# A Little Computer Advice Soght Please?



## Barryboy (Mar 21, 2006)

Hi...

I have posted this on the other side as well, hoping that the collective computer wisdom (WISdom..... oh, never mind!) can help me out.

To cut a long and painful story very short (and thank you Mr. Gates for your truly wonderful Windows 7 ..... :bull*******: ) I am about to try to restore my Toshiba Satellite T130 to factory default condition. There is a pre-installed software facility for this but before I do it I wonder if anyone can tell me if this will reformat the C: drive and delete all the software on there, or will it just reinstall Windows7 to its basic installation state over the top of the installation currently there? I should, perhaps point out that Windows and programs reside on C: drive - there is a D: drive (partitioned off the single HD) containing Toshiba proprietory software for making system backup etc. I have made a backup USB drive for security purposes using this software.

Grateful for advice

Rob


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## Mutley (Apr 17, 2007)

I presume it is the same as Vista in as much as when you do a factory restore that will be exactly what you get. Any windows updates / additional software you have added / any files saved etc will be gone.


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## packrat (Dec 15, 2010)

With every other version of windows that would wipe the disc and leave you with a clean slate. I doubt W7 is any different.

Suggest you make a list of the programs you want to reinstall post wipe, and make very sure you have copies of all your personal data kept separate.

Good luck!!


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## Barryboy (Mar 21, 2006)

Thanks to all for above....

As I use the machine only for internet (anything else is done on my PC with it's well sorted XP Pro OS...) I am tempted to leave the Win7 as it is and use a Linux partition and install Ubuntu or similar for Web browsing. Something called WUBI has been recommended. Any thoughts???

Rob


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## wookie (Apr 27, 2009)

Hi rob

what's the problem you are having with win 7?, I went straight from win xp pro to win 7 and have been pretty pleased with it, I missed out vista because it's junk. Have you tried a normal system restore ? it's not the greatest program in the world compared to ghost or acronis but can sometimes cure some problems.

wookie


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## chris l (Aug 5, 2005)

wookie said:


> Hi rob
> 
> what's the problem you are having with win 7?, I went straight from win xp pro to win 7 and have been pretty pleased with it, I missed out vista because it's junk. Have you tried a normal system restore ? it's not the greatest program in the world compared to ghost or acronis but can sometimes cure some problems.
> 
> wookie


Same here; we jumped XP to 7 and are very pleased with 7. What's the problem with the current setup?

The Toshiba restore will, IMHO, wipe c: Have you access to a W7 DVD? You could try a 'repair' installation.


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## Barryboy (Mar 21, 2006)

Hi Chris & Wookie...

Problem is updates on boot-up, which I understand is a pretty common problem. The machine will run through installing 14 updates, then start to configure the updates and fail.. It then reboots itself, tries to reconfigure windows, fails and then restores Windows to its former state. Now all this takes over 15 minutes and is just a total pain in the ****.

I have wasted at least 20 hours last month trying all sorts of different cures recommended from Comoputeractive and several other sites. Sometimes it will go for a couple of days bnooting up perfectly then the damn update issues starts again.

No, I don't have a Win7 DVD. The machine doesn't have a CD/DVD drive either.... I do have a 'backup' of the system on Pendrive which I made using the Toshiba software loaded onto the HD. It's a genuine installation and I have the security reference key for it.

TBH I can't really see any benefit of having Win7 - XP Pro which I use on my PC is just as good... howeever I don't want to wipe 7 from the drive altogether as I've heard of others who have trerrible problesm with drivers etc. when reinbstalling.

Rob


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

You can turn automatic updates off, and just run "Windows Update" at a time you choose. A little later tonight, when I have a Win7 netbook in front of me, I'll give you a step by step.

BTW... Which version of Windows 7 do you have (Starter, Home, etc.)?

Later,

William


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Windows 7 is a pretty solid OS (as is Vista SP2), on suitable hardware. Iâ€™d re- install it and try again; something has clearly damaged your original installation.

â€œOpinion modeâ€:-

Iâ€™ve run Vista SP2 for over 3 years on my Q6600 based desktop and never had a problem. Vista wasnâ€™t junk, it was released prematurely with poor driver support and Intel insisted that MS came out with the â€œVista Capableâ€ standard, to help Intel sell chipsets that werenâ€™t suitable for it that it had large stocks of.

