A very satisfactory outcome to all my woes.
A call to toshiba Service centre, explanationof the problems- and given that the laptop was only a week old and the drives faulty I was told to take it bcak to where I bought and they were authorized to replace it, there and then.
So now to reinstall and restore and data, programs/.
Toshiba get top marks for not mucking me about.
Thank you all for your help and suggestions.
cgarlotte
