Possible To Reset Windows 8 Laptop Without Disks?
Aug 24, 2013
Windows 8. My laptop has been experiencing problems lately, and i'd like to start fresh. I realize there is an option to reset your laptop (deleting all your files and start new) but i have one question. Since my laptop came with windows 8, i have no installation disks for them. I've read in this article here, Windows 8 features a reset button: Re-install Windows without a disc - Liliputing , that the windows 8 image-thingy (im not good with computers so i dont know the correct terms) is "built in" to the operating itself. Would this mean that i am able to reset my whole laptop (deleting everything and set to factory settings) without having to bother with burning disks and such? If so, would it mean that this is as simple as clicking one button and letting the laptop do all the work?
View 9 Replies
ADVERTISEMENT
Feb 13, 2014
I was given an Acer W510 that came with no recovery media (the original disks or a micro USB flash recovery)
It also does not have the keyboard dock with it. I am stumped as to how I might reset this tablet. How to make a USB recovery drive, that might work but they would have to have the same tablet, right?
View 1 Replies
View Related
Sep 28, 2013
I downloaded MICROSOFT.WINDOWS.8.1.RTM.X64.ENGLISH.DVD but it wants a product key when I boot from it.
I thought it was supposed to take the product key that is embedded in the BIOS? UEFI is on on BIOS. Am I using the wrong version of Windows 8 DVD?
Toshiba C855-S5350 . I believe it came with Win 8 (regular) x64 . I just want to reinstall the OS.
View 10 Replies
View Related
Jun 16, 2014
I cant boot to my windows 8. As I open my laptop it says "preparing automatic repair" >> daignosing your pc >>> attempting repairs>>> then it was stuck and cant proceed to desktop.
i tried to open advance setting by pressing "F8" then advance settings option appears. and i tried to a troubleshoot then chose>>
REFRESH YOU PC --- "theres a problem refreshing your pc"
RESET YOUR PC ---- "theres a problem reseting you pc"
AUTO REPAIR ---- cannot repair
Right now i want to reformat my ASUS laptop with pre installed windows 8 but i dont know what to..
View 9 Replies
View Related
Jan 23, 2014
My mom purchased a Windows 8 Dell laptop that was a store display. I want to reset it to factory default settings but I don't have a CD or drive...is there any way to accomplish this without the CD?
View 3 Replies
View Related
Feb 22, 2013
My laptop wouldn't accept my password, I tried about 9 times. Then I got a box stating:' You need a password reset disk', but how do I do/get that?
View 4 Replies
View Related
Nov 30, 2012
I just started the Reset process on my laptop about 6 hours ago and now, it is still at 44 percent. How long would you estimate the entire process to take ? I chose the option for making recovrry longer, but didn't know it would take this long..
View 3 Replies
View Related
Mar 19, 2013
I've had a lot of trouble with my samsung laptop. The HDD has been replaced but I now cannot do a refresh or reset. I get the message"Some files are missing. Your Windows installation or recovery media will provide these files". The laptop came with Windows 8 installed so I do not have the installation discs. I can do a factory restore by pressing f4 on start up successfully but still shows the above message trying to refresh. What caused this and what can I do about it?
View 4 Replies
View Related
Aug 25, 2014
I see the write-up on how to make a password reset disk on a USB flash memory stick. But is there a way to make a password reset disk on a CD?
WHAT I DID:
1. Inserted a blank CD in the optical drive.
2. Opened control panel and clicked "User Accounts". But in the left panel there is no option "Create a password reset disk". All I see are:
Control Panel HomeManage your credentialsManage your file encryption certificatesConfigure advanced user profile propertiesChange my environment variables.
Do I HAVE TO insert a USB stick to see the password reset option? (I don't have a spare USB stick to test with)
Running Win 8.0 on a Dell Studio 1537 laptop.
View 1 Replies
View Related
Mar 21, 2014
"Convert dynamic" is failing and my specific need is that I have to create dynamic disks as part of testing. Whats the command in 8.1 for this??
Or is this unsupported in 8.1??
View 1 Replies
View Related
Jun 11, 2014
All of a sudden I have 4 Removable Drives on my windows 8 machine. I've tried removing these, but they return as soon as I restart.
I went into computer/disk management, right clicked each and uninstalled the driver, but no way. So I went to Device Manager and first disabled and then uninstalled each one of them, but still they exist immediately on restarting the system. They react to "eject" on right-click by stating
The disk drives as seen in Device Manager are:
Generic - Compact Flash USB Device
Generic - MS/MS-Pro USB Device
Generic - SD/MMC USB Device
Generic - SM/xD-Picture USB Device
View 7 Replies
View Related
Jul 13, 2014
I have a Samsung 700T (tablet) for work running Windows 8.1.
