Computer guru's, need help

I've gotten to this page here so far...: http://support.toshiba.ca/support/is...=PSLS6C-00F005
does that help anything?

For what you need to do, you do not need a full featured operating system, although this one is actually pretty capable for a Linux distribution: http://puppylinux.com/download/

Download the ISO and burn it to a CD. Do not copy the file to a CD, your software must unpack the ISO file and install it onto the CD so that the CD is bootable. I use a free piece of software for this: http://www.imgburn.com/ All of this will need to be done on another computer which is functioning and has access to the Internet and a CD writer (most computers newer the 5 years old do). Once the CD is completed, you will need to put it into your malfunctioning computer and power on the machine. There will be a key (like F2 or F12, could be something else, depending on your BIOS from your motherboard) which will enter into a setup screen. You will need to change the boot sequence on the machine to boot from your CD drive. Once you have made that change, save the change and exit. This will restart the boot sequence and your machine should boot from the Linux live CD in your CD drive. During boot up, you will have a screen that will ask you if you want to install from the CD or run the live CD... you want to run the live CD.

After the machine has completely booted up, you will eventually be at a normal window that looks similar but not exactly the same as Windows. The button at the bottom is like the Start button in Windows and it will get you a list of available programs. You are looking for the programs Gparted, a mount manager (Pmount), and the File Manager (ROXFiler or Thunar). Gparted will tell you the names and types of hard drives installed on your computer. It can also show you the different partitions on your hard drives even when they are hidden. Once you know the name of your hard drive (something like /dev/hda1) where your Windows OS is installed, you can then mount that partition, using Pmount, so that you can then access the files (using ROXFiler) on the drive and copy them over to an external hard drive or USB drive.

Once you are certain that you have gotten all of your files off of your hard drive and onto an external drive, you can proceed to the restore by following the information from Toshiba.

I realize this is a lot of information. It is much simpler to do than to explain in a typed response on a board. I wished I lived closer, I would come over and have it done in an hour. The good thing about this is once you have your live CD burned, you label it and put it aside for the next time you need it. One day you may even decide to completely skip Windows and just install Linux and stop paying M$ for their operating system.

Oh, and if you only have one browser installed on your system (IE) this would be a good time to install two other browsers. As long as you have an Internet connection, there isn't any reason not to have two or three different pieces of software to do the things you do most with your computer... surf the web.

Did anyone say anything about regular backups? Sorry, I just had to.

EDIT

This is what I found for restoring a Toshiba Satellite L500 computer to factory settings - http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question...9021152AAXJOO7

Here is what I found for getting into your BIOS setup - Press the F2 key on startup. This will take you the screen which will let you set the boot sequence and allow the computer to start from the live CD.

spyder:

As I'm sure you are now aware, this isn't a straight forward process, especially for a non-tech type of person. I mean absolutely no offense, but you may be better served by bringing it in to someone in Trinidad.

Spyder has mad skilz with a lathe. He has an awesome set of tools. He can fix it.!

Spyder, one quick question...do you have a second computer system? If not, do you have access to another system? If so, you can buy one of these gizmos (http://www.microcenter.com/product/2..._Drive_Adapter) hook up your old hdd, and transfer all your data to a new hdd. Then, hold onto the original drive, put it on the shelf, and replace it with a new one. Now, the usb drive becomes your backup drive, new drive gets a fresh install of your OS. Copy the data back, and if you miss any files then all you have to do is hook up that adapter again, and find the old files and copy back, then replicate to your backup drive. I do this all the time with my customers...

Lol, currently at safeway using the wifi, bear/tree/cable lines.... all equal no good! I am going to use my wife's computer whenit all gets sorted...

Ok, new lines, or spliced together line... whatever... anyway at the wife's computer and looking at that puppy page thing you sent over cstone, is this where I'm supposed to go? ftp://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/
If it is where I'm supposed to go, what exactly do I download? I know I have to burn whatever file/files to a disc, and I've read through that part of the page and how to tell if you burned it correctly, I just don't know what part to download to burn..... More advise please.

Completely forgot that I had an external disk thing that hooks one computer up to another's hard drive. Anyway, did it using my wife's laptop and Norton immediately pulled up Rootkit.Boot.Pihar on my computer's hard drive, but couldn't remove it. I looked online and got antimalwarebyte's stuff, and Kaspersky's TDS SKiller to remove it, hope it works since my expensive and shitty Norton couldn't even with it's power eraser crap. Running scans now, Kaspersky already said it removed it, Norton can't find it anymore, and I'm letting malwarebytes go through it currently just for added security, so, we'll see if my computer boots up now after this is all done.

All of the scans came back negative for anything else on my computer after Kaspersky got rid of the first virus, plugged my hard drive back in, and the computer booted up like nothing was wrong. Ok, I'm good now.

Rootkits can be nasty buggers. Often attempts to remove will cause the host system to crash, so it never gets removed.