They werenâ€™t â€œVista Readyâ€, Vista needed better hardware and Intel, Nvidia, et al knew that when Vista specs were sent to them by MS.

Windows 7 is Windows Vista SP2 with enhancements.

Widows Vista was a potential OS that most hardware manufacturers werenâ€™t geared up for when it was released, they didnâ€™t want to pay for driver signing and tried to fluff it.

MS released Vista before there was suitable hardware support and found bugs with the OS due to rushing the RTM. It lied about Vista being able to run on older hardware (thanks to Intel). MS fixed Vista with SP1 and improved it with SP2.

The culmination of all this effort is Windows 7, with less reliance on some of its partners to provide reliable information about the real capability of the hardware they supply. :acute:

ARM and MS Windows 8; anyone? No WinTel these days, it seems. 

â€œOpinion modeâ€ = Off.


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

To shut down Wpdate:

1) Click on Start and select "Control Panel".

2) From the Control Panel select "Windows Update".

3) On the Left panel of Windows Update select "Change Settings".

4) On the Change Settings page there is a pull down menu that you can select the way you want Update to work. From here you can turn it off or set it to allow you to confirm before install.

Hope that is of some help.

Later,

William


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## wookie (Apr 27, 2009)

Barryboy said:


> Hi Chris & Wookie...
> 
> Problem is updates on boot-up, which I understand is a pretty common problem. The machine will run through installing 14 updates, then start to configure the updates and fail.. It then reboots itself, tries to reconfigure windows, fails and then restores Windows to its former state. Now all this takes over 15 minutes and is just a total pain in the ****.
> 
> ...


Hi Rob

I had the same problem with a vista based PC, I spent far more time than the job was worth trying to sort it, in the end I took it back to to factory fresh and did all the updates myself which cured the problem, I'm at a loss to explain why though as the PC in question was pretty much as shipped apart from some windows updates, I remember from googling at the time that this was a problem 1000's of people were having with vista, 7 is closely related to vista although far superior so maybe it's a problem shared by both, If you can get it right it's a fab OS, IMHO it's the true heir to XP pro and will still be popular years from now, vista on the other hand will go the way of ME although not anything like as bad as ME, First impression do last especialy when it comes to business users who can't afford to wait two years for Microsoft to get it right,

my favourite vista film clip


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## William_Wilson (May 21, 2007)

wookie said:


> Hi Rob
> 
> I had the same problem with a vista based PC, I spent far more time than the job was worth trying to sort it, in the end I took it back to to factory fresh and did all the updates myself which cured the problem, I'm at a loss to explain why though as the PC in question was pretty much as shipped apart from some windows updates, I remember from googling at the time that this was a problem 1000's of people were having with vista, 7 is closely related to vista although far superior so maybe it's a problem shared by both, If you can get it right it's a fab OS, IMHO it's the true heir to XP pro and will still be popular years from now, vista on the other hand will go the way of ME although not anything like as bad as ME, First impression do last especialy when it comes to business users who can't afford to wait two years for Microsoft to get it right,
> 
> my favourite vista film clip


I'm still operating on an original Vista install from June 2007. The only problems I've had are all of the dumbass companies that never made proper drivers for it.

Later,

William


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## wookie (Apr 27, 2009)

William_Wilson said:


> wookie said:
> 
> 
> > Hi Rob
> ...


As with all OS there will be a some people who are fine with it, in fact if you look hard enough you could probably find an ME fan somewhere







, xp pro 64 bit suffered in much the same way with the lack of decent drivers, the problem is 95% of pc users are not that savy when it comes to finding work arounds for these sort of problems and that impression rightly or wrongly lasts, business hated vista as it likes things to work out of the box which is why dell pleaded with microsoft to let them take vista off of their unsold pc's and replace it with xp which speaks volumes, I've Taken vista off so many machines and replaced it with either xp or 7 that I've lost count in fact it was the most asked for job between 2006 and 2008 and not one person ever asked for vista to be put back on, if you and Stan are happy with Vista that's great for you two but not everybody else has the time or skill to iron out the faults, Microsft and the multitude of hardware and software makers cocked up with vista, although it's hard to say which should shoulder most of blame, If they had waited a while longer to release it maybe it would have faired better, It had already been delayed about 4 times anyway so a bit longer would have not hurt that much and would have allowed them to realise the majority of the worlds hardware and software was not ready for it or maybe they knew all along and it was just a cynical money making exercise, I'll always be a fan of win 98, win xp and 7 I just can't warm to vista even though my hardware is more than up to the job of running it, in fact my system is probably much the same as stans as I run a q6600 based system too and he is more than happy with vista, The main problem is even now a huge amount of the worlds pc's are still using single cores which are always going to struggle with vista/windows 7 but microsoft should have taken this into account and not just expected them all to buy more powerful machines which was never going to happen when large parts of the world are not in the greatest financial health.

