I have a 6 year old Toshiba laptop that developed registry errors last Saturday and cannot complete boot-up (blue screen). Have even tried in safe mode but no good. It is commonly known as a Registry C0000218 problem.
About the laptop...it has Windows XP Media Center Edition. I did buy it new and got an OEM Toshiba Recovery disk with it. My main problem is that the license authentication sticker is on the bottom of the laptop and thru the years, it has worn down to only 6 readable characters. Same deal with my serial number of the laptop. I called Toshiba knowing I had registered it. They claim they can't find a record of it. Said I could get the license number from inside the system diagnostics...I told them it wouldn't boot and they still tell me this.
I don't want to use the Recovery disk, as it will reformat and start everything over again. I have files, pics, and all other kinds of things on there that I don't want to lose. I kept thinking that a couple years ago, I had a similar problem and had to run a Repair operation on it. I know the Repair program was on a Windows DVD, but don't know which one. Toshiba told me that if I ran the Recovery disk, it does not give an option to Repair, but will do full Recovery only.
I even went so far as to call Microsoft. They said they didn't keep the key numbers for users, as they felt it was a security risk. I told him I had the OEM Toshiba Recovery disk. He asked for the serial number printed on the back toward the center of the disk. I started reading numbers and he told me it started with an "X". I don't have a number on it that starts with an X. He suggested calling Toshiba back and having them send another Recovery disk. What good would that do, considering it is a factory disk.
Before doing anything, I would like to pull the hdd out and copy it's entire contents so I could possibly save these files.
Any suggestions on how to do a Repair on this instead of complete Recovery? Also, if worse comes to worst, can I still get a new key for this from Microsoft? Thanks.
About the laptop...it has Windows XP Media Center Edition. I did buy it new and got an OEM Toshiba Recovery disk with it. My main problem is that the license authentication sticker is on the bottom of the laptop and thru the years, it has worn down to only 6 readable characters. Same deal with my serial number of the laptop. I called Toshiba knowing I had registered it. They claim they can't find a record of it. Said I could get the license number from inside the system diagnostics...I told them it wouldn't boot and they still tell me this.
I don't want to use the Recovery disk, as it will reformat and start everything over again. I have files, pics, and all other kinds of things on there that I don't want to lose. I kept thinking that a couple years ago, I had a similar problem and had to run a Repair operation on it. I know the Repair program was on a Windows DVD, but don't know which one. Toshiba told me that if I ran the Recovery disk, it does not give an option to Repair, but will do full Recovery only.
I even went so far as to call Microsoft. They said they didn't keep the key numbers for users, as they felt it was a security risk. I told him I had the OEM Toshiba Recovery disk. He asked for the serial number printed on the back toward the center of the disk. I started reading numbers and he told me it started with an "X". I don't have a number on it that starts with an X. He suggested calling Toshiba back and having them send another Recovery disk. What good would that do, considering it is a factory disk.
Before doing anything, I would like to pull the hdd out and copy it's entire contents so I could possibly save these files.
Any suggestions on how to do a Repair on this instead of complete Recovery? Also, if worse comes to worst, can I still get a new key for this from Microsoft? Thanks.