Format or restore Toshiba L500D

[Teemsan]

I have a Toshiba L500D, that came installed w Vista Home Premium 64 bit. I have the original Toshiba Recovery Disks. When I boot to the Recovery Disks I get to a a point with two choices a) Restore the Factory Settings or b) Erase the Hard Disk. If I were to erase the Hard Disk and format wiping out all partitions, in prep of doing a clean install of Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit, and the install failed, would I then still be able to go back and Restore the Factory Settings to load Vista? Or would I then have to download and install Vista again? The Product key is on the bottom of my machine. Not sure about this so any input appreciated,
Thanks!

 

[danny2000]

That's an excellent question and quite confusing for users to have to suffer and try and figure out.

How many recovery disks do you have?

 

[Teemsan]

Thanks for the quick reply danny2000


There are 3 DVD Recovery Disks - the option I mentioned comes up on the first disk. I did use them once before to Restore Factory Settings and it went fine.

 

[danny2000]

Since it has 3 dvd(s) you will be fine. usually the first dvd is the regular o/s install DVD and the others are the rest of the image.

You will be able to do as you want a full restore to Vista whenever you want. You can wipeout the partitions also,

However, Windows 7's clean install needs to have a Windows O/S on it already in order to a clean install using the win 7 upgrade dvd. There are ways to get around that,also. Either way, you will be fine. You would always be able to get back to Vista as long as you keep your Vista Recovery DVD set.

 

[Teemsan]

Thanks, good to know. I don't want to go the route of doing a Win 7 Ultimate upgrade from Vista. I want to do a fresh, clean install using a new Win 7 Ultimate installation Disk. This is still possible, no?

 

[danny2000]

I understand, but Windows 7 will let you do a clean install using the upgrade dvd, however it requires that Windows Xp, Vista, to already be installed on it. You would use CUstom Install for this; This lets Microsoft know that you are legally allowed to upgrade from a previous version and do a clean install by wiping out everything.


http://winsupersite.com/article/windows-7/clean-install-windows-7-with-upgrade-media-128512

 

[danny2000]

You are not doing an "upgrade" using this method, you are doing a clean/fresh install that wipes out everything.

 

[Teemsan]

Best answer selected by Teemsan.