Toshiba Recovery Media Creator Error Code 020150-20-00000000 (Satallite L755-S5308)

Question

We just received 2 - Toshiba Satallite L755-S5308 Laptops over the thanksgiving holiday from Best Buy and the first thing we normally do after powering up the laptops is to create our recovery disc sets to DVD's. However, both laptops are giving the same error message on both machines at the same point in the creation of the Recovery DVD Disc 4 when using the Toshiba Recovery Media Creator. Please See Eror Message Below:
Failed To Read The Following File.
D:\ZZImages\ZZImages\Preinst18.swm
(Error Code: 020150-20-00000000)
If you are getting this error message then you will not be able to restore your laptop factory software and operating system (Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit)

Answer 1

You could create an image of the entire HDD onto another drive, but this can be a headache for a lot of users and would require specialized hardware and a HDD enclosure. As such, it's not a feasible solution.
   Oh,come now.  You can buy 'specialized hardware' -- an HDD enclosure -- from a widely known online computer store for $12.99 with free shipping, and a spare plain old Seagate 500 GB hard drive (nothing very special about it, except that it costs more since the flooding in Thailand) running at 7200 rpm from a different widely known online computer store for $99.99 (shipping extra).  Seagate gives away its branded version of Acronis True image for free.  It is not that hard to use.   I believe the L755 has a 500 GB 5400 rpm hard disc drive, so this Seagate may make the laptop run faster under some conditions.   Creating an image of the laptop HDD onto this 2nd HDD mounted in the enclosure may take hours, but consider the only other alternative, below:
     Anyone who thinks that solution is not feasible can just wait until their one and only hard disc drive fails or develops a software problem.    Without usable recovery discs, the machine must be dropped off or mailed to a service center.  Compare the waiting and the expense to have someone else solve that kind of problem with the effort and expense of preventing it.   If you don't mind being without your computer for a few days or weeks, go for the simple way.
     By the way, even the best home-burned optical discs are prone to develop unexpected failures after they are created.  I've never had a factory pressed optical disc properly stored develop a late failure.  If these work out of the box, they work a couple of years later.   The technologies behind a home-burned disc and a factory-pressed disc are different.
    Getting back to my original point, should your 1st HDD fail, and should you have a 2nd HDD with the cloned image of the 1st HDD, your recovery takes as long as it takes to remove HDD #1, installed HDD #2, and reboot your laptop, involving about 5 minutes of your time and perhaps a small screwdriver.  You can test whether or not your cloned backup works the same way, by installing HDD #2 and seeing if it works.   If you only have a single HDD, there is no good way to test your recovery media, since they overwrite your original HDD.