Thanks for hanging in there with me, Wolfeymole.

I have no worry regarding possible insults. I'd be delighted if there is some silly, tiny, obscure, or other item in plain view that I've overlooked. I keep hoping that someone can point it out to me.


When I set the CD/DVD player to boot first, I have been careful to save the setting. The save also appears to hold during the next (unsuccessful) boot. When I return to the Bios, it still is set to first in line.


My disk reads: Toshiba Recovery and Applications/Drivers DVD Satellite P25 Series. The software included on this Recovery DVD was pre-installed on your hard drive at the factory and may only be used for backup and recovery of your Toshiba computer system. Performance of the software is the sole responsibility of Toshiba.


Now that I notice it, there is an 800 number for "support for these products" on the disk as well. I might try calling that number, but my warranty has long since expired.

I'm still stumped.

Hi again Anx

Are you reall really sure that no other disks came with the pc as usually a person gets/can get three;
1: OS Re-installation disk
2: Drivers and Apps re-installation disk
3: A "Read Me" manual type disk

But you should have at least the first two, if you have not got those then I would deffinately call Toshiba.

Agreed. The amount of Toshiba's I have supplied to my clients - they always come with a restore disk.

If you have misplaced it or swear black and blue that you never recieved it - call them and they will be able to send you new ones

I admit being surprised and hunting through the box when I only found one reinstall disk. However, since it was the first time for me that the install disk was a DVD and not several CD's, I probably didn't need to worry. I did have one other disk entitled, "Microsoft: Bicycle Board Games," which I never installed. It appears to have only games including DirectX 8.0a for some of the games. However, to reiterate, before the Toshiba came to a screeching halt, I reinstalled from the DVD several times successfully (there were hints of problems, i.e., Partition Magic/Boot remenants still hanging around). When I reinstall now, I can see all of the files included with the original setup using Fix-It Utilities. This includes programs such as Intuit's Quicken 2003, Norton Antivirus (trial), AOL (trial), etc., etc., etc. Incidentally, I used to manage a university clinic for which I purchased two additonal computers of the exact same model. The identical two disks came with them, one DVD install and one Bicycle Board Games.

Is it possible that my hard drive is bad even though Fix-It Utilities give it a pass?

All I can think is that like some companys, eg; PC World, decide to put the boot files on a partition on the hdd which means you can restore from that.
In my opinion it's bad practice because if the hdd goeas pear shaped you have lost everything.
Saying all that I see no quick fix except to obtain a new copy of XP and start again.

I suspect that you are right. I was able to find a reference to a special boot section in the manual. That makes sense. I've been told the difficulty is that if I started with a new version of XP, there would still likely be drivers specific to my computer that would be hard to locate.

In essence, if you are correct, Toshiba gives you no option of reclaiming your computer if that portion of the drive goes bad without replacing the drive and buying a fresh copy of XP and still having to work to find the extra drivers. I agree that that is an awful practice.

Thank you for your help and persistence!

Nine times out of ten Anxiety most drivers will be included in the XP database and those that aren't should be easily available.
What I would stress to anyone else reading this post is that ALWAYS make sure you have either a brand new version of any OS even if it's OEM.
I bought a laptop from a leading british store a while ago and I demanded to see the disks, the sales guy was not impressed having to open the box to show me but I thought "Hey it's ok, you won't be the one having to format it when it goes wrong".