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Thread: Is there a way to restore a laptop back to factory?

  1. #1
    Yung_Jah Guest

    Default Is there a way to restore a laptop back to factory?

    So majority of us techies know laptop comes with its recovery partition and so forth, but it's now the norm for youngsters to jump to anything they see or hear. The whole ridiculous excitement.

    Recently, I was given a laptop that a youngster installed Windows 10 Technical Preview on. A message pops up after the laptop start up about the expired date.

    It is not the first time I've seen this, but after reaching the point where you select format or next [after inserting Windows disc and selecting various options]...I'd see recovery partition and so forth.

    Is there another way to recover back to its original settings? I've tapped on F9 (to access options on an Asus laptop)...I'd see troubleshooting, bla bla bla. Selected Advanced....Reset.... and the final message was that it could not find an image. Laptop came with Windows 8. The Window.Old folder was seen though.

    Did my google search. Could not find a solution. Ended up deleting all partitions and programmed the laptop from the disc. Sigh.

    Just thought to myself that maybe I could have deleted all the Windows 10 folders and replace it with the Windows.old files. [You know just to experiment].

    Anyone experience this???

  2. #2
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    Since the recovery drive was formatted then your best option is to get an original windows 8 image and load it on the computer. Once its the same version that shipped with the laptop from the factory then it wont ask you for a key during installation, windows 8 and 8.1 product keys are built into the UEFI bios.

    Once completed you can get all drivers and factory software from the vendors support page.

    I hope this helps.
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  3. #3
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    Basically what was said above.

    If you install Win 8 with no serial you can use some utilities to grab the serial from the UEFI BIOS and activate after.

    You may not be able to reinstall the original factory stuff unless the manufacturer has them for download.

    Use a program like Acronis or Paragon on the drive to try and get back the original partition tables. You may also use TestDisk from within Linux. If you can't rewrite the partition table to show the deleted stuff then you have to use the disc method. I'm hoping you didn't install a lot of stuff as the more writes mean it's less likely that you can get back the data. Also - recovery partitions are usually on the last part of the disc while Windows usually installs on the first part so you may have some chance there.

    If you end up having to do it from scratch ensure you use a Win 8.1 UEFI disc if possible. Some of the available ISOs online don't have UEFI - most of the 8.1 ones should have it however. If you're not too sure then use Easy2Boot with CSM and you should be good.

    To add to that - if you have to use the disc method then make your own recovery discs using Paragon or some other app that has a free version available.

    https://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/

    *EDIT*
    Forgot to add this. If you manage to get back only the recovery partition chances are they're using the WIM backup method. You can restore that using any kind of WinPE disc - some have a GUI app that can be used while others may require CLI.

    http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/...recovery.shtml

    https://www.autoitconsulting.com/sit...d-windows-8-1/

    https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...(v=ws.10).aspx
    Last edited by khat17; Apr 7, 2015 at 09:48 PM.
    Knowing the solution doesn't mean knowing the method. Yet answering correctly and regurgitation are considered "learning" and "knowledge".

  4. #4
    Yung_Jah Guest

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    Quote Originally Posted by Digital D View Post
    Since the recovery drive was formatted then your best option is to get an original windows 8 image and load it on the computer. Once its the same version that shipped with the laptop from the factory then it wont ask you for a key during installation, windows 8 and 8.1 product keys are built into the UEFI bios.

    Once completed you can get all drivers and factory software from the vendors support page.

    I hope this helps.
    Interesting stuff... Seems like I've been out of the PC repair field for too long that I am not aware of these things. I did, however come across through research about the product key built into the BIOS, because I realize that the laptop had no product key sticker. Managed to use Magic Jean to obtain the product key, but the mistake was that, I didn't have a copy of the original Windows 8, so the product key wasn't able to work. Long and short of it, the owner needed the laptop same day, which could not allow me more time to experiment.

    And like you said about drivers and factory software, I did install these from the vendor's page.

    Thanks for the details.

    Quote Originally Posted by khat17 View Post
    Basically what was said above.

    If you install Win 8 with no serial you can use some utilities to grab the serial from the UEFI BIOS and activate after.

    You may not be able to reinstall the original factory stuff unless the manufacturer has them for download.

    Use a program like Acronis or Paragon on the drive to try and get back the original partition tables. You may also use TestDisk from within Linux. If you can't rewrite the partition table to show the deleted stuff then you have to use the disc method. I'm hoping you didn't install a lot of stuff as the more writes mean it's less likely that you can get back the data. Also - recovery partitions are usually on the last part of the disc while Windows usually installs on the first part so you may have some chance there.

    If you end up having to do it from scratch ensure you use a Win 8.1 UEFI disc if possible. Some of the available ISOs online don't have UEFI - most of the 8.1 ones should have it however. If you're not too sure then use Easy2Boot with CSM and you should be good.

    To add to that - if you have to use the disc method then make your own recovery discs using Paragon or some other app that has a free version available.

    https://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/

    *EDIT*
    Forgot to add this. If you manage to get back only the recovery partition chances are they're using the WIM backup method. You can restore that using any kind of WinPE disc - some have a GUI app that can be used while others may require CLI.

    http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/...recovery.shtml

    https://www.autoitconsulting.com/sit...d-windows-8-1/

    https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...(v=ws.10).aspx

    . Feels like I have alot of catching up to do. Funny thing is, the second link you sent regards the Dell PC recovery, I managed to reach screenshot 6, but had no clue of the next step. Now that I see this link, I can prepare myself if I happen to receive another system with the same problem.

    I guess I need to obtain a UEFI disc. I can't say if my copy of Windows 8.1 does, which is an AIO.

    I also realize something different about the Asus laptop as well. Took me few research to actually boot from the DVD drive or USB. Had to disable secure boot control and fast boot then enable launch CSM. But the main difference was the boot option, which resemble that of this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM9UyNcSEU0 at time 2:52. [My bad that I didn't take the time to search for a better video].

    After resolving the laptop, I realize that I could not set it back to secure boot control and fast boot, as the HDD went missing after. Had to leave both disabled. The boot option had no resemblance to that of the video.

    But like I said, I have alot of catching up to do. Knowledge can never stop.

    Respect for the information Khat.

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    Sorry it didn't help much...........but that's what we're here for. To at least try even if we can't get it fixed. Hopefully next time you'll get it sorted. I still think you should try to recover the partitions with TestDisk.........
    Knowing the solution doesn't mean knowing the method. Yet answering correctly and regurgitation are considered "learning" and "knowledge".

  6. #6
    Yung_Jah Guest

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    Quote Originally Posted by khat17 View Post
    Sorry it didn't help much...........but that's what we're here for. To at least try even if we can't get it fixed. Hopefully next time you'll get it sorted. I still think you should try to recover the partitions with TestDisk.........
    I appreciate the support so far. Hopefully next time I'll know what to do. As for recovering the partitions, the client needed the laptop asap as if they couldn't go a day without it. To recover at this time... I doubt I would go there.

    The painful part of it was backing up close to 140 gigs of data [mostly nonsense in my opinion]... but to each their own. I could not proceed to install windows on the active partition because of the GPT error message, which forced me to backup and combine all partitions. I figured maybe the reason is that my copy of Windows wasn't supporting UEFI. Otherwise, I would have just click next which would have kept the old files as Windows.Old and save time.

    And this just came to mind that if I had tried creating another partition in Disk Management, maybe that too would save time. But I am thinking that the same GPT error message would pop up just the same. Hmmm.

    The command prompt method did not work, to convert GPT to MBR, when I tried. Didn't opt to install a Partition software to try the conversion. Guess it's my fault.

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