[ILoveDaniel]

This morning I was using the computer and I was browsing the internet with only a couple of other programs open and my computer completely froze for no reason and even CTRL+ALT+DEL did not work so I held the button in on the modem and restarted it into safe mode to try and do some scans. I used AVG to do a scan and this is all that happened:



So aftar failing with that I restarted it in normal mode and it loaded slower than normal and finally here I am, trying to get some help. I'd really just like to restore it to factory settings but I don't have the disk. I've googled that you can make a recovery disk but it requires 17 cds. I don't have 17 cds to make a recovery disk.

Any help?

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Well first off you should determine if you really want to restore your system to factory settings. The reason I say this is because you might have important information on your computer such as music, movies, pictures, and documents that you would lose in the proccess of restoring to factory settings. Unless of course you backed up your data. But if you truly want to restore your computer & indeed want to create recovery disks but don't have 17 cds then I would recommend getting about 3 or four dvd-r's so that you could make your recovery discs while taking less time.

However if you don't have those either, then you can fix up to 80% of your computer problems yourself by using the Malware removal guide found here

Edited by gr8joel, 13 March 2009 - 12:54 PM.

[gr8joel]

Well first off you should determine if you really want to restore your system to factory settings. The reason I say this is because you might have important information on your computer such as music, movies, pictures, and documents that you would lose in the proccess of restoring to factory settings. Unless of course you backed up your data. But if you truly want to restore your computer & indeed want to create recovery disks but don't have 17 cds then I would recommend getting about 3 or four dvd-r's so that you could make your recovery discs while taking less time.

However if you don't have those either, then you can fix up to 80% of your computer problems yourself by using the Malware removal guide found here

Edited by gr8joel, 13 March 2009 - 12:54 PM.

[ILoveDaniel]

Everything that is important to me is on my external portable harddrive so none of that is a problem at all.

Why exactly would it take 17 entire CDs [or 3-4 DVD-r's] to restore my computer to factory settings? I mean is it that extensive of a process? Back when I had an XP I couldn't find my disk for that either and just did it from a program on my computer.

[gr8joel]

This is because once you completely remove the operating system from your computer, then it becomes a Basic Input Output System otherwise known as BIOS. This is when you would use those recovery discs to reinstall windows. It takes 17 cds because the cds only have about 700mb of storage capacity while the dvds have about 4.37gb of storage capacity. That means that each dvd amounts to about 6.4 times the amount of a cd. You need about three or four dvd in order to create recovery discs because of all the information that windows vista carries.

Now when you say that you used a program back in xp, you must have been referring to system restore, not full restore. System restore restores your computer to an earlier date at some point in time. Full restore or Full system restore completely removes the operating system in which case you would need recovery discs.

Edited by gr8joel, 13 March 2009 - 04:39 PM.

[Broni]

You should have recovery partition on your computer.
What brand, and model is it?

[gr8joel]

Ill move to the side now since Broni is the best lol.

[ILoveDaniel]

gr8joel < Okay, I'm gonna look into getting some DVDs today when I go out into town. Thank you. And thanks for your explanation.

Broni < My computer is an Acer, Windows Vista 32-bit w/ Service Pack 1 [if that piece is needed, lol].

[Broni]

I believe, you should be able to access Acer recovery partition by hitting ALT+F10, when Acer logo appears.

[ILoveDaniel]

Problem resolved! Thanks for all that help!!!

One question though:
Is EVERYTHING gone? Everything that is essential to me I have and this isn't a big deal at all but I had some netscape bookmarks that I forgot to save and I was wondering if they've been saved somewhere on the computer from after recovery?

[Broni]

Very good
Very slim chance to recover anything, but the less you use the computer, before you try any recovery, the better.
Here is a whole battery of tools, you can try: http://www.raymond.c...overy-software/

[ILoveDaniel]

Thanks.

[Broni]

Sure thing