Need that Laptop.

[MrFixitBlankFace]

My relative has a pretty old Toshiba Windows 10 laptop that he doesn't use anymore.  I said, "hey man, can I have it".

He said, "sure, but its absolete (its running out of storage).

 

Two things.

After he clears his files, there will still be 0.5 GB of space.  Is there any way to maybe scrape up at least 2 GB extra?  I mean, he deleted all his programs, files, and there's still "28.8 GB used of 28.8 GB" (I know its crazy)

 

 

Thing 2

His laptop is automatically linked to his Microsoft account, meaning the laptop password is his account password.  And I don't want to know his credentials.   Is there any way to bypass this without using my Microsoft account?  Is there any way to use my own password instead of his account password.

 

THANKS FOR ALL HELP.

 

[slashqpbyte]

1 minute ago, MrFixitBlankFace said:

My relative has a pretty old Toshiba Windows 10 laptop that he doesn't use anymore.  I said, "hey man, can I have it".

He said, "sure, but its absolete (its running out of storage).

 

Two things.

After he clears his files, there will still be 0.5 GB of space.  Is there any way to maybe scrape up at least 2 GB extra?  I mean, he deleted all his programs, files, and there's still "28.8 GB used of 28.8 GB" (I know its crazy)

 

 

Thing 2

His laptop is automatically linked to his Microsoft account, meaning the laptop password is his account password.  And I don't want to know his credentials.   Is there any way to bypass this without using my Microsoft account?  Is there any way to use my own password instead of his account password.

 

THANKS FOR ALL HELP.

 

I would format it, then reinstall windows *sigh* ...legally.

[MrFixitBlankFace]

Just now, slashqpbyte said:

I would format it, then reinstall windows *sigh* ...legally.

Eeek... I don't have much experience reinstalling.

[slashqpbyte]

4 minutes ago, MrFixitBlankFace said:

Eeek... I don't have much experience reinstalling.

No time like the present to learn, If you muck it up, no harm done.

[MrFixitBlankFace]

3 minutes ago, slashqpbyte said:

No time like the present to learn, If you muck it up, no harm done.

If I muck it up, I brick it.   Other ways?

 

If there is no other, I'll learn or live with having apps close on thier own all the time.   Maybe I'll learn reinstallation.  I think its in settings, where there is a "start with a fresh installation of windows" option.   Shouldn't be that hard.

[slashqpbyte]

Just now, MrFixitBlankFace said:

If I muck it up, I brick it.   Other ways?

 

If there is no other, I'll learn or live with having apps close on thier own all the time.   Maybe I'll learn reinstallation.  I think its in settings, where there is a "start with a fresh installation of windows" option.   Shouldn't be that hard.

I'm sure somebody will correct me, but I don't think you can 'brick' a laptop by reinstalling windows. Its a pretty safe thing to do.

[sumwish]

19 minutes ago, MrFixitBlankFace said:

Eeek... I don't have much experience reinstalling.

Learning to install windows again will give you a lot less headaches if you plan to use that laptop. Usually laptops with low storage like that will hang up once a large windows update is trying to install and you'll get messages that you don't have enough storage.

 

What you'll want to do is get a flash drive . 16GB+ is usually a safe bet.

Google "Windows 10 media creation tool". This will let you turn your flash drive into windows 10 install media.

You can figure out how to boot into a flash drive on a Toshiba machine, or the easy thing to do is:

- Turn the laptop on

- When it asks you to log into the microsoft account, go to the bottom right where you can shut off or restart the laptop. Hold down shift and click restart, you'll be greeted by a light blue screen with some troubleshooting options.

- You should be able to navigate your way through until you get an option that lets you reboot into a flash drive, make sure the flash drive is already installed.

 

Follow the prompts to install windows, check youtube to see how you should delete any partitions already on the boot drive.

Don't worry about having a windows key, just say you don't have one and it'll use the key already saved on the system and you won't have to reactivate windows.

 

Once you do it the first time you should be good to go. Enjoy.

[Nerdom]

1 hour ago, sumwish said:

Learning to install windows again will give you a lot less headaches if you plan to use that laptop. Usually laptops with low storage like that will hang up once a large windows update is trying to install and you'll get messages that you don't have enough storage.

 

What you'll want to do is get a flash drive . 16GB+ is usually a safe bet.

Google "Windows 10 media creation tool". This will let you turn your flash drive into windows 10 install media.

