I have a new Toshiba L35 notebook, and it came with lots of garbage
software, and a "Restore" disk. I've uninstalled the stuff I don't
want, but it's the rare program that uninstalls completely. And
here I had McAfee, Microsoft Office, AOL, etc., which in the past
left tons of stuff after they uninstalled, and I assume they sitll
do.

So I wondered if it might be possible to "restore" the drive to
as-shipped condition, except for the software I don't want. That
way, all the crap files and registry entries would never be there in
the first place.

I wondered whether it might be possible to burn a modified copy of
the Restore DVD which installed only the stuff I want. The
modifications might just be deleting lines in an .ini or .inf file,
or deleting folders containing the garbage software (hoping the
install wouldn't abort when the folders weren't found.

But I don't know enough about this to make the right changes. Has
anyone here done anything like this, or heard of it being done?

On Mon, 01 Jan 2007 10:13:28 -0600, Peabody
<waybackNO784SPAM44******.com> wrote:

>I have a new Toshiba L35 notebook, and it came with lots of garbage
>software, and a "Restore" disk. I've uninstalled the stuff I don't
>want, but it's the rare program that uninstalls completely. And
>here I had McAfee, Microsoft Office, AOL, etc., which in the past
>left tons of stuff after they uninstalled, and I assume they sitll
>do.
>
>So I wondered if it might be possible to "restore" the drive to
>as-shipped condition, except for the software I don't want. That
>way, all the crap files and registry entries would never be there in
>the first place.
>
>I wondered whether it might be possible to burn a modified copy of
>the Restore DVD which installed only the stuff I want. The
>modifications might just be deleting lines in an .ini or .inf file,
>or deleting folders containing the garbage software (hoping the
>install wouldn't abort when the folders weren't found.
>
>But I don't know enough about this to make the right changes. Has
>anyone here done anything like this, or heard of it being done?
>


You can make a bootable Windows disc from your i386 folder which
leaves all of the out of date garbage out.

Plenty of howtos on the net.

Start here
http://www.howtohaven.com/system/cre...etupdisk.shtml

Ernie

You are probably out of luck. Most of the Toshiba restore discs are
simply restoring an image, they are not doing "installations". Thus
there is no way to get what you want from that disc, at least not
directly. It's NOT a matter of changing INI files, because what is
being done is to simply restore an image of the entire drive, and that
image has everything that you don't want already included.

The Toshiba product key is generally just an OEM product key. Find
someone with a generic OEM CD for the version of Windows XP that you
have (Home, Pro or Media Center) and you can PROBABLY install "plain
vanilla" windows using their CD and your product key (and it's actually
even legal to do this ... you have and will use your own COA and product
key).


Peabody wrote:
> I have a new Toshiba L35 notebook, and it came with lots of garbage
> software, and a "Restore" disk. I've uninstalled the stuff I don't
> want, but it's the rare program that uninstalls completely. And
> here I had McAfee, Microsoft Office, AOL, etc., which in the past
> left tons of stuff after they uninstalled, and I assume they sitll
> do.
>
> So I wondered if it might be possible to "restore" the drive to
> as-shipped condition, except for the software I don't want. That
> way, all the crap files and registry entries would never be there in
> the first place.
>
> I wondered whether it might be possible to burn a modified copy of
> the Restore DVD which installed only the stuff I want. The
> modifications might just be deleting lines in an .ini or .inf file,
> or deleting folders containing the garbage software (hoping the
> install wouldn't abort when the folders weren't found.
>
> But I don't know enough about this to make the right changes. Has
> anyone here done anything like this, or heard of it being done?
>
>

I was going to suggest that (using the I386 folders), but on the most
recent Toshiba models, the folder is incomplete and doesn't contain all
of the files needed. While such files can often be found if one has
access to other Windows XP setup CDs, it's often easier just to use the
Toshiba product key with a borrowed generic OEM CD of the proper type
(Home, Pro or MCE). This both usually works, and it's even legal, as
long as you have the COA and Windows is being installed on the PC to
which the product key was actually assigned and the COA issued.


Ernie@Home.com wrote:

>
> You can make a bootable Windows disc from your i386 folder which
> leaves all of the out of date garbage out.
>
> Plenty of howtos on the net.
>
> Start here
> http://www.howtohaven.com/system/cre...etupdisk.shtml
>
> Ernie

Barry Watzman says...

> The Toshiba product key is generally just an OEM product
> key. Find someone with a generic OEM CD for the version
> of Windows XP that you have (Home, Pro or Media Center)
> and you can PROBABLY install "plain vanilla" windows
> using their CD and your product key (and it's actually
> even legal to do this ... you have and will use your own
> COA and product key).

