hard drive before I noticed the instructions back there…then again since I apparently am just stupid and don’t know where to insert the DVD I probably would not have been able to read the instructions eh?
Oh…maybe I can read and I do have a BS in Computer Sci/Info Systems…thanks Jacob from Singapore, just another reason I can’t get a job in my field, and you can’t fix my computer by phone, and Toshiba comes out ahead with a ton of money in savings and worthless warranties.
My personal opinion? BUY MEDION or PIONEX computers!!! At least the quality is there, though they are relatively unknown brands these days.
November 27th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Etienne,
You are getting this error message because the motherboard has been programmed incorrectly and has a wrong DMI string.
Here’s how you can fix it. Go to the Toshiba website, find downloads for your model, download and run the DMI update utility, it should fix the “Wrong Machine” problem.
After that you will be able to reimage the hard drive using Qosmio G15 recovery disc.
This utility is not available for public downloads for all models, but it is for Qosmio G15.
November 26th, 2007 at 5:06 am
Hi,
I have a Qosmio G15 and I have a version of windows installed that is not the one that came with the computer (I had lost the recovery cd). Now when I try to use the recovery cd, it says that I cant use because this cd is not for this machine, the error message says I have a (Portable PC) and that the cd is for a (Qosmio G15). I tried to boot from cd and it gives me a DOS message that says WRONG MACHINE. Please help
October 11th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Rene,
Make sure the recovery disc is clean.
Clean the DVD drive laser with an alcohol wipe.
October 8th, 2007 at 4:42 am
I got a g25 Qosmio Toshiba, and iam trying to run the recovery cd, but at the 37% or so, it pops up and error ghost.err, i got a yes/no choise, but it won’t work neither any choise. This is the second time iam trying to do this. Now iam thinking that this recovery cd maybe it just works once, b/c the first time i used it it work well. Damn idk what to do.
What do i do!!! if anyone got this fixed please i need help.
repablito@hotmail.com
September 23rd, 2007 at 9:40 pm
just bought a new laptop when first booted up it began to setup vista i lost power and now it won’t finish setting up what do i do
July 14th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
i have a toshiba p-25. my hard drive crashed, and bestbuy put a new one in. as i have the factory recovery dvd that came with the computer, i did not have them install windows xp (and because it was expensive to have do this). i ran the disk as instructed and it appears to run properly. it shows a screen that says it does a quick format, then starts loading files, displaying the time run and remaining, % complete, etc and appears to finish. it displays a message “remove disk, and press any key to restart”, but when i do this, it restarts, flashes the toshiba screen for just a second or 2 (and at the bottom displays press f2 for setup or f12 for boot selection), and then the screen goes blank, with a flashing cursor in the top left corner. if i press f12 in the 2 seconds that it appears onscreen, it does give me the boot selction menu, so i can run the recovery disk over and over, but i stil keep getting the flashing blank screen when it finishes and i press any key to restart. bestbuy has charged me twice with diagnostic fees to say everything checks out, and that it must be the recovery disk that is bad, but it sure looks like it runs properly from start to finish (not to mention i am using it for the first time, even had the plastic still on it before i used it). i have called toshiba for phone support (another $35) and the guy had no answers and told me to send it to a authorized repair center (2 hours away). should i buy another recovery disk from toshiba? or maybe just pay bestbuy to try and install xp which i am not too sure they will even be able to do, and be out another diagnostic fee (plus i won’t have whatever original programs came installed on the computer). any suggestions?
June 17th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
I’m having the same ghost.err issue with my Toshiba notebook…
The weird thing is, it mentions an A: drive, but I have no A: drive so I don’t see how this could ever work…
AND to make matters worse, of course I didn’t receive a Windows XP CD when I purchased the laptop, just the serial # sticker stuck to a card (I’ve read about 10 other accounts from people online with the same exact issue). I’ve heard if you call Toshiba it ends up just being a waste of your time.
What should I do?! I have really minimal knowledge of computers, luckily enough to get all the vital files off of my computer before this happened, but now I’m stuck with a black screen or a system restore DVD that doesn’t work.
Help!!! Have I mentioned, I also am on a college student budget and really can’t be dropping money on massive repairs for this thing, and I need it up and running by next fall semester!!!
February 26th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Caron,
As your question is Vista related, I moved it into an appropriate category. You’ll find your question with a possible solution here.
February 24th, 2007 at 3:45 am
i also have problems with my recovery disk, after i installed vista as a second operating system i cant boot from the recovery disk, after loading the RAM disk image the notebook restarts. but when i run it from xp my notebook (its a satellite pro l-100 p431T) can read it. (i tried to format the vista partition but after that the notebook showed the vista bootmanager every time i started it, so i installed vista again….)Does this problem disappear if i can remove vista 100percent and if yes how can I do so? (it cannot be because of the recovery dvd because it is only about 2 months old)
February 17th, 2007 at 11:38 am
Thanks for the reply, I don’t experience any other problems with windows. I will try a new disc. thanks again.
February 15th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Lesley,
Not sure but I think you might have a bad (damaged?) recovery DVD and the laptop cannot read it properly. Try calling Toshiba and order a new recovery disc.
By the way, do experience any other problems with Windows beside the battery problem?