I connected via USB a HP Laser Jet 400 printer. After connecting I received an error. I researched it and found it was due to HP's Smart Install. The Tablet recognized the printer initially as a USB Mass Storage device and the drivers conflicted with it. Once I turned off the Smart Install on the Printer, everything loaded fine and printed fine. No problem here. HOWEVER!!! In My Computer, I showed a HP CD ROM as an accessible drive which was weird since I obviously didn't have a CD ROM hooked up. I figured it was due to the smart install. I didn't think anything of it and that it would clear itself since no CD or drive was present.
Fast forward,
I had to reboot my tablet to allow other updates to finish. Upon restarting I get the error "Remove Disks or other Media. Press any key to restart"
There is obviously nothing in/hooked up to my tablet so there is no media. I believe the OS is viewing the HP CD as still in the drive and is not proceeding to boot.
Note, I obviously can't load windows since it won't boot, so I don't believe I have any way of ejecting or deleting the CD or drive.
View 1 Replies
View Related
Mar 25, 2014
it goes thru all 3 disks and then says failed...I have reset EUFI and CSM & formatted drive...it is maddening....I have 3 HP 2000 doing the SAME THING!!! what is going on with simple wipe and reinstall FROM THEIR recovery media...the other 2 are Toshiba using USB...
View 9 Replies
View Related
Apr 19, 2014
Setting up a dual boot with Win 7x64 on a 120GB SSD. The partition for Win 8 has 48 GB, but the install is failing: "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks." The first time I tried with the partition formatted, the second with it unallocated, both getting the same result. What am I missing?
View 9 Replies
View Related
Jan 6, 2013
I bought a new PC the other day, and it has Windows 8. It advised me to make recovery disks, so I started the Setup Wizard. However, when it tried to actually burn the first disk there was an error, and it didn't complete.
Now, when I try to do the recovery disks again, right after it has prepared the files, the following error comes up: "Unhandled Exception: cannot create a file when that file already exists.".
So i'm a bit stuck. Is there a way to get my recovery disks done?
View 5 Replies
View Related
Sep 17, 2013
Both optical drives are shown as working properly in Device Manager, but 70% of the time will not read data DVD disks. That includes data disks burnt using Nero and ISO Joliet format; and either mutli-session or finalized after burning. And disks formatted like a flash drive in UDF format using Windows 8 burning software. And is the same for R or RW +/- disks.
Rebooting sometimes fixes the program, other times not.
I have an Intel mob and CPU but Intel do not support drivers for Windows 8 so all drivers are generic Windows 8. Running driver update from device manager says all drivers are up to date.
I also intermittently, but regularly, get the printer and webcam USB2 drives not detecting these devices. And occasionally the USB3 external hard drives. USB drivers are also up to date.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Nov 12, 2013
External hard drive I'm using with my Windows 8 laptop.
First a little background. I had a desktop computer whose hard drive I replaced, so I decided to use the old hard drive (a WD6400 SATA drive) as an external (using a SATA to USB docking station) to use between my Windows 8 laptop and my dual boot Mac OS X/Ubuntu desktop. I formatted the drive as NTFS and it worked fine with the dual boot machine, however when I connected the drive to my laptop it wouldn't show up in explorer!
After a bit of digging around on the internet I managed to get it to show up by going it to Disk Management and assigning it a letter drive and path (D/) which worked fine until I removed the HDD from the computer. What I noticed was that after removing the HDD the path (D/) remained in explorer as a kind of ghost and the next time I connected the HDD I had to reassign it again using disk management, this time using (E/), as (D/) was unavailable. I'm now up to (F/) with this drive and I can't seem to get rid of these 'phantom' drives in explorer.
I have tried restarting the computer etc. How do I remove the Local Disks (D, E & F) from explorer and then is there any way for me to just permanently assign a letter to the drive so it will show up when I connect it and also disappear when I remove it?
View 4 Replies
View Related
Jul 25, 2013
My daughter brought her Gateway NE71B laptop to me because it was running like a snail. She had NO anti-virus software so I plugged in an external HDD and created what I thought was a Recovery Partition. When I had the computer boot to the external drive I tried the auto repair twice and failed both times.
When I tried to recover from the external drive I got an error message that said I/O error that could be caused by the fact that a portable device needed to be plugged in to continue.
Didn't know what to do so I unplugged the drive and tried again. No bootable devices found. Plugged the external drive back in and got the same I/O error. So I thought I'd just order the recovery media from Gateway. The day it arrived, I put the System Recovery disk in, It booted to the recovery screen with 3 options; Full recovery (original factory setup), Full recovery after removing data and Exit. I've tried both the first 2 options and up pops a window that says; Recovery must be done in Legacy Mode.
