Member Avatar for isthisfreedom

alright i've been googling this and trying things for hours and i'm stuck. here is my problem:

I just received a new laptop for Christmas to replace my older Toshiba Satellite L300D-06T and I intended to give the Toshiba to my brother to replace his desktop. Thinking I am oh so clever, I took all the relevant personal files off the old laptop and moved them to the new laptop and proceeded to try and put on a fresh install of Windows 7. This is where it gets tricky; my Toshiba came with Vista 64 bit already installed but because of the time that I bought my laptop I was eligible for a free Win7 upgrade when it finally dropped.

The thing that caused all this ruckus is that I am no computer master and I discovered after completing this installation (which I read somewhere else shouldn't have worked because of the product serial) that my disc was an upgrade and not a full install. Thus I was eventually required to find the "shadow partition" (apparently an interesting feature exclusive to Toshiba Satellites?) and access the system restoration options this way. I input all my command prompts and was able to "restore" the windows.old file and the master boot.

After all of this, I booted up just fine and I went into disk cleanup and started clearing things out this way. In the process I deleted my previous windows installations and now certain things don't quite work (internet explorer will no longer run or install) and I have just about had it. Any suggestions on how to delete all of the Windows 7 messiness I have loaded onto here and get back to the basic Vista (so I can upgrade the system correctly) would be much appreciated. If anything is unclear or confusing let me know! thanks all :)

  • 3 Contributors
  • 3 Replies
  • 308 Views
  • 1 Day Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by weddingcoo

Dani AI

Generated

This thread is a good example of what can happen when an OEM Vista machine is upgraded with an “upgrade” DVD without taking recovery and licensing precautions first. The practical baseline is simple: either restore the OEM factory image (if present) or perform a properly licensed, well‑prepared reinstall. Below are concise, practical steps for repair now and for a safer upgrade attempt later.

If the system still boots but core components are misbehaving, try repair before a full reinstall. From an elevated Command Prompt run sfc /scannow to repair protected system files, then run Startup Repair from OEM recovery media. Reinstall chipset and network drivers from the Toshiba support site and install the standalone Internet Explorer installer from Microsoft if the browser is damaged. Apply Windows Update repeatedly until no more important updates appear. If rollback files (Windows.old) have been permanently removed, a true rollback is not possible and the available choices are factory recovery or a clean reinstall.

For a future Windows 7 upgrade, prepare first: create a full disk image and recovery discs using the OEM recovery tool (or a third‑party imager), run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to check driver/app compatibility, confirm the Windows 7 edition and bitness match the target machine, and run Setup from inside the qualifying Vista installation when possible to avoid activation problems. If a clean install is preferred, use full retail Windows 7 media or arrange activation help through Microsoft/OEM rather than relying on unofficial workarounds.

After recovery or a successful upgrade, reinstall updated drivers, run Windows Update to completion, make fresh recovery media and a system image, and store product keys and install media in a safe place. The contributions from and the recovery outcome reported by demonstrate that OEM recovery is the correct foundation before attempting another upgrade.

Recommended Answers

All 3 Replies

Member Avatar for caperjack

hello ,try holding in the zero key when you turn it on ,it should bring up the windows recovery option to reinstall windows as it was from the factory .good luck

Member Avatar for isthisfreedom

yes, i eventually ended up doing that on my own, thanks anyway though :)

Member Avatar for weddingcoo

yes, i eventually ended up doing that on my own, thanks for the help.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.