February 14th, 2007 at 7:52 am
Forgot to say it is a L30 Satellite
February 14th, 2007 at 7:25 am
I have a Toshiba laptop and the battery pack came out, it wouldn’t work so I inserted the recovery disc while holding f12 and chose cd/dvd and then it said loading RAMDISK IMAGE, then it goes to a smaller black box with a flashing cursor and at the top it says X:V386\System32\cmd.exe ??? It won’t let you type anything in the box and if you put the arrow in the box and click it says Select X:\V386etc… but you can’t do anything else.My disc instructions say to follow onscreen instructions? Any help would be appreciated? Thank-you
February 7th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Mouse,
what notebook model do you have? I work mostly with Toshiba notebooks. If you made the recovery disks correctly you should be able to boot from these disks. Try calling Toshiba and purchase the recovery disks from them. One of my customers got it for about USD40.
February 6th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Having same issue.. Apparently Toshiba in their infinte wisdom.. Made the recovery disks to run only from inside a windows operating System.. The disk is not bootable.. and you can not run it from Dos.. Meaning if you replace the HDD your hosed if you do not have a standard windows disk to reload windows and start from..
My guess.. to get you to send it back into a Toshiba certified reapir facility in the event the HDD geos..
Lovely..
January 1st, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Kris,
Here are some things you can try.
1. Test the laptop hard drive, maybe it’s bad and some files cannot be written to it. You can run Hitachi’s drive fitness test to make sure there the hard drive is good.
2. Test the laptop memory. Run Memtest 86+
3. You can try to install a generic Windows XP, if you have the media of course. See if it goes through and there are no errors during installation. May be the DVD drive bad.
4. Make sure the DVD disk you use is clean.
December 30th, 2006 at 1:15 am
I have a toshiba satellite A-45-S151. I am trying to reload factory installed software from the recover disk. I formatted the hard drive, booted to cd, symantic ghost 7.5.1 starts up, begins to do its normal think and then it comes back with message “output = a:\ghost.err”. I have a yes/no option. No matter what i do i cant get past this. Then dumps me back to cmd promt saying “error 437 cannot read from file”. Ive tried to research this all over the net, and at symantecs website but cant get any solution to may problem. From what i researched is that ghost is trying to creat a error log but cannot write to A: drive since there is none. Another thing to include is that somehow ghost has created a phony A: drive but its is a read only. So that is understandable if it is trying to write to something that is unwritable. Well if anyone can help me with this I would be most preciative. This is my mothers computer and shes wanting it back so i’m stressin. Thanks for any sugestions.
December 19th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
Darren,
The recovery disk didn’t work? What was wrong? Can you boot from the recovery disk at all?
December 18th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
I have a toshiba satelite 2455 s-305 and i had to download a special driver upgrade or something to get the recovery disk to work. Since then, my cd rom drive will not recognize any disks. No cds, or dvds or anything. I put in a cd and it makes a noise like it is starting to run the disk and then it does nothing. Can anyone help? Is there something I can download to get my drive back. I called toshiba they wanted to charge me 35 dollars. Any ideas?
November 1st, 2006 at 10:10 pm
Audra,
I’ll try to answer your questions if I can.
To recover the hard drive back to original factory defaults, you’ll have to use a set of recovery CDs or DVD. Usually you get recovery CDs/DVD with your laptop, when you buy it. If you are missing these CDs, I think you can call Toshiba and purchase it from them; it shouldn’t be very expensive (if they have it in stock at all). I did some research on the Internet and it looks like SparePartsWarehouse.com might have the recovery CDs too, call them and find it out. After you got the CDs, put the first CD into the drive and restart the laptop. As soon as Toshiba logo appears, press on the “C” key, it should start the laptop from the CD drive. You also can change the boot order in the setup.
Another option would be using a generic Windows XP CD but after you install it you’ll have to download and install all missing device drivers. You can find device drivers on the Toshiba website.
What do you mean by “deleted all modems”? If you deleted the modem driver then it will be recovered after you run the restore CDs. If you deleted modems from “Network Connections” window (I cannot explain better), then they will not be recovered. You have to create these connections manually again. You’ll need the phone number, the user name and password to create these connections.
Yes, you can install a new keyboard yourself. Unfortunately, I haven’t create a guide for Satellite 1110 yet. You can check out my other guides (www.irisvista.com)
Replacing the keyboard is similar for most Toshiba laptops. IF you give me the model number for your laptop (it’s located on the bottom, right under the model name), I can find a part number for the keyboard and after that you can research on the Internet by the part number and find the cheapest one.
What do you mean by “doesn’t allow to open icons”? The mouse will not move, the icons disappear, it will not open when you click on it, or what?
November 1st, 2006 at 7:09 pm
Hi there,
I have an old Toshiba Satellite 1110 that had been a display computer in a department store. My husband bought it in 2003 without any windows CDs.
Now we have a list of problems with this computer but not wanting to throw it away I need to ask the following:
1. How can I Restore the preinstalled software on this computer. I already tried pressing zero (0) and putting on my computer but it just gave some loud beeping sounds and went on to its normal start-up.
2. I mistakenly deleted all modems on this laptop sometime back. Will restoring the pre-installed software re-install the modem as well?
3. My Keyboards are absolutely shot because a lot of dust got under it when I travelled. Can I install a new one myself and what is the cheapest I can get a new keyboard and where?
4. Last but not least my monitor flickers ad sometimes does not allow me to open icons. What is the cause of this and will the pre-installed software recovery fix this, and if not, what will?
Hope to hear from you soon. Thanks.
Audra
Western Australia