Netbook restore ?

Dean037

Dean037

Dean037

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28 Aug 2011
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466
Hi all hope eveyone had a good christmas, anyway my sister has a netbook she got last christmas and its a mess shes only youn it also says windows is not genuine copy but it is the pre-installed version that comes on netbooks, it has loads of rubbish on there and i just want to restore it but it doesnt have any restore points at all :eek: anyone know how i would go about this ?

Thanks Dean (also the windows 7 code on bottom stickers has peeled off since over a year old so cannot read the code)
 
Look in the manual - there should be a restore partition from which you can do a fresh clean install of the OS.
 
Hi there ppl thanks a lot its a packard bell NAV50 dont think sister will have any manuals and i dont really want to shell out for a copy of windows, any way i can check partitions on the netbook itself ?

thans Dean
 
Check the BIOS, as most netbooks have an option in there to enable the F'x' (usually F10) key for system restore. Once its enable, save, restart and you should see it pop at POST.
 
Press F8 at start-up and select repair your computer. There should be an option to perform a full system recovery (which will delete all your files!)
 
In bios when i start up by pressing f2 and cannot find any resotre options there are a few headers that are as follows info,main,security,boot,exit and in main there is d2d recovery and f12 boot menu the d2d is enabled and when u enable the boot menu it just comes on when u press f12 and says 1.ide 0:wd2500bevt-22a23to and 2.network boot: athros boot agen dont know if they are anything to do with the restore ?

thanks dean
 
Have you tried though? Sometimes some of the F keys do something even if the boot splash doesn't mention it.
 
You went into the BIOS. You don't want to do that!

A guy above mentioned what to do. Tapping F8 will bring you to "repair computer"

Go into this and then look for the factory restore option. Should be labelled packard bell factory image or whatever.
 
switching on netbook and pressed all the f buttons but nothing apart from f2 what takes me into bios, only have a second untill it starts loading windows so still no luck
any ideas ? no way to get onto this from windows ?
 
The F8 should at the very least give you the boot option on a Packard Bell. What is the model no?

Have you ever made bootable USB flash drives? If so there is another way that you can use to get to boot from the recovery partition.

EDIT - Try ALT + F10 or ALT + F11.
 
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F8 is a Windows thing and will work on all computers running it. Your netbook will respond to F8.

You need to repeatedly tap it from the second you power on to the list appears.

original
 
Try Belarc and see if that will show your windows key. If you don`t have an optical drive, check your program files, as some companies install a program to make an iso OS backup.
 
Idleman said:
Try Belarc and see if that will show your windows key. If you don`t have an optical drive, check your program files, as some companies install a program to make an iso OS backup.
Click to expand...

Retrieving the key wont work for two reasons:


  • The OP has already stated that the OS is flagged as non-genuine so hence the key may be as well.
  • IF the OS is genuine then the key installed will not be the key that is listed on the base of the netbook as all PC manufacturers use a generic pre-activated key that can be used to install Windows but can never be activated.
The best option is to try and boot from the recovery partition. If the machine has, as I suspect, had a different version installed over the original version of Windows running F8 to access the repair feature will not work as the repair option will have been replaced by the new one from the current OS install.


What I do in these situations is to usually boot with Hiren on a USB drive and run Plop boot manager to set the boot option to the recovery partition.


Once booted from that Windows will install and everything will be as it was when first purchased.
 
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Swordfish said:
Retrieving the key wont work for two reasons:


  • The OP has already stated that the OS is flagged as non-genuine so hence the key may be as well.
  • IF the OS is genuine then the key installed will not be the key that is listed on the base of the netbook as all PC manufacturers use a generic pre-activated key that can be used to install Windows but can never be activated.
The best option is to try and boot from the recovery partition. If the machine has, as I suspect, had a different version installed over the original version of Windows running F8 to access the repair feature will not work as the repair option will have been replaced by the new one from the current OS install.


What I do in these situations is to usually boot with Hiren on a USB drive and run Plop boot manager to set the boot option to the recovery partition.


Once booted from that Windows will install and everything will be as it was when first purchased.
Click to expand...

You are right, i stand corrected. However, the OP still has`nt confirmed wether it has an optical drive. Also, if it is only a year old(presuming it was new), why not get in touch with the vendor and get a copy of the windows key?
 
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