I want to reset my Windows 8 as there is some odd behaviour going on.
I have my MY Documents, My Photos, My Videos etc... all on the D: Drive.
If I do a reset, will it just format and reinstall the C: drive, or will it wipe the D drive where all my documents are kept too?
I need to install windows 7 32 bit over Windows 8 64 bit but so far I have not been able to format it or wipe over it as most of the programs like hiren's boot disk and kill disk and all the others that I have tried are 32 bit programs and Windows 8 64bit will not even boot off of them.
View 4 Replies View RelatedI've just received an Asus S301L laptop, with Windows 8 Pro preinstalled. The owner wants Windows 8 wiped and Win7 installed along with Scientific Linux.
I've disabled secure boot and enabled CSM in the BIOS, thus getting rid of the annoying UEFI boot process, and I'm now able to boot old-style from thumbdrives and whatnot.
My question is: given this partition configuration as shown by gparted, is it safe to wipe the whole damn thing and repartition from scratch, or will I run into bootup problems with the BIOS not seeing stuff where it wants to see it (like that suspicious FAT32 partition labeled "boot")?
I imagine this isn't a problem since I disabled everything UEFI, but better safe.
Have decided to take the plunge to reset my computer (because Windows Store would not open). Booted from the installation disk but cannot Reset or Refresh, I get "The drive where Windows is installed is locked. Unlock the drive and try again."
View 6 Replies View RelatedUsing Windows 8 Pro: Why when I click on any of my folder shortcuts on the desktop, my windows, such as My Documents, open in a little (approx) 4" x 4" window instead of a full window. How to get them to open in full windows.
View 1 Replies View RelatedSo 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 have just successfully installed Windows 8 (upgrade from windows xp).
Although I recall selecting the option for clean install the set up progressed on an upgrade basis. I must assume that I failed to accurately select the clean install option.
The Windows 8 upgrade to my five year old PC was successful. However, I was disappointed not to have done a clean install and wanted to remove unnecessary files including the Windows.old folder.
I decided to try out Windows 8 reset option in order to reinstall on a clean basis. After some hours it reached 98% and declared it was unable to complete. It offered to restart - not surprisingly message "no operating system on drive".
I wondered if I could load the Windows 8 pro upgrade DVD back in but was not sure that would work as windows Reset had reformatted my drive?
Fortunately, I created a rescue disk with Macrium Reflect immediately after my successful windows 8 upgrade so this got me back to a position just prior to selecting Reset.
Everything seems to be working fine but I am wondering how robust the Reset function is in Windows 8 and why it failed. Do I have some unknown hardware problem. I did wonder about running Chkdsk but I gather this is automatic at startup in windows 8. There are no messages to indicate anything wrong. Is there anything I should check?
My intention was to get familiar with windows 8 and then immediately upgrade to 8.1. Will I get an option to do clean install when doing an upgrade from windows 8 to 8.1? If I do a clean install of 8.1 is it probable I will get same problem as in Reset or is that an entirely different process?
Details:Dell Vostro 1710 (5yrsold) was running windows XP now upgraded to windows 8 pro
I want to increase performance on my pc, and i would like to rest to factory settings, I did not create any discs stupidly at the begging
View 7 Replies View RelatedI bought an Asus Vivobook S551LB. Paying around 1150 for it, the specs seemed good and I thought it'd be a fairly quick laptop.
Turns out... It's really slow, and freezes a lot.
It was preinstalled with Windows 8, then I updated to 8.1. I'm fairly new to anything past Windows 7 so, 8 I'm completely lost.
I deleted all the bloatware that came with the laptop but it still freezes, so my last resort is to reinstall windows.
I can't because I updated to Windows 8.1 and when I try to reset it says I'm missing a partition.
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.
Got a mates computer that would not boot normally, so button mashed f8 to bring up safe mode, uninstalled the crap, ran an antivirus and checked for registry errors with an outdated reg cleaner, there were heaps of errors which I could do nothing about as I had no internet at the time, so I decided to do a complete reset of the PC through the f8 boot menu.
It went fine until I woke up the next morning to find that when it boots all I get is the error message at the toshiba boot screen saying "Windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer, restart the installation" there is no mouse pointer so I smash enter, it restarts and does exactly the same thing on next startup. I can't seem to get f8 to work after the reset and I'm stuck!
I tried to run "Reset and reinstall windows" when I found out that "keep nothing" is not a clean install.
However, the reinstallation part (Windows setup, with the serial number part) starts over and over again.
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 RelatedWhen I tried to reset my laptop, it read "could not find the files needed". mine is an Acer aspire V5, it didn't came with an installation disc or media, i know it should have a hidden partition for recovery, but i think the system is having trouble with it. i think a malware might have done this, i got malware bytes, I tried norton online scan and eset online scan, but did not detect any. before this, i experienced my firefox browser icon on the taskbar progressing a download but cant see anything on downloads tab, i closed firefox several times, but it continued everytime i opened firefox, and it did finished its download.
Later i noticed explorer.exe is always having an established connection in TCPview, without me opening any apps. so i thought i really need to reset the computer, but this is my problem. I've already run Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth restore health on command prompt, but it showed no integrity violation.
I have an Acer Aspire M7710 which I installed Windows 8 on.
I wanted to use the reset windows option under the advanced settings option. After selecting the reset option it said it would reboot. This was about 5 hours ago and all I have had is a black screen.
