New laptop - no Vista back-up disk

[CBC]

The girl in Darty said just to go in to 'tableau de bord' (or is that 'panneau de configuration'?) and copy Vista, that it would need 3 or 4 DVDs.  Seemed easy enough, but havent't quite found how it is done - my French is OK, but I find technical stuff a bit overwhelming.  Does anybody have an idiot's A-Z to doing this?  Or, do I really need to do this, can I potentially lose Vista ....?  If so, how would I get the laptop working again without it? 

Sorry for the dumb questions and thanks in anticipation to anybody who has the patience and generosity to help me.

CBC

 

[tel]

Hi,

You don't say what make of laptop you have, most manufacturers have a back-up programme in their own pre loaded utilities.  However if you take a look at the site below it will guide you step by step on how to use the Windows Vista back up.
http://www.vista4beginners.com/How-to-backup-your-data

Hope this helps.

 

[CBC]

Thanks for the reply.  It's a Toshiba laptop, by the way.  The vista link was very useful, but my query was regarding losing Vista itself and restoring it, rather than data.

Thanks again.

CBC

[tel]

Hi,

Toshiba usually (as do most notebook manufacturers) partition the Hard Drive, loading the operating system on the main partition and the back up/recovery on the smaller partition.  If not in this case, Windows Vista's 'Back up and Restore' facility accessed through the Control Panel will allow you to back up the whole of the computer.  It creates an image of your HDD so you can restore the whole drive if there is a problem.

Regards

[Mikew]

Go to www.toshiba.co.uk and to their download section. You should be able to find a manual for your computer there in English. Your French variant may vary slightly, but you should be able to find a near equivalent.

 

( My XP Toshiba was supplied with a system restore disk, drivers are in a directory on the C drive, updates are on the website).