Repairing a Toshiba 1800-S200

I've had a steady influx of friends and family members wanting me to clean up their PCs for the holidays. The latest computer I've had to fix up is an old Toshiba 1800-S200. It had the usual problems - the machine hasn't been defragged in over a year, it was filled with spyware and several species of virii. The owner wanted to upgrade from Windows 98 SE to Windows 2000. The first thing I did was back up the entire computer using a spare IOGear drive (then I transferred the files onto a computer with a DVD-Burner).

Next step was to create an inventory of the applications and drivers on the laptop. One of my favorite programs for saving drivers to simplify reloading a computer is My Drivers. Since I was upgrading the OS, I needed Windows 2000 drivers. I made note of the drivers by looking at the Device Manager (Right click on My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager)

I first checked the Toshiba support website for information about the laptop. Unfortunately, that particular model of the laptop wasn't listed on the driver download site. Next place I looked at is DriverGuide.com. They had an assortment of drivers but it was clearly apparent that it would take hours to download them all. On a whim, I checked the Canadian Toshiba website and I was pleasantly surprised to find all the drivers for that model of laptop on one page. If you have an older Toshiba, I would recommend checking out the Canadian Toshiba support site for resources.

To quote Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz: "I won't look any further than my own back yard."