Running system recovery on your PC or laptop

 

Many computer manufacturers lately, in an attempt to a) save/make themselves money and b) make your life "easier" have begun to create "Recovery Partitions" on your hard drive.  This has been a common business practice since around the middle of 2008, and is becoming almost standard today. 

I have mixed feelings about this process, however...

On the one hand, yes it is nice not to have yet another CD-ROM to keep up with and/or keep from getting scratched or damaged.  Yes, it is very convenient to, at the stroke of a key, restore your computer back to "original factory settings".  However, what happens when your hard drive dies?  What happens if you get a virus that infects your entire system, including your recovery partition?  What happens when you accidentally delete your recovery partition to save space?  (yes, we've all done it - oops!)  Then what do you do?  Can't very well "pop in the CD and fix it", can you?

When presented with this scenario, you're almost always obligated to contact your vendor (Dell, Gateway, Toshiba, etc) and purchase a recovery CD/DVD from them.  This is usually in the $20-30 range, and of course will take a few days to a week or longer to receive.

This is the part where you get mad ...and you should be.  Go ahead, I'll wait.

Okay, now that THAT is over with, what are your options?  Well, you can always skip the manufacturer and ask around to see if anyone has a recovery disc, but that most likely will not be the case, unless they have the same make/model as you ...and in which case, they probably have their recovery partition on their hard drive as well, and no CD.  BUT - many manufacturers (HP and eMachines are good about this) allow you to create a recovery CD/DVD from a functional system.   The down side is that you're only allowed to create ONE CD of the software you've paid for ...*and*, to make matters worse, once you make that CD, your friend (you know - the one with the same make/model as you) will not be able to create a CD for himself.

Or, you can always go to option "A" and get one from your manufacturer ...my recommendation would be to check Craigslist or eBay and see if you can find one ...if not there, do a simple Google search for "buy xxxxx recovery CD" (where xxxxx is your make/model), and see what you find.  Worst absolute case scenario, you can always try downloading the "OEM" copy of your software from a p2p site, or using file-sharing software.

NOTE: based on my experience, and to the best of my knowledge, downloading an OEM copy of Windows does not violate any copyright laws, or piracy laws.  The reason is that an OEM copy *must* be activated with your individual product key (the Windows Certificate of Authenticity sticker on your computer) before it can be activated.  Let me re-phrase ...yes, it probably is "against the rules" as far as Microsoft is concerned, since you can *technically* still use Windows without activating it ...but I have known people to download an OEM copy of Windows because they didn't have a CD ...they download it, burn it, install it and enter their legal product key and everything is working and Microsoft is happy.  Of course, this should be your last resort, if you cannot get the CD by any other means.  I am not in any way encouraging you to break the law or commit piracy.  I am simply presenting all the available options for you.

Some manufacturers have pre-configured software which allows you to make backup copies of your pre-installed Windows.  I *highly* recommend you do this as the very first thing you do on your computer ...trust me, when you need those CD's, you will be SO glad you did!

Okay, I'm off my soap box now ...let's get to the real meat of this topic, and that is "how do I run a recovery on my PC/laptop?"  I will try to list on this page the different manufacturer's and their recovery "processes" to help you along.  Bear in mind that whatever information you find on here should be accurate, as it is based strictly on my personal experiences in the business ...but as with anything, feel free to get a "second opinion".  With that said, here goes:

Brand	How to start recovery
Acer	ALT + F10 at startup
Averatec	F4 at startup
Compaq	use Recovery CD/DVD
Dell	F12 at startup to select first boot device.  Select hard drive, then immediately hit CTRL-F11
eMachines	F11 at startup
Gateway	F11 at startup
HP	F11 at startup
Lenovo/IBM	F11 at startup
Sony	F10 at startup
Toshiba	hold down "0" key and turn power on.  Once Toshiba logo appears, start tapping "0" key to enter HDD recovery mode