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Partitioning or restoring Toshiba A100 laptop

Discussion in 'Windows XP' started by Peter Scott, 2006/07/10.

  1. 2006/07/10
    Peter Scott

    Peter Scott Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    My wife has decided she would like a laptop, so after some research I have ordered a Toshiba Satellite Pro A100 Series, which is shortly due for delivery. During my research I discovered that like so many of today’s computers this system comes without a proper XP Home CD but instead has a Toshiba Recovery CD (to restore it to "˜factory condition’) which as well as the OS also includes a lot of drivers, utilities and other software.

    I believe the A100 Series is a fairly recent addition to the Toshiba range, and this may explain why there seems to be a scarcity of technical information or questions from users. (I have Googled and searched Toshiba’s own support and forums web pages without success.) To ensure the safety of the data entered into the system, I would prefer to have a separate partition specifically to hold that data in the same way as I have organised my own desktop PC. My main concern is to find out whether the A100’s 60GB HDD is formatted as one large drive or if it is partitioned into two (or more) drives. Articles I have come across on the Internet indicate that in the past Toshiba’s Recovery CD’s have provided a means of creating a partition, but I have been unable to find out if this is the case with the A100 Series.

    I do have a copy of Partition Magic v8.0 that I could use to achieve my objective, but this raises two queries: -

    1. Would the use of this program have any effect upon the validity of the warranty?
    2. If I did partition the HDD using PM would any subsequent need to use the Recovery CD cause any problems? I have read that some recovery CD’s perform a check to ensure that the HDD is "˜as it left the factory’ and refuse to function if that is not the case.

    When the system arrives my wife will obviously be keen to use it, so I would like to sort out the above situation before the system is used. Does any reader have any first hand experience of the matters I have mentioned or can someone point me in the right direction to find the answers?
     
    Peter Scott,
    #1
  2. 2006/07/11
    mattman

    mattman Inactive Alumni

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    Hi and welcome to the BBS,
    Recovery partitions, I don't have any experience with them, but from what I have read I am advising others to avoid them. If your harddrive fails you will need to buy another pre-loaded one from the manufacturer.

    ME, if the people here could not help, I would email the local branch of the company or see if there is a user forum (there will probably be an offical or unoffical forum).

    *If it will not do what you want it to do you will have to consider sending it back* If they do not explain how you can use it the way you plan...send it back.

    Find a product that does what you want it to, don't run it the way the manufacturer wants or forces you to. Buy something else. You have found out (or want to find out) the restrictions before you have purchased. Imagine finding out when disaster has struck.

    Anyway, that's my rant.

    I have seen advertising for Asus laptops, if I was interested in a laptop I would investigate if they have OS or driver restrictions.

    Matt
     
    mattman,
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  4. 2006/07/11
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Peter

    I can only give you my thoughts and opinions on this - not fact as I do not have a Toshiba laptop and am not familiar with their procedures. However, FYI .....

    On our Club laptop - a Sony Vaio the drive was partitioned into at least 2 partitions as delivered - Windows on one partition, space for data on the other. I don't know if there is a recovery partition or not - I am not the keeper of the laptop.

    On my first HP laptop the drive was unpartitioned save for a small, hidden partition which contained diagnostics, etc. I remember trying to partition it using PM and it refused to do so. The laptop came with a Recovery disk, but later on I wiped the entire drive and installed a fresh copy of XP - from a new retail CD and was able to do whatever I wanted :)

    My new laptop, a dual core HP has a recovery partition from which a set of recovery disks can be made - once only BTW. The recovery partition can then be deleted although HP do not recommend doing this. As soon as it is out of waranty I will probably wipe the drive to get rid of a lot of unnecessary - to me - business security software which prevents normal users from altering settings etc. At present it is a PITA to have to effectively log in twice for complete control.

    Will PM work - may be maybe not. At least you can try, but not commit to the changes if all seems well.

    Would the use of PM invalidate the warranty? - doubt it but an outside chance - you would need to read the terms, etc of the warranty or contact Toshiba.

    If you did partition would the recovery disks still function. Again, another maybe. Your point of the disk checking the hardware is valid, but equally well the recovery disk performs a complete format of the drive.