Eventually I powered off my computer after 4 hours waiting as something seemed wrong. When I powered my PC back on I get nothing, just a black screen again.
I thought I would just boot from the Windows 8 dvd and reinstall but for some reason I can't boot from dvd anymore.
I googled around looking for option how I could enter my bios or change the boot order for cd/dvd but I can't get any keyboard shortcuts to let me boot from dvd or enter the bios.
How I can boot from dvd and reinstall?
I 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 recently purchased an Asus X551 laptop with Windows 8 but straight the way uninstalled Windows 8 and installed Ubuntu (after creating a Windows 8 recovery drive just in case). I have since decided that I want Windows 8 back as I have found that I cannot use a lot of software on Linux. The laptop did not come with any form of recovery disk or installation disk, the only reminent of Windows 8 I have is the recovery USB that I created from within the OS.
When I plug in the USB and boot from it it brings up the recovery menu with options to reset the PC but when I click it it says something like - "Unable to reset PC. A required partition is missing".
I did a PC Refresh and Reset and it's stuck at 1%
View 3 Replies View RelatedI 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?
I have an ASUS VivoBook X200CA that is running a Windows 8.1 Upgrade. For about 5 months, this laptop has been running perfectly without any problems and I have managed to reset the computer many times due to certain errors and problems that have arisen from software and hardware compatibility.
Recently, I went to reset my laptop, it restarted and then it took me to the WinRE screen. I went into Troubleshooting > Advanced Options and I clicked on the Reset option. It then took me through each of the various warnings and making sure that my data was backed up and then, once I had clicked on the "Reset" button, it hung for a bit and then said "Reset has failed - Required Partition is Missing".
i installed monitoring and filtering software on the computer. my kids just restarted the computer and choose refresh and it was gone. in win 7 i set a new restore point and deleted the previous ones solving that problem. i know that there is a way to not allow using the system refresh with group policy and regedit hacks but i would not like to have to go down that road.
how can i control what the restore and refresh settings do?
New Windows 8 Pro with WMC install to a new Intel SSD on an old Dell Inspiron 530. I got everything activated and working fine, and then I swapped the SSD for the old HDD to finish getting all my data. But when I swapped the SSD back in, I can no longer get Windows 8 to boot--it goes into automatic repair, but none of the options are available to me. Refresh won't work, reset won't work, I can't even get system restore to work (it shows me two restore points available, but it won't let me select them.)
This was a clean install, so it has the 350MB recovery partition. I believe the RAID is set properly (I have no straight up AHCI option in BIOS, but I installed Windows 8 under RAID [it shows "AHCI Bios enabled!" during POST], and remembered to change to IDE mode to boot the HDD, and back to RAID before trying to boot the SSD).
I've always been able to troubleshoot these sorts of problems under XP or 7, but I'm just not familiar with these Windows 8 processes (or SSDs/AHCI/RAID stuff) yet. I've got all the linux tools, Hirens, etc. available, and can verify that the files on the SSD appear to be fine. I could reinstall if necessary, but really don't want to have to deal with the upgrade and re-activating--and even if I do have to reinstall.
I have a Dell inspirion 15 laptop running Windows 8.1. A while ago I decided to try Ubuntu out. I installed it alongside Windows 8.1 in dual boot configuration with its own separate hard drive partitions. This means that when I powered on my laptop a GRUB menu (Linux boot manager) would come up allowing me to choose between Windows and Ubuntu. However, Ubuntu was more pain than it was worth so I decided to uninstall it. I did this by deleting the hard drive partitions that Ubuntu was installed on using Windows Disk Management. Now when I power on my laptop the GRUB menu still comes up but there are no options to choose from, only a command line interface. I now have to type Code: exit
which exits GRUB and takes me to my BIOS Boot Manager which looks like this:
Boot mode is set to: UEFI; Secure boot: OFF
UEFI BOOT
ubuntu (ST500LM012 HN-M500MBB)
UEFI Onboard LAN IPv6
UEFI Onboard LAN IPv4
Ubuntu (ST500LM012 HN-M500MBB)
Windows Boot Manager (ST500LM012 HN-M500MBB)
I then have to select Windows Boot Manager to boot into windows.
Why GRUB is still there even though I have deleted the Linux hard drive partitions? Also, why is Ubuntu still listed on the BIOS Boot options? And why is it listed twice?
I know that by using recimg, you can make a custom refresh image. And I hear that you cannot use it to reset Windows to factory state. is that so? if so, how do I do that?
Also, is it possible to store the recovery image in a hidden partition. hidden in the sense, the drive letter is not automatically assigned when you refresh/reset Windows, nor can you do it from Disk Management. only from diskpart. however, if i can still use reset while keeping the recovery image in a hidden folder in C: drive, that is still fine i guess.
The thing is, the recovery partition of my Dell Latitude 10 tablet is destroyed (it's Dell's fault though) and even though i can easily recover Windows as I have an iso image and can use the USB to reinstall windows like we normally do on our desktops, i want to sell the tablet and i want to make it recoverable via the recovery features in Windows 8. without the ability to recover, the value of the tablet will be pretty low. if all else fails, i will have to buy a cheap USB flash drive, make it a recovery drive and give it with the tablet. sucks!
It is fine if i have to update to Windows 8.1, if it makes it possible in Windows 8.1 even though it was not in Windows 8.
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.
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