wookie


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## wookie (Apr 27, 2009)

And lets not forget the blame that the big pc builders like dell,hp etc. should share. I've lost count of the times I've seen machines bought 3-4 years ago that have vista installed but only 512mb or ram, I've even seen a few with just 256mb, The customer always says, quite rightly `but I paid 4-5-6 hundred pounds for that PC and you are telling me it was never really capable of running properly?` a sad but common tale from a few years back and more than likely done because they and the retailer know that a large number people will think they need a whole new pc rather than some extra ram so extra cash for them.

wookie


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## Barryboy (Mar 21, 2006)

Some sound advice for which sincere thanks to all, And it's obvious that you guys are far more expert than I. Bring back MSDOS 6.22 - that's what I say!!

I have turned off the updates as per William's suggestion - let's hope that will give me a temporary cure.

As a semi-permanent cure (or, if you prefer, a cowardly work-around) I am considering installing Ubuntu or similar onto a pen drive, booting up from that and running the machine that way - I only ever use it for web use in my lounge so I figure it will be fine for that. Is this feasible, do you think? If so what size Pen drive should I get? Will 2 GB be enough or should I go for 4 or 8?

Rob


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## wookie (Apr 27, 2009)

Hi RoB

sadly I think most pen drives would have a very slow read/write rate so it would not make for a very good experience, I still think if you can't get out of the looping update curse that a fresh install or a restore to factory state is the better option especialy if you have not really loaded/stored much on there at the moment, then try to do all the windows updates before putting anything else is put on, or if you don't fancy that too much just do a system restore choosing a restore point from before the problem update and then just leave updates off, you could even start applying the updates one at a time after you have done this to see if you can isolate the problem one and then just make sure that one is never selected when you choose what updates to install, you will have to change the windows updates setting to `check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them`

best of luck

wookie


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## Barryboy (Mar 21, 2006)

This problem is absolutely doing my head in...

One suggestion from a work-mate is to reinstall Win7 over the current installation, which would solve my problem (so he says...) yet still keep the c: drive intact as far as other loaded software is concerned. Now I know this would be possible under XP Pro but WIN7?????

Problem is that I would have to reinstall from the installation on the D: drive. Anyone know if this is possible? And if so how do I go about it?

Rob


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## Guest (Sep 18, 2011)

Not possible really mate the same reasoning applies to "transferring programmes" people have ask me can i transfer a programme from one computer to another...Uh yes if you have the software disks..Durr. if you install Windows 7 on the D drive it will keep the files on your C drive but if you have software installed on c that you want to use again they won't work, this is down to why you have to install them..the install files work with the operating system and so it updates the system files and the "registry" basically everything that starts when you push the button on your PC.(after BIOS)

you can access the data files though but Windows 7 will ask you to change the secuity tabs for the new drive and op\sys to access them.

The easiest way if you want to do it is this.

go to Microsoft website download the compatability tester.

This will tell you all the issues you may have installing Win 7 (programmes as well) it also tells you if there is an update to fix it.

Then you can use a system called windows anytime update you buy the product key and start the install (the software for the build is downloaded)

Microsoft website will guide you to the anytime upgrade link think it's in help and support.

this will keep all your files and all programmes that pass the compatability test. If there are issues with programmes then un-install prior to the upgrade then re-install after they will (90% of the time) work again.

Hope this helps


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## chris l (Aug 5, 2005)

You may get away with a 'repair' reinstallation from D:

Otherwise, factory reset and add updates one at a time until it fails. Re reset and don't install that update this time!

Of such mundane tasks is my daily round made up.... now, I have to go add an extra disk to a server SATA RAID array.

Which. no doubt, hasn't yet been backed up or consistency checked...


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