Yes, but then I have the issue of all the motherboard and
device drivers that I absolutely DO need, plus the software
that I want to use. I think I can "restore" the software
item by item from the restore disk, but I'm not at all sure
about the drivers.

> Most of the Toshiba restore discs are simply restoring
> an image, they are not doing "installations". Thus
> there is no way to get what you want from that disc, at
> least not directly.
> It's NOT a matter of changing INI files, because what is
> being done is to simply restore an image of the entire
> drive, and that image has everything that you don't want
> already included.

Unless the image is a Acronis True Image format. :-)

> You are probably out of luck.

Yes, I think so. It's too bad uninstalls don't fully
uninstall.

Toshiba seem to have a good record of maintaining all the necessary drivers
on their site. Have you looked for your model there?
Terry

"Peabody" <waybackNO784SPAM44******.com> wrote in message
news:b1Znh.80427$Pv5.64716@newsfe17.lga...
> Barry Watzman says...
>
> > The Toshiba product key is generally just an OEM product
> > key. Find someone with a generic OEM CD for the version
> > of Windows XP that you have (Home, Pro or Media Center)
> > and you can PROBABLY install "plain vanilla" windows
> > using their CD and your product key (and it's actually
> > even legal to do this ... you have and will use your own
> > COA and product key).
>
> Yes, but then I have the issue of all the motherboard and
> device drivers that I absolutely DO need, plus the software
> that I want to use. I think I can "restore" the software
> item by item from the restore disk, but I'm not at all sure
> about the drivers.
>
> > Most of the Toshiba restore discs are simply restoring
> > an image, they are not doing "installations". Thus
> > there is no way to get what you want from that disc, at
> > least not directly.
> > It's NOT a matter of changing INI files, because what is
> > being done is to simply restore an image of the entire
> > drive, and that image has everything that you don't want
> > already included.
>
> Unless the image is a Acronis True Image format. :-)
>
> > You are probably out of luck.
>
> Yes, I think so. It's too bad uninstalls don't fully
> uninstall.
>

tc says...

> Toshiba seem to have a good record of maintaining all
> the necessary drivers on their site. Have you looked for
> your model there?

Yes. My L35-S2171 isn't listed in the Downloads list. If I
search for that number I get a whole list of drivers, but
it's not clear which ones I would need. I was hoping to
find a single ZIP file containing all the drivers needed for
my model, or all the drivers that aren't installable from
the recovery disk. But no.

Well, it looks like I probably need to give up on this and
leave it alone.

Thanks for everyone's advice.

Re: "I think I can "restore" the software item by item from the restore
disk ..."

No, you probably can't; it's a single, integrated image (well, at least
in almost all cases for the retail laptops. There may be some
exceptions to that that I'm not aware of, however.).

Re: "then I have the issue of all the motherboard and device drivers"
Yes, no argument, and it is a pain. But the drivers are all available
from the Toshiba web site, it's just a matter of the work required to
download and install them.


Peabody wrote:
> Barry Watzman says...
>
> > The Toshiba product key is generally just an OEM product
> > key. Find someone with a generic OEM CD for the version
> > of Windows XP that you have (Home, Pro or Media Center)
> > and you can PROBABLY install "plain vanilla" windows
> > using their CD and your product key (and it's actually
> > even legal to do this ... you have and will use your own
> > COA and product key).
>
> Yes, but then I have the issue of all the motherboard and
> device drivers that I absolutely DO need, plus the software
> that I want to use. I think I can "restore" the software
> item by item from the restore disk, but I'm not at all sure
> about the drivers.
>
> > Most of the Toshiba restore discs are simply restoring
> > an image, they are not doing "installations". Thus
> > there is no way to get what you want from that disc, at
> > least not directly.
> > It's NOT a matter of changing INI files, because what is
> > being done is to simply restore an image of the entire
> > drive, and that image has everything that you don't want
> > already included.
>
> Unless the image is a Acronis True Image format. :-)
>
> > You are probably out of luck.
>
> Yes, I think so. It's too bad uninstalls don't fully
> uninstall.
>

Barry Watzman says...

> Re: "I think I can "restore" the software item by item
> from the restore disk ..."

> No, you probably can't; it's a single, integrated image
> (well, at least in almost all cases for the retail
> laptops. There may be some exceptions to that that I'm
> not aware of, however.).

In this case both the full image and the individual programs
are on the restore disk. The explanation in the manual is
that the latter are provided in case one of the apps becomes
corrupted, or has been previously uninstalled and you want
to reinstall it.

But the individual programs do not include XP itself, or, as
far as I can tell, the low-level motherboad drivers.

So I'm back to finding an OEM generic Home disk, and
downloading and installing the drivers. And it might even
work.