    So a lot of maybe's - difficult to give you concrete information.

    Best suggestion is to download the manual, if available, from Toshiba and read through it before the laptop is delivered.
     
    PeteC,
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  5. 2006/07/11
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    I also meant to say, which is relevant to the partitioning/recovery situation ...

    If you use ASR (Automated System Recovery) in XP and change the partitioning after you have made an ASR backup that backup will not function - because of the change in the partitioning. Been there, done that :D

    There is a chance that the same situation applies with recovery CD's/partitions.
     
    PeteC,
    #4
  6. 2006/07/11
    Peter Scott

    Peter Scott Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Hi Mattman

    Thanks for your reply. I have tried searching Toshiba's User Forums for answers to my questions but without success. I realise that if the drive fails I will need to involve the manufacturer, but I am just concerned that if the need arises to use the supplied Recovery CD (because of software problems) I know that it will wipe the disk clean before re-installing the software. That would mean losing any data on the disk, whereas if that data was on another partition it would be safe because the recovery process would then only wipe the partition on which the OS was installed.

    As I said in my original post I could use Partition Magic to create another partition, but am just a bit wary of the possibility that Toshiba may have done something similar to Dell - see this article http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/index.htm. If they have, then using PM could make it impossible to use Toshiba's Recovery CD and I would be "up the creek without a paddle" or an OS !!!

    Another possibility occurs to me, and that is to 'clone' the laptop HDD to a partition on my own HDD before using the laptop and creating the data partition. Then if the laptop develops a problem requiring use of the Recovery CD I could copy the data partition to my HDD or an external HDD and then put the 'clone' back on the laptop prior to creating a fresh data partition on the laptop. That way I would not need to use the Recovery CD.

    One question comes to mind re the above. The laptop has a 60GB HDD but my own and the external HDD's are both 40GB. Presumably the size of the 'clone' will be only sufficient to hold the 'used' part of the disk and will not need the whole 60GB?
     
    Peter Scott,
    #5
  7. 2006/07/11
    Peter Scott

    Peter Scott Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Hi PeteC

    Many thanks for your two replies which arrived whilst I was composing my reply to Mattman. Would you mind giving me your thoughts on my idea in the last part of my reply to Matman please?
     
    Peter Scott,
    #6
  8. 2006/07/11
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    No - it would restore the disk to the state it was in when delivered - i.e. would restore the mirror image held on the recovery disk.

    Why not keep all the data in a special folder and burn the contents to CD on a regular basis or use an external hard drive to keep a synched copy of the data using something like Synchback? An excellent program which I use to back up my data, admittedly on a separate partition, to another partition on another hard drive in the computer every hour and weekly to an external USB drive.
     
    PeteC,
    #7
  9. 2006/07/11
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Already done :) Our posts crossed.
     
    PeteC,
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  10. 2006/07/11
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    I guess you could clone the drive - no experience of that as I rely on ASR as part of my backup procedures. In actual fact an ASR backup is essentially a clone, but when restoring you need the original full XP install CD - not a recovery CD - as the process formats the drive, reinstalls Windows and all programs and settings.

    A clone will generally be compressed so the size will be less than that of the used disk space on the original drive. In other words if the system, etc uses 10 Gb, the size of the clone will be less.

    To clone the drive you will either need to remove it and connect it to the desktop - warranty implications here - or to an external drive or CD/DVD depending on the program used. Check very carefully the process for restoring a clone before committing to this solution and make sure it is viable with your setup.
     
    PeteC,
    #9
  11. 2006/07/11
    Peter Scott

    Peter Scott Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Hi PeteC

    Thanks for those observations. The laptop arrived a short time ago so I am about to read all the accompanying paperwork and will then have to decide upon tactics.

    In order to share printer scanner and Internet access, I have also bought a bought a Netgear Wireless Router (WGR614) so have got to get to grips with networking, which is something new to me. Wish me luck! :)
     
    Peter Scott,
    #10
  12. 2006/07/11
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    You may need it :) Post problems in the Networking forum - good, expert advice there.
     
    PeteC,
    #11

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