My brother-in-law picked up a nasty virus on his Toshiba, Satellite A215-S5818 laptop. I have run Adware, Spybot, and several other programs to try and remove the virus but it blocks everything that I do. I tried to go into the computer manager and reinstall windows vista home edition form the hidden sector but can not get there because it says that the administrative privileges has been removed. I recreated another admin account and the same thing. So of course I have his tag on the computer that shows it is a legal copy of Vista, but he either doesnt have or can not find his disks. Is there someplace I can download a recovery disk?
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If it didn't exist on a recovery partition, they have a program that launches the first time you boot it asking you to make recovery disk. I have ordered recovery disk from this site before: http://www.restoredisks.co
Even if they don't carry one, you could request one and see if they can get it. Otherwise, you will need to go back to Toshiba and order one.
Well after trying everything this weekend, since I am behind a firewall here at wor, it did not allow me to reinstall anything. however I was somehow able to see the partitions but I wasn't able to see inside them. Is there anything else I can do before I have him contact Toshiba for a replacement cd? Again sorry for the delay but I wanted to give it my best shot over the weekend. Thanks again. Jim
PS I am not one of those that just ask the question and neve follow up (might be slow but I will answer) Thanks Again!!!
I am not clear on just what exactly you are trying to do: get a Vista recovery CD, or a Toshiba recovery CD? If you can download the Vista Recovery CD iso file I mentioned in my first comment on another machine, then burn it to a CD with a free program like CDBurnerXP (assuming you don't have a commercial product such as Roxio or Nero that you can use instead), you will at least be able to get into the Recovery Environment, Command Prompt section, to backup data files to a removable media such as USB flash drive. You won't be able to reinstall Vista with that recovery CD (for that you need a Windows Vista installation DVD.)
The Toshiba recovery disk that rbarnhardt is talking about is probably one that will only allow you to bring the pc back to its factory installed state, thus causing you to lose all your installed programs, data files, modified system settings, etc.
Hopefully this may clear up my questions. I first went to rbarnhardt's recommended site because I did not have any type of restore disk's other then my Toshiba 205 disks (which it started to go through and then it told me that it was not compatible) and I understand that. His model Satellite A215-S5818 was not listed so that was out. I then thought why not try just to reinstall the OS and maybe that could clear up the problem, after download your recommended disk and following the instructions. I was able to get to where I had to enter a product key, I tried to use his but it did not allow it. He was running the same (Vista Home edition with SP1) but that didn't work so to answer your question, I guess I am trying to do anything to just get him back up without all of the viruses. His main virus was the AV360 and I think I have that one removed, but there are more. Hope this clarifies some of the problem I am having with this.
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by: LeeTutorPosted on 2009-02-12 at 08:17:58ID: 23623518
Too many computer manufacturers don't furnish a Vista installation DVD with their pcs that are pre-installed with Vista. Often they only have a hidden recovery partition that you can access to take back your pc to its original factory installation state! (Thus you lose your data and all installed applications, setting changes, etc.)
If you don't have an installation DVD, then you cannot reinstall Vista without using this recovery partition, and you cannot access the new Vista Recovery Environment, which is what corresponds to XP's Recovery Console. So, if you don't have a Vista installation DVD, what do you do in order to access the Vista Recovery Environment, at least? You go to this site and download the makings for a recovery disk:
http://neosmart.net/blog/2