Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV600 - restore Windows XP to factory specs

[Jeremiah58]

I'm kindly asking for a help with this:

My friend has got Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV600, bought in Best Buy (Chicago) 4 years ago, with Windows XP SP2 pre-installed.

Probably due to a virus, the laptop cannot boot properly. It comes to a "Welcome" screen and then logs off (as he describes to me). He had problems with nasty viruses before.

I tried to Google for a help, but found no useful information.

Questions:
1. Is it possible to solve this boot problem?
2. How to restore Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV600 (with Windows XP SP2 pre-installed) to factory specs?

I instructed him to use F8 during the boot time to see if there is an option to restore to factory specs, but he did not see that option. He tried to boot to safe mode, but no luck. He tried to restore to last good configuration, but no luck, as well.

Thank you.

[MJA]

(if he didn't lose it 1st) you need to get the recovery CD that came with the laptop then change the 1st boot under the BIOS to CD/DVD palyer save and reboot again.

BTW everything will be lost

I'm not sure if this will help. download Ubuntu and use the live cd feature to scan or recovery any files .

I'm sure other guys got better ideas

[freebird73717]

If you've tried everything you can think of to solve this then reinstall/recovery may be a good option.

The laptop may not have a recovery cd but my have a recovery partition which may be accessed by pressing one of the function keys (F1,F2, etc) during boot.

More and more laptop manufactures are going this route.

The live linux cd is a great suggestion to get to files before you wipe the drive with the recovery program.

[budz]

If you've tried everything you can think of to solve this then reinstall/recovery may be a good option.

The laptop may not have a recovery cd but my have a recovery partition which may be accessed by pressing one of the function keys (F1,F2, etc) during boot.

More and more laptop manufactures are going this route.

Be careful because if that laptop has/had lots of viruses it could end up in the recovery partition as well. I fixed a friends HP laptop a few months ago that had viruses in the HP games as well as in the recovery partition. Contact Toshiba if a recovery disc can be bought. My friend paid $15.00 including the shipping for his recovery disc.
Just my 2 cents!

[freebird73717]

Very good point.
Would definitely be the safest route to go.

[Jeremiah58]

Thank you for your help.
I browsed Toshiba forums in the meantime. Not much help, though.
It seems that "0" (zero) has to be hold down during boot time, to get to Toshiba recovery options. Or at least, that is the case with some models of Toshiba laptops.

Yes, there is always an option to order recovery discs, if there is no recovery partitition on a HDD.
I will tell this to my friend and report here if there would be any results.
Thanks.

[Jeremiah58]

No use - recovery discs ordered from Toshiba.
Price for discs = 0.00 $
Handling & postage to Chicago = 20 $

[budz]

No use - recovery discs ordered from Toshiba.
Price for discs = 0.00 $
Handling & postage to Chicago = 20 $

That's actually not a bad price considering your friend will get his laptop back to the original settings. I had to use a XP disc to completely wipe my friends laptop's hard drive. Then I used the HP recovery disc which took 8 hours to install everything back to original setting.

[MJA]

No use - recovery discs ordered from Toshiba.
Price for discs = 0.00 $
Handling & postage to Chicago = 20 $

not bad at all.for my Compaq/HP laptop they asked $15.97

did they ask you for the laptop SN ?

[Jeremiah58]

Then I used the HP recovery disc which took 8 hours to install everything back to original setting.

Oh, man!

did they ask you for the laptop SN ?

I wouldn't know - it's a friend's laptop and he spoke with them.
But I believe they did ask him for the laptop SN to identify him as a legit customer, which he was.