Restore my laptop

[vboy0308]

I have a Toshiba Satellite A205-S4597 with Windows XP. Ho w do I restore to factory settings? I have tried holding the 0 key and pressing the power button 1 time. There is a long beep but still goes to login screen. I don't have restore disks. How can I restore to factory settings?

 

[Alabalcho]

It depends whether you messed up with that laptop since you bought it fifteen years ago.

If your laptop has not been messed up, the manua says how to create recovery media.

 

[Solandri]

Computers from that era typically came with restore CDs. I don't believe restore partitions started to become common until Vista and Win 7. You'll have to find the CDs or contact Toshiba.

In particular, most of the Toshiba laptops from around that time used a weird Intel RAID configuration (even though they only had a single drive). The RAID drivers were slipstreamed into Toshiba's restore CDs. You will not be able to reinstall Windows using a regular XP install CD. (Well, you can install it, but it won't boot.) I struggled with this for several days with my Toshiba laptop from back around that time, before finally giving up and digging through a dozen boxes to find the original install CDs. In theory it should be possible if you get the correct RAID driver and install them as an option before beginning the XP install. But I never managed to find these drivers on Toshiba's website.

You *might* be able to install Vista or Win 7 on it. I was able to upgrade that old Toshiba laptop from XP to Vista, then Win 7 despite the RAID weirdness. I was just never able to get a clean install off a retail XP CD to boot.

Edit: The Toshiba Disk Creator for Win XP/7 looks promising (no description given).

https/support.toshiba.com/support/modelHome?freeText=1702261&osId=50

 

[vboy0308]

It depends whether you messed up with that laptop since you bought it fifteen years ago.

If your laptop has not been messed up, the manua says how to create recovery media.

 

[vboy0308]

It was my sisters. It has been sitting around for awhile. Just looking to restore to factory settings and try to add Windows 10 then sell it

 

[Alabalcho]

For Pete' sake, RFTM (read that fine manual). It has steps how to create recovery CDs. If no one effed with that laptop, you should still be able to do that (providing that the CD recorder still works).

Forget about putting Windows 10 there. It simply does not have the power (CPU, RAM, HDD) to run it. And even if you put WIn10 there, Windows license alone will cost you $80. I would not buy barely running laptop for $100 if I can buy shiny new one for similar price.

If you can't reinstall clean XP image on it -- use the opportunity to learn Linux.

 

[vboy0308]

The CD recorder does work. But there were no recovery discs. I need to get this restored so I can sell it.

 

[rgd1101]

Like Alabalcho said put linux on it, and sell it as is

 

[vboy0308]

Like Alabalcho said put linux on it, and sell it as is

 

[vboy0308]

Yes I am going to do that but I still want to restore factory settings.

 

[Alabalcho]

The CD recorder does work. But there were no recovery discs. I need to get this restored so I can sell it.

Then recreate them, using application already on the laptop. Again - you will be able to do that if nobody has played with that laptop' storage (and recovery images are still there, somewhere).

 

[rgd1101]

Where are no restore factory for old laptop like that. And you don't need to restore to factory to install linux