So I changed the bios from UEFI to legacy, restarted the computer with the Sys. Disk still in DVD tray, It start to load the recovery screen and up pops a window that says; Recovery Can Only Be Done In UEFI Mode.
If I were to guess, I would say I have an MBR virus and it's playing tricks with me. I've ordered a new identical hard drive to install when it arrives and hope to be able to get the recovery media to get back to normal.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Jun 22, 2013
Not sure if it's Lenovos only, but trying to migrate Windows 8 OEM to an SSD has been a huge pain in the ass. This process should not be as difficult as Lenovo/Microsoft has made it.
I purchased a Y400 along with a 256G SSD. I'd like to clean install Windows onto the SSD, I did not want to copy image. I went through forums for hours trying to put a recovery system on a usb with no luck (even with the instructions given by a Lenovo moderator on their website), I kept getting "missing partition drive". I broke down and paid Lenovo the ridiculous "shipping charge" of $59 for the recovery disks.
These are my steps so far:
-My SSD is installed and I removed the HDD (until Windows 8 was installed, I'd then format it)
-Put Disk 1 into the optical drive (Disk 1 states it's the format sequence and starting point for restore, Windows 8 actually on disk 2, I believe)
-Pressed the "Novo" button on the left side of the machine (gives options of Normal Startup, BIOS Setup, Boot Manager and System Recovery)
*FYI - Boot Manager lists: Windows Boot Manager and 2 EFI volumes (when HDD is plugged in, just the EFI's when uninstalled)
System Recovery only works with the HDD installed and it's Lenovo's One Key Recovery which just restores to a restoration point.*
Went into BIOS setup
Tabbed over to "Security"
Disabled the "Secure Boot"
Tabbed over to "Boot"
Changed the Boot Mode to "Legacy Support"
Changed Boot Priority to "Legacy First"
Saved then exited.
Pressed the "Novo" button once more, went into BIOS setup
Tabbed back to "Boot"
Boot device priority was now displayed with SATA ODD, SSD and Network Boot.
I reordered to boot from SATA ODD
Saved and exited
Upon restart, I pressed F12 (select boot device), and chose the SATA ODD
It went into a DOS looking screen and gives "No Bootable Device - Insert boot disk and press a key"
I've also tried variations of the above procedures for a few hours with no luck.
I have not tried to boot from "Lenovo Recovery System" (which is only available with the HDD installed), I figured it would default to the HDD and not let me chose to install onto SSD.
View 2 Replies
View Related
May 6, 2013
My laptop went lagging while i was using it, so i restarted my laptop. After that, my laptop went into a mode that i have never experienced before. I clicked advanced setting, It made me choose either to restore it, reset it, and another one but i can't remember it. I chose the reset button, and currently it is stuck on RESET YOU PC. And its taking a very long time. I don't have my recovery disc or drive. I saved it before on a flash drive, unfortunately it died.
View 9 Replies
View Related
Nov 27, 2013
I click on remove everything and reinstall windows, it goes to the logo saying restarting/preparing but the after that it goes to a black screen and stay there forever. I really need to reset my laptop. Its been running really slow lately.
View 1 Replies
View Related
Sep 30, 2014
I have recently built my own pc.
Operating system is windows 8.1
motherboard is ASROCK FM2A58M-HD+
500 gb hard drive and 4 gb Ram
For about the last week or so my Norton 360 has been picking up a threat, every time I turn my pc on. I thought Norton was getting rid of It so I didn't pay to much attention until my media player kept playing up and certain programs wouldn't load or take a long time, so I did some research and it turned out to be a trojen. anyway I have tried to put my pc into safe mode and have restarted my pc. my operating system wont load back up.
I have a red screen with a power button that gives me the option to restart or shut down. and there is a ease of access button. I have tried repairing with the original disk but it say my hard drive is locked. and it wont let me reinstall it either.
View 5 Replies
View Related
Jan 28, 2013
"Microsoft has introduced two interesting and very useful features in Windows 8. Refresh PC and Reset PC are the two new features that fix all Windows issues by refreshing settings or resetting everything. These features allow you set your Windows 8 settings to their defaults, or reset Windows 8 to factory settings (original settings) by deleting data and installed apps.
Though most of us have the Windows 8 installation media, it’s always a good idea to make necessary changes to the default settings so that you can Reset Windows 8 without inserting the installation or recovery media."
How To Reset Or Refresh Windows 8 Without DVD ...
View 2 Replies
View Related
May 12, 2013
When I was resseting my windows 8 crashed. It was about 98% done. So thinking that it will just be my old virus infested windows I tried to return to my windows 8 though it turned me to the settings page. I tried getting to one of my restore points it wiped them too. Windows wiped everything. now i dont have a key or cd to reset m(i got windows 8 100% legit)
View 3 Replies
View Related
Jun 2, 2013
Well, I had a dual booted machine booting Windows 8 and Ubuntu.
