How to change my operating system or how to reformat my toshiba l300 i dont have the disk

Why are you trying to reformat the drive ? The entire operating system and all files will be destroyed if you do this. To reformat the drive requires an external program on a disk that would allow you to reinstall windows from scratch. Most Bios chips can do a reformat but accessing these low level programs is for pros only and varies widely from machine to machine. Unless you have a nasty Trojan, virus or worm that can't be removed any other way I would not do this. You will need a working copy of a boot disk to get the machine up and running after the reformat. Then you can reinstall the Operating System. If you had been successful in your reformat you would have found yourself with a DEAD MACHINE unless you had a boot disk ready.

This problem is common with the L300 series as well as others. It's related to the fact Vista was pre-installed. Has to do with partitioning.

What you have to do is power on the Laptop and then press F2 to get into the BIOS menu. Then scroll down to the SATA option and change it from ACHI to Compatibility then exit saving your changes (F10) and then reboot your Laptop from the XP Operating System disk.

It will now let you install Windows XP or any other Operating System.

http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-24383-install-xp-on-toshiba-laptop

Do you have Driver CDs?
Is your Operating system still working?
Do you have Recovery Disk?

If you have Driver CDs.there will be no any problem to reformat.
if you don't have the CDs and our system still working,just make out the Drivers which you need.
If you have Recovery Disk,its so easy to reformat

If you want to reformat your computer, first save all important files so that they will be lost. And then format your C Drive. Then reinstall Windows operating system. It

If Windows was installed without problems, then you only need to install the Toshiba laptop's device drivers.
You can download any/allthe Windows XP or Vista device drivers for your model laptop from the ToshibaWEB site from their download page. Make sure you enter the model of your laptopso you can get the correct drivers. Please click on this link: - http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/support/jsp/home.jsp http://blitware.com/adpages/driverfetch/manufacturer/?manufacturer=Toshiba&gclid=CMOVxNCBx6ACFSgnawodoHNGbA

try this one first:

• press F8 while notebook powering up
• choose repair my computer
• choose Toshiba recovery

if that will not work and since you have the disk, you don't need special combination keys to press. just boot to the disk by changing the boot sequence on your BIOS or in some cases, pressing F12.

please give more details about the problem, like error messages, color of ecreen, beeps, etc.!

make sure that you have antivirus stuff on the PC. Get rid of the shadow copy and the duplicates of her id... but first make sure to save all the important data to disk or something in case the machine dies in these processes. worst case scenario just reformat and be done/

hi thanks for using fixya!

I suggest that if you could do a full scan (anti-virus) to your system. Then, do the disk defragmenter on all your drives, especially the system drive.

the last option is to reformat your system/laptop.

If you need further assistance, let me know.

pls rate me positively! thanks!

Unfortunately, there is only one solution and that is to reload your operating system. If you don't already have recovery discs, you can most likely find them here. Good Luck!