You can figure out how to boot into a flash drive on a Toshiba machine, or the easy thing to do is:

- Turn the laptop on

- When it asks you to log into the microsoft account, go to the bottom right where you can shut off or restart the laptop. Hold down shift and click restart, you'll be greeted by a light blue screen with some troubleshooting options.

- You should be able to navigate your way through until you get an option that lets you reboot into a flash drive, make sure the flash drive is already installed.

 

Follow the prompts to install windows, check youtube to see how you should delete any partitions already on the boot drive.

Don't worry about having a windows key, just say you don't have one and it'll use the key already saved on the system and you won't have to reactivate windows.

 

Once you do it the first time you should be good to go. Enjoy.

Couldn’t have said it better IMO. This is exactly what you should do. Make sure you have some time to wait lol

[MrFixitBlankFace]

6 hours ago, MrFixitBlankFace said:

Thing 2

His laptop is automatically linked to his Microsoft account, meaning the laptop password is his account password.  And I don't want to know his credentials.   Is there any way to bypass this without using my Microsoft account?  Is there any way to use my own password instead of his account password.

What about this?  How do I unlock the computer without having to put his account password.  How do I unlink his laptop from his Microsoft account? Without using my Microsoft account.

[MrFixitBlankFace]

On 3/4/2019 at 1:43 PM, sumwish said:

Learning to install windows again will give you a lot less headaches if you plan to use that laptop. Usually laptops with low storage like that will hang up once a large windows update is trying to install and you'll get messages that you don't have enough storage.

 

What you'll want to do is get a flash drive . 16GB+ is usually a safe bet.

Google "Windows 10 media creation tool". This will let you turn your flash drive into windows 10 install media.

You can figure out how to boot into a flash drive on a Toshiba machine, or the easy thing to do is:

- Turn the laptop on

- When it asks you to log into the microsoft account, go to the bottom right where you can shut off or restart the laptop. Hold down shift and click restart, you'll be greeted by a light blue screen with some troubleshooting options.

- You should be able to navigate your way through until you get an option that lets you reboot into a flash drive, make sure the flash drive is already installed.

 

Follow the prompts to install windows, check youtube to see how you should delete any partitions already on the boot drive.

Don't worry about having a windows key, just say you don't have one and it'll use the key already saved on the system and you won't have to reactivate windows.

 

Once you do it the first time you should be good to go. Enjoy.

Thank you very much @sumwish.

I'll do that.  I've been reading up on the subject, and  made a checklist lol.  One thing I have in question, how do i know which partitions to delete when reinstalling.  Every website and youtube video makes a different analysis.  It would be a very big help if any of you provided insight.

 

THANKS

 

ps.  I already solved this.  I'll just select "Offline Account" when setting up windows again.

On 3/4/2019 at 1:17 PM, MrFixitBlankFace said:

His laptop is automatically linked to his Microsoft account, meaning the laptop password is his account password.  And I don't want to know his credentials.   Is there any way to bypass this without using my Microsoft account?  Is there any way to use my own password instead of his account password.

 

[MrFixitBlankFace]

@sumwish. @Nerdom?

Any help on that one?  @slashqpbyte?

Anyone?

Thanks.

[Nerdom]

13 hours ago, MrFixitBlankFace said:

@sumwish. @Nerdom?

Any help on that one?  @slashqpbyte?

Anyone?

Thanks.

I think the windows installer should have a feature to just overwrite everything and install windows, but I’ve never installed on a used disk before,

 

If it doesn’t, have windows overwrite the largest one (the one where windows is currently storing all its files). As long as it’s big enough, you can go to disk manager and delete the unused partitions, but don’t delete OEM partitions if you ever want support on the device again. I would just delete them but that’s just me. I’ve seen OEMs that have custom BIOS that require those partitions (Toshiba used to have that) so make sure you don’t delete those if that is the case. I’ve only ever seen Toshiba have that, for instance dell has oem partitons but doesn’t require them to be present.

 

TBH just boot to the installer and see what options you have. You won’t brick your computer by doing that.

[MrFixitBlankFace]

On 3/4/2019 at 1:43 PM, sumwish said:

When it asks you to log into the microsoft account, go to the bottom right where you can shut off or restart the laptop. Hold down shift and click restart, you'll be greeted by a light blue screen with some troubleshooting options.

- You should be able to navigate your way through until you get an option that lets you reboot into a flash drive, make sure the flash drive is already installed.

Big help.  Thanks.  I now have confidence in reinstalling windows.