Windows 8 was starting to play up so I decided to completely reset the computer. I backed everything up, booted to Windows 8 and hit the 'Reset PC' button.
After answering some questions (full erase, whole disc etc), it informed me that it was going to restart. I clicked accept.
Short Story:
- Corrupted Windows 8 partition
- Corrupted Windows 8 recovery partition
Long Story:
Instead of rebooting back to anything, I got left sitting at a grub rescue prompt. From there I told it to boot windows 8.
I then spent five minutes staring at the booting screen. Nothing happened.
I powered off and tried again, this time pointing grub rescue at the windows 8 recovery loader partition. Well, initially that looked like it worked. I got the nice metro UI, and chose 'reset this PC' It then informed me that the recovery partition was missing some files. The only other option was to shut down.
I tried booting just plain windows 8 again, but had the same problem as before (nothing happening), And now when I try to boot the recovery loader, Grub tells me the EFI file isn't where it expects it to be. (Interestingly, how are you meant to boot to this without having a non-windows bootloader?)
Additional Details: Computer: HP Envy M6-1206TX. Pre-installed with Windows 8. Bought about 1 month, 1 week ago.
The Questions:
Since windows 8 came pre-installed, I don't have a Windows 8 disc, are there any possibilities for me to get back windows 8? (other than contacting the store I purchased it from)
After going through the license agreement, my interpretation is that I still have a license for Windows 8, but I am not under their limited warranty (due to dual booting). I do not wish to buy another license, as I already have one.
One last question:
If you acquired the software on a disc or other physical media, your proof of license is the genuine. Microsoft certificate of authenticity label with the accompanying genuine product key.
Neither my laptop, nor the box, nor any of the paperwork provided in it had this 'certificate of authenticity.' I suppose that means I have no legal rights to the software. Who's fault is this, HP, Microsoft, or the store I bought it from?
View 2 Replies
View Related
Dec 1, 2013
I need to perform a System Refresh against once of my computers. However, when I try to launch the System Refresh option, it claims Windows is missing some files to do so and to insert a Windows installation media or recovery media to claim those files.
Here's the trip-up: I created recovery media on another Windows 8.1 computer and that STILL didn't work (said something about the media not being valid, despite being generated in the same OS). How do I get this to work?
I did do my homework on this issue and apparently having done the Windows 8.1 upgrade through the Windows Store strips out its ability to do a Refresh/Reset unless an ISO is present (of which you don't have one of course because of how you did the upgrade; chicken and egg problem right there). Two of my computers were done as Windows Store upgrades but my Ultrabook was not (for that I did a complicated jig that allowed me to keep all my installed Windows 8.1 Preview software while still moving to the Windows 8.1 final build). However it doesn't seem to matter as even the Ultrabook, despite its unique upgrade path, still fails to start a Refresh (should I want to do one there) so the problem is all over my Windows 8.1 machines.
View 3 Replies
View Related
Jul 21, 2014
I had occasion to employ Toshiba to remove some malware from a Toshiba Satellite laptop. Some time later I needed to uninstall an Ap and discovered there was need for a Supervisor password. I am assuming the tech set that up (why?) as I had installed considerable Aps earlier without needing a password. How can I reset the Administrator password to none required?
View 1 Replies
View Related
Aug 4, 2013
for some reason i keep getting a small window pooping up in middle of the screen saying I need to enter my password to get into a couple of my websites i'm a member of. and at the top of the window is the words windows security. what is going on here and how do I find windows security to reset it?
View 3 Replies
View Related
Jan 19, 2014
So I installed Windows 8 whenever it came out and then updated to 8.1 last fall. Since then my computer has become bogged down and running really bad. It's time just start fresh but when I go in to the PC settings to restore it, it says I don't have the necessary files and that I need to insert a disc. Since I installed 8.1 from the store I have no disc to restore it from.
I saw some tutorials on activating 8.1 from 8 but I don't even know if I'm following the right ones or not. This was much easier to do in Windows 7. But anyways, how I can restore my computer.
View 4 Replies
View Related
Apr 18, 2013
I have a strange issue that started appearing when I installed win 8, all my USB ports seem to reset with no apparent reason on different time periods, from a few minutes to hours, its like I unplugged the thing that's in the usb, and put it back in, its really annoying since my wirelles is via usb so I loose my connection every time it happens, its not I hardware problem because when I switch to win 7 it runs perfect
I have checked the drivers for the usb and it says its up to date?
View 2 Replies
View Related
Oct 7, 2012
Refresh PC and Reset PC not in Windows Server 2012 ????
View 1 Replies
View Related
