Setup Installation :: Protecting Partitions From Factory Reset?
May 29, 2014Protecting partitions from factory reset?
View 1 RepliesProtecting partitions from factory reset?
View 1 RepliesI've decided I will factory reset my operating system. I won't make you read the whole other thread, but the main issue is that "Change PC Settings", aka the Metro settings panel, doesn't work, so I can't "Refresh without affecting files". I currently have 3 partitions set up, my C: drive (499 GB capacity), which has my operating system, programs, and a load of totally legal videos; my D: drive (533 GB capacity), which contains all my user folders; and my E: drive (800 GB capacity), which contains nothing but games. The main things I want to save are my games, 800 GB, my videos, 340 GB, and my program files, which is about 65 GB. Adding on a few user files I want to keep as well, it's about 1,250 GB of stuff I want to save, on my 2 TB disk.
Is there any way for me to restore my system (I have no system restore points that work, they're all broken, so factory reset) whilst keeping the 1.2 TB of data? Say like, by making a new partition and moving everything into there, and excluding it from the system reset? I don't have any external hard disks, but my laptop has about 400 GB left, so I was thinking I could possibly move my videos and program files from the C: drive to the laptop, somehow merge my D: and E: drive (adding on extra space from the C: drive for the videos and programs), and then perform the system reset on the C: Drive only. Is this possible?
How to hid all the partitions in the factory installed HDD for Lenovo Y580.
This is the scenario.
Firstly, i successfully migrated all of the following partitions:
OEM/Hidden partition,
C partition: boot drive/ program files and data drive &
D partition: containing drivers
from my Lenovo factory installed HDD to the SSD and to use the SSD as the primary boot drive . Now, i plan to use the factory installed HDD as my data drive. (I am using a caddy tray for this whereby i plan to swap out the optical drive and pluck in the Lenovo factory installed HDD). However, for "safety reasons" i do not plan to re-format the entire factory installed HDD but rather to keep those partitions just in case if my SSD fails.
Hence, how do i turn all the three partitions above (in the Lenovo factory installed HDD) to become dormant? I want the computer to boot up from the existing SSD but then to treat the factory installed HDD as the data drive and not to read from any of the three partitions in the factory installed HDD.
I am planning to use EASUS as my disk partition freeware.
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.
I upped from 7 to 8 via OTA download. Set up, set up passord(admin), etc. and decided I didn't like and want to do a Factory reset so I can sell.
Can I factory reset, and how?
I have recently attempted to reset my laptop to factory and i get this issue
Computer specs:
Asus VivoBook S550CM 8gb Ram
I recently installed linux on my Surface Pro, but decided to go back to Windows 8 since wifi doesn't work properly yet. I thought, restoring shouldn't be a big deal, just insert the recovery USB you made and factory reset it. Boy, was I wrong. Any time I try a factory reset, it fails around 97%-99%. Windows won't even start booting. I kept trying it until I decided to try installing Ubuntu on it then trying to reset it again, hoping that would fix something.
The reset still fails at the same point, but now instead of not booting, it says "Recovery: Your PC needs to be repaired." At first it was because an EFI file was missing, so I booted into the recovery drive again and tried an auto-recovery. It fixed the EFI issue, but it's still at the same screen with WindowsSystem32configsystem missing. How to get my Surface Pro working again?
Recently my computer has been encountering problems involving speed and whatnot, and I have found no method of fixing them. I have been looking to reset my PC, and went to do so through the built-in tool that is supplied on my ASUS laptop, by pressing F9 at startup. I chose to reset my PC, but it returned an error saying the recovery partition couldn't be found. So I went to do so through the PC settings, and it rebooted my computer and told me the reset failed. I checked and found the recovery partition using MiniTool Partition Wizard, so it still exists.
Apparently this is an error other ASUS users have found after updating to Windows 8.1. I don't know how to solve this problem, and figured I may as well reinstall a fresh copy of Windows 8 without all the ASUS bloatware and garbage. So I hunted for a Windows 8 ISO file, and failed. I've tried multiple methods. One involving using a product key to download Windows 8 to an ISO file through Microsoft's Windows 8 Setup, and that failed because the product key was OEM BIOS-based, and not retail.
I can either try and do a factory reset by somehow fixing the recovery partition through some miracle, or;With extreme luck find a Windows 8 Core ISO setup, and install that and refind the drivers for my PC.
I have a HP Envy x2, with Windows 8 pre-installed. After I upgraded to Windows 8.1, I started to notice many problems such as; the tablet wouldn't start all the time, the secure boot was disabled (but I fixed that), the app store doesn't work all the time, and Windows Update can't check for updates. The HP did not come with a recovery thumb drive or DVD. And I need "recovery media" to be able to refresh/reset my PC. I have tried multiple times to create a recovery drive, but my "Key" for Windows 8.1 is not valid and I do not know where my Windows 8 "Key" is.
