Toshiba Satellite C855D-S5110 recovery disk?

ryan45419

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Jan 10, 2013
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I made a horrible mistake today trying to get Windows 7 on my laptop as opposed to Windows 8. I did a fresh install of Windows 7 over the old Windows 8 partition. I can't install any of the old drivers so my laptop is no where near useful. The only partition on my C855D-S5110 now is the one that has Windows 7. Therefore I can't use the built in system recovery Toshiba has built in. So my question is if there's a place I can download a recovery disk for my Toshiba Satellite C855D-S5110?

I know I shouldn't have deleted the other partitions and everything (I didn't realize there was built in recovery), so please don't lecture me. Just help me get this disk so I can use my laptop again.

Please help!
 

jmcook79

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Jan 25, 2013
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Just download macrium reflect free edition. It will allow you to make a disk image on an external hard drive or a set of DVD's. A system image is basically the same as a custom made recovery disk that is an exact snapshot of your pc at the time you make it, programs, personal files, everything. If you put the image on an external hard drive, you can even browse t and extract individual files or folders which makes a regular backup unnecessary.







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Rick DeMar

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Sep 28, 2013
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Toshiba is NOT the only answer, at least not for this particular problem. How quickly people forget that while the name stamped all over the laptop is "Toshiba", the hardware inside it is made by a dozen different companies at least and probably only one or two of those bits are actual Toshiba manufactured hardware. So, very often, you can bypass the control exerted by the seller if you just know what to do and how to do it.

I love Toshiba - I think they make great hardware and I think they sell great laptops most of the time. However, I totally do not like the way they have turned "self-support" into a cash cow by selling the recovery disks at $40 a pop. Those disks should ALWAYS be included equipment when you buy a computer, and should never be used as a way to earn the company extra money. You paid for your laptop, you paid for the software on it... you should be entitled to a means to restore your computer on your own and without extra cost if something fails, software wise, as has always been tradition.

All that said, I just restored a totally corrupted Windows 8, C855D-S5315 laptop to Windows 7 32 bit using drivers I found here:

http://fielnaml.info/toshiba-satellite-c855d-s5339-drivers-for-windows-8-64-bit/

And here:

http://support.toshiba.com/support/driversResults?freeText=3385527

Basically, I used drivers from another version of the C855D laptop, and didn't pay much attention to whether or not they were Win7/32 drivers. The most critical step was to get Windows 7 to install to start with, obviously, because I thought the hard disk might be DEAD (tried all the boot security suggestions and it DIDN'T work!) but the install went perfectly and was done before I knew it. On first boot, the wireless, wired ethernet, card reader, and SM bus were all dead and out due to drivers not being present. SO, I went to those two sites, helped along by various commentary I read on various computer support forums, and ended up using from these specific drivers:

TC50155400D.exe for the card reader
TC50128900E.exe for the USB filter driver

I burned those to a CD and used that to get the memory card reader and USB ports working. Once I had that, I used the MUCH faster method of a camera memory card to get the other drivers onto the laptop, trying a driver one at a time and crossing fingers that I could knock one more missing device off the list. I made a new folder on C:/Drivers so that I could expand them there and confine clutter for what I knew might be a very cocky and lengthy process of driver shotgunning. As usual, I had problems finding the wireless lan driver, so I took the hardware ID from Control Panel's device manager, "ven_10ec&dev_8176" (turns out to be a realtek device) and did a blanket search on Google for anything windows 7 regardless of laptop manufacturer's name or model number. After a lot of trying and failing, I added the Subsystem number (&subsys_821210ec), and that led me to the driver file "tc70124300i.exe", which I found here:

http://drivers.exdat.com/download2/19670/Toshiba+Satellite+L830+Realtek+WLAN+Driver+2.00.0018+for+Windows+7+x64

And it worked perfectly. That got me to the point where I could go on the Internet from the afflicted laptop using my own WiFi and do all the remaining work right from it. All that I was still missing at that point was the Ethernet and SM Bus drivers. I got very lucky and although it took a long time to do it, I was able to just let Windows automatically update the driver for the wired LAN from the Internet. After that, all I needed was the SM Bus driver, which failed on the attempt to automatically update it the same way. I just kept using the same Hardware ID method from Control Panel's Device Manager (ven_1022&dev_780B&subsys_FF1E1179), and I ended up running around in circles a bit before I remembered:

"Oh yeah, AMD has an autodetect and autoupdate program on their support site!"

...Since of course much of the hardware on this laptop is AMD hardware. Recall what I said about laptop manufacturer name vs. what's actually INSIDE the laptop? ;-)

I downloaded and ran that on the laptop, and let it pick and choose what I needed, and bam bam wham oh-hell-yeah, it installed an "E-Series APU" driver (150 mb!) and that was pretty much that. It didn't do anything for the missing "SM Bus" driver, but I've had that problem before with my computer and other people's computers and have let it go without a problem. I'll just do the usual and tell my client to let me know if something's still not right when they go to use it. Anyway, After all was said and done, it updated no doubt a bunch of things and the laptop only needed some minor customization touches and it was running GREAT with Windows 7 Ultimate / 32-bit. Nice. :)

Moral of this story is two part:

1) Don't advise someone like you're a tech and give them bizarre advice like "Why don't you backup your system with MY suggested program before you have a problem" or "The company that made the laptop is the ONLY ANSWER!!1!". Be actually helpful and give real tech advice or leave them to those who will.

2) Don't attempt to fix your own computer like you're a tech unless you're really LIKE A TECH. You can get backed in a corner very easily and do more damage than necessary. Find someone with the actual talent and get them to help you. Find the right person, and they'll give you something maybe even better than what you had, and they won't rape you like Toshiba would with their $40 recovery disk option. ABOVE ALL ELSE, be slow, patient, and thorough. Don't rush, don't take advice hastily, and don't let yourself be led by techie wannabes. Also very important - LEARN! Most of the problems people have with technology are due to a lack of interest in learning to handle the technology. Teach yourself even the basics and you can go a LONG way much more cost effectively than throwing money at people to do it for you.

And that's all I got to say! Have a good day and good luck!

Rick NR417