Perhaps you would get a faster response if this were posted in the windows forum

douglar wrote on 2024-07-31, 12:29:

Perhaps you would get a faster response if this were posted in the windows forum

No they wouldn't. That Windows forum is specifically for getting old Windows games working on modern PCs.

If you are wanting to do a complete system restore to how to OEM would have shipped the machine after manufacture there is no way without the original image they produced with the OPK.
A lot of Toshiba install, aka restore disks, are on the Internet Archive site...

I dont know what was included on the disk as delivered so this might not be accurate but you cant just use an XP Home/Pro OEM CD to restore the disk to how you want it.
I assume Toshiba would have included some system tools, or other software, there is no way to get that back unless it is on a restore partition on the hard drive you have.

Have you looked to see if it has that? A lot of XP machines came with a restore partition as they didnt ship with a CD. maybe yours is one of those.

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2024-07-31, 13:28:

If you are wanting to do a complete system restore to how to OEM would have shipped the machine after manufacture there is no wa […]
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If you are wanting to do a complete system restore to how to OEM would have shipped the machine after manufacture there is no way without the original image they produced with the OPK.
A lot of Toshiba install, aka restore disks, are on the Internet Archive site...

I dont know what was included on the disk as delivered so this might not be accurate but you cant just use an XP Home/Pro OEM CD to restore the disk to how you want it.
I assume Toshiba would have included some system tools, or other software, there is no way to get that back unless it is on a restore partition on the hard drive you have.

Have you looked to see if it has that? A lot of XP machines came with a restore partition as they didnt ship with a CD. maybe yours is one of those.

Looked in the disk manager and only found 1 partition. So I guess that means theres no other way. Guess no original German image. But I swear you could revert all the changes made (with files and apps) and go back to the point where you create an account (oobe I think what it's called) on my acer extensa without any recovery disks, although it has an recovery partition, so maybe thats the reason I could completely factory default it.

Closest thing would be using Sysprep (found on (any?) XP CD) to enter audit mode,
removing crap including all human users,
then using Sysprep again to enter OOBE mode (I think it was called Reseal before Vista);

that would get the initial setup to run again on next boot, but of course you won't get back to factory image state, just as close as you could get with your efforts 😀

AFAIK, an official Microsoft option to restore a factory image debuted (optionally) in Vista or 7 and of course requires still having the installation .wim in the right place!
IBM for one did include a Windows program that included factory restore, but when usimg that option it merely rebooted to the recovery partition, and of course it too required the factory image on HDD or DVD 😀

The OPK CD contains sysprep, but even if you have that what are you going to do with it?
I mean its sysprep that allows you to trigger the OOBE on boot but that wouldnt restore the system to how it was. it will rerun the initial user setup of the system but that alone will not restore anything.
It will allow you to remove SIDs to generalise the system but there again that doesnt restore the system to how it was.
You could put it into audit mode to add none default apps and programs updates etc but you would need to know how the system was set up on delivery.

At least you would need to know what it was on delivery to restore it to that state. If you dont know and you dont have an image of the state how will the computer know?

What laptop is it exactly that you have? You will need a specific model and build serial number to get the right image.

Personally I've always hated all the pre installed bloatware and first thing I did was do a reinstall with a generic Microsoft CD.
As you still have the original install I'd make a list of the preinstalled software (or at least of the software you want) and try and find standalone downloads of the software.
That way you can still do a clean install with the latest drivers, and sometimes updated "Toshiba Wifi Manager" or whatever software you wanted.

Problem is, the toshiba driver website doesn't have the drivers anymore. When you download any driver, it will throw out error 404. Since I don't want to create another topic, for now lets forget about the toshiba. I still need to know how to reset an original install of xp on an acer extensa with recovery partition (its around 20gb so there should be all the files needed). From what I can remember I was doing this from the OS (as I said in the first post), it wasn't system restore since it doesn't reset to OOBE. I can't find the website I visited for the instructions.

Im not sure how to access the recovery partition on that particular laptop as I have never done it on one of them however it will be a key press while pressing the power button.
So as an example, press and hold Alt+F10 then press the power button. release the power button while still holding Alt+F10 and it will show the start up sequence, then release the keys and you should be presented with a menu that will allow you to trouble shoot > Reset

It can be hard to rebuild some of those systems that have a lot of OEM Specific hardware, especially Sony and Toshiba.

After doing fresh installs, I've almost always been able to get all of the hardware in place if I keep googling the device ID's and learn which sites give good drivers and which install unwanted software. It shows up if if you are patient and keep knocking on different doors. If you want to be a little more conservative, you could backup your windows directory tree before reinstalling and use the old INF files if you get stuck. You could also try out a tool like this: https://www.elbacom.com/driver-extractor-for- … edded-standard/

Now if there was some bundled software that you want to keep, that's a good deal tricker. I've run into cases where the OEM no longer (or never) had the rights to distribute the bundled software digitally, so even if your system is still supported, you can't download the original software. Your best bet is to hunt archive.org for a recovery disk.

Ive never know this be short of XP drivers.

https://www.glenn.delahoy.com/snappy-driver-i … staller-origin/

That even has the drivers for a MiniDisc drive I have on an old Sony VAIO laptop.
Though the SonicStage drivers do seem better to me, but it has them never the less.

kotel wrote on 2024-07-31, 07:40:

Hi

Since I finally found the original HDD of my toshiba laptop with original XP install, I'd like to know how to reset the install to factory default from the OS. As I couldn't find any recovery images for this model, I'd want to archive it with the original software. I know there was a way to do it since I did it once or twice on an acer extensa laptop from the OS itself, but I forgot how to do it. Anybody knows how to do it?

What is model of your notebook?

kotel wrote on 2024-08-01, 11:01:

I still need to know how to reset an original install of xp on an acer extensa with recovery partition (its around 20gb so there should be all the files needed). From what I can remember I was doing this from the OS (as I said in the first post), it wasn't system restore since it doesn't reset to OOBE. I can't find the website I visited for the instructions.

Found the Acer Extensa 6700 series restore key combo!

It's

ALT+F10

to run Acer Recovery Managment. The defeault password is six zero'es

1000000

(the wizard itself says this).

As for the toshiba, the "original" drive was wiped a while back due to it being an reinstall of XP.