View 9 Replies View RelatedMy 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 RelatedI have an Asus gaming laptop that I got off of Craigslist awhile back. It did not come with any factory disks. I'm trying to do a factory reset and it says "Some files are missing. Your Windows installation or recovery media will provide these files." But I don't have any recovery media.
View 3 Replies View RelatedI just bought a used HP Pavilion p7-1423w from a computer store locally. It ran fine in the store and when I got it home. It did not come with any recovery disc. After poking around (first time Windows 8 user also), I noticed a bunch of porn pics and thumbnails that were obviously from the previous owner. I selected the "reset the pc, erase all his personal files, and re-install Windows" option. After clicking the final "reset" button to begin the process, I left the room. I came back 30 mins later and my display was off. I thought it went to sleep or screen saver. I moved the mouse, hit a few keys, and still no display at all, as if there was no cable attached. I decided to wait another hour, and still no display.
I changed to the other dvi port, still nothing. Finally, I hard booted and restarted. Still no display at all. No splash screens, no errors screens, nothing at all. Just my tv saying "no input". I removed the hard drive and hooked it up as an external to my laptop. It shows Recovery folder-> WindowsRE folder-> winre.wim (unknown file type).
I purchased a Samsung ATIV One 7 27" Windows 8 All-In-One Computer (DP700A7D-X01US) | Samsung PCs from best buy.it was a demo on the shelf I did a copy with paragon to a ssd. it runs great but it seems to missing something's about it. how can I do a factory reset. If I do a recovery will it just put back like it is now.
View 7 Replies View RelatedFactory reset on windows 8.
My son decided to reset his windows 8 laptop to original factory settings, during the reset process his mom decided it was taking to long and turned off the laptop.
Now when its turned on it shows the message "restoring your computer", this message will then change to "diagnosing your computer", the screen will then go blank and it start all over again.
I can boot it from a USB drive, but when I click on "repair" i get an error message that it cant repair the computer. When i try to run restore from the USB I get a similar message.
is there anyway to run the system restore from the DOS prompt?
I reset my pc to factory conditions using the Samsung recover tool, the pc seems slower fps wise in games for example. Was faster before i reset the pc. Model Samsung 3505VC. I believe it might be to do with my graphics card as it is rated only 4.9 now on windows rating and was 5.7 before.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI have 2 HDs that have the Windows 8 System Reserve partition. Can't use them as a system disk because no matter what I try it wants to repair the Windows 8 OS.
All I want is to re-format a HD to factory specs.
I'm mostly a Linux user, but I recently bought a laptop with Windows 8 on it. After a few days dual booting I decided it wasn't for me, so I decided to delete the windows partitions and usa just Linux. I would like, however, to keep the recovery partition, so to be able to easily reinstall Windows again if I felt like I needed to, but I'm not sure what partitions should I keep. Here's a picture of my hard drive partitions as of now:
Do I need more than the restore partition? Can I get rid of the boot one? What about the recovery one? And the one flagged msftres?
I dual booted win 7 n 8. now i am running out of space in the drive which contains Windows 8.
Win 7 is installed on C drive and Windows 8 on D drive. How can i interchange the OS on the drive. I want to install win7 on Drive D and Windows 8 on Drive C.
I've got a HDD currently using MBR that has 2 partitions.
Code: DISK 1:Partition 1 - C: (System)Partition 2 - D: (Data)
At the moment I'm using Win 8 on the MBR HDD and I would like to convert to GPT without losing data stored on partition 2. I'll be reinstalling Win 8 on partition 1 so I can take advantage of UEFI.
I had a 17 GB unallocated partition. I changed it to a Primary partition. It is empty. Can I merge it with the C: partition ? Picture--- edit--- A picture---
View 9 Replies View RelatedSo I did a factory reset on my pc, came back into the room to see that my monitor (tv) said no signal and my small LG monitor was black so I just assumed it was part of the process. After about 6 to 7 hours of waiting it still remained the same, even after restarting and trying many other methods to get it to work nothing happens and also it now keeps beeping every 10 to 15 seconds trying to connect my keyboard and mouse, after the beep the mouse and keyboard turn on (the lights on them go on) then after 3 seconds or so they turn off and it does this non stop, also my graphics card is a Radeon 7700 if that has anything to do with it.
View 9 Replies View RelatedI downloaded files that I didn't want, and they have proven to be nothing but trouble. An example of one of the files is an extension call "PriceChop". To remove it I went to the control panel and uninstalled. Then I went into all of the web browsers on my computer, went into the settings, and removed the extensions. They appear to be removed until I restart my computer. I go back into Chrome, and the extension is still there. I decided to download a program called SpyHunter which is a malware remover.
I ran the program about 8 times and it is still unable to find and remove the files. I searched and searched but have been unable to find a way to remove the unwanted extensions. It has gotten to the point where the virus removed my Norton anti virus security and is trying to log into windows by itself. My wife woke me up to tell me that my computer was "freaking out". Sure enough it was trying to log into windows.
I would see a password being entered and then a log in attempt. I am at the point where I just wanted to factory reset. I go into search and typed "reset". I choose to completely reset to factory settings. When it goes to start the process it tells me I have files missing and to insert media. I come to find out that after I upgraded to windows 8.1 via the windows store, I am now unable to factory reset. Something about the ISO file no longer being there.
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.
Is it possible to create restore discs that return the PC back to factory state (just out of box, never turned on)?
View 6 Replies View Relatedusing the UEFI install instructions from this forum. I do meet all of the requirements (Windows 8 64-bit iso, ASRock Z87 Extreme4 mobo, blank SSD). When I get to Step 7 in the UEFI guide, I only get 2 partitions instead of the 4 shown(Recovery, System, MSR, Primary). I only get System and Primary. I decided to delete all partitions and just run the setup on the unallocated drive...everything worked fine. I am just wondering what the consequences are of not having those 4 partitions. I still have the UEFI interface when I boot up so it appear that is working.
View 3 Replies View RelatedI run 3 HDS. 1 SSD, and 2 normal drives.
I just clean formatted my SSD and installed Windows 8 on it, which I always put on that drive.
However I am seeing a bunch of partitions, 4 recovery partitions. Are these normal? If not, how would I get rid of them?
I have 2 partitions: System Reserved (100mb) and Windows 8 (465gb). Windows 8 is marked as the system partition while system reserved is marked as Active & Boot. Is there any way I can like split windows 8, copy the files onto the new bit of unallocated space and make that partition the system partition instead of the "old" windows 8 partition?
View 1 Replies View RelatedWhy windows 7 and windows 8 introduced a limitation when using Disk Management, and is NOT possible to create more than 3 Primary Partitions? However, using DiskPart from command line it is VERY possible, no warnings or notices.
Code: C:Windowssystem32>diskpartMicrosoft DiskPart version 6.3.9600Copyright (C) 1999-2013 Microsoft Corporation.On computer: PAINKILLERDISKPART> listMicrosoft DiskPart version 6.3.9600DISK [code]....
As far as I know, there is a maximum of 4 Primary partitions on a hardisk, or 3 primary and one extended, and IN the extended partitions more that 4 logical drivers.However, from any disk utility like the old, deprecated, and buggy Partition Magic, acronis disk partition utility, gparted Linux, parted, cfdisk, fdisk, or even on the older Windows like Xp, nt, 2000, 98, me, ms-dos, freedos, I WAS ALWAYS BEEN ABLE TO CREATE 4 PRIMARY PARTITIONS, but with the new WINDOWS 7 and the new WINDOWS 8, it appears this limitation of only 3 PRIMARY PARTITIONS instead of 4. Don't know about Vista as I have skipped that version of windows on every PC that I have build or worked.
Or is working like this because of some hidden reason which I can't figure out by myself what could It be, and the only thing that I can observe is that while technology is evolving (hardware and software), we have limitations like this, to create only 3 primary instead of 4 primary while using Disk Management from administrative tools or right clicking on the computer and "manage" console.
Personally I am a little irritated/annoyed that now the disk management is having "handicap" and I can NOT find a serious reason for this idiocratic limitation. As we are "evolving" the normal path It would be more normal to be able to use more that 4 primary on a hardisk, from my point of view, not limiting to ONLY 3 Primary.
I am using the guide to install Windows 8 over two partitions and I get the error:
Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. The partition contains one or more dynamic volumes that are not supported for installation. I followed all the steps 100%
Found this Get the paid version of EaseUS Partition Master at discount. Magic Partition Manager Freeware for PC/Server users. Upgrade EaseUS Partition Master Free can I use this to copy partitions?
Worked it all out, the software linked above was able to convert my Dynamic drive to a Basic drive for free!
Some time ago Installed Windows 7 on one of my Windows 8 computers. But during the install i had to delete all partitions and that was the recovery partition that had he recovery software on it. Well now I want to go back to Windows 8 and I don't really want to send my PC to Samsung for re imaging. But I have the image i made with the software before I installed Windows 8. All I need is to get the recover partition back with the software on it. I have 2 other Samsung computers that have the same software on it but I need to find a way to make a image of the recover partition so i can use my backup image for the computer.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI am selling my Acer acer m5-481pt-6644 and want to do a factory image restore so the buyer can set it up for themselves.
I have done plenty of image restores on Win 7, but always gone all the way through.
Can I turn the laptop off at some point before I fully set it up, so the buyer will get to set it up for themselves?