Destructive Recovery

[chris3090]

My Computer is shot... idk what the heck happened to it but its never getting lent out again. doesnt seem to respond to anything and nothing will seem to really work. so i thought of a destructive recovery if im not mistaken i did this before when my sister messed up the computer and it wiped the computer clean of everything but what came on the machine when it was bought... problem is i dont remeber how to do it exactly anyone have any idea how? would be greatly appreciated. cant reformat hard drive though dont have another OS to put on it and i just want to put it back to the way it was out of the store.. any ideas ...current OS is Windows XP

[MWISimmer]

You need your recovery disk. Set the BIOS to boot from CD first, then reboot with the disk in the drive.
I'd try the repair option first, you have nothing to lose.. if it doesn't work then start over.

That's assuming you have the recovery disk of course.....

[chris3090]

hmm i'll look around but i dont remember it coming with one.. anywere else i can get one?

[MWISimmer]

Google your make and model number, you may be able to download one

[chris3090]

would i need to burn it to a cd then?

[MWISimmer]

You would, more than likely as an *iso image.

[pengyman89]

my computer was an HP (its been very much butchered since then) but when I went to do a destructive recovery there was software already on it that did that for me. brought the PC back to the way it was directly off the shelf and that was very successful for me.

I found this option in a PC Help & Tools folder.

perhaps this will be an option for you?

[stevehookem]

What about a system restore from a previous date that the computer was working? I just had to do that with an older PC we have.

Go to Accessories, system tools and look for "system restore". Pick an older date on the calendar that is in bold and it will go back in time. oooooohhhh, scary! haha

[chris3090]

thanks steve i'll give that a try first... internet doesnt even wana come up and ty peng i'll look for that mines also an hp

[chris3090]

my computer was an HP (its been very much butchered since then) but when I went to do a destructive recovery there was software already on it that did that for me. brought the PC back to the way it was directly off the shelf and that was very successful for me.

I found this option in a PC Help & Tools folder.

perhaps this will be an option for you?

Did you have to use a recovery cd or anything? or just run the program

[Groundbound1]

If your system didn't come with any disks, and you haven't formatted the entire hard drive before, then you most likely do have a recovery partition. On startup, when you see the "F" command to enter the BIOS, you should see another for entering the system's recovery menu.

What kind of machine is this?

[chris3090]

hp pavilion 753n with a few upgrades, 2gb exra memory, gaming lat card,800 watt power supply, Saphirre Radeon 3850 512mb agp Card, Intel pentuim 4 proccesor,cant remember all the processor stats but its not a bad one, 80gb hard drive

[pengyman89]

all i had to do was run the program, no CD required. And I was able to do this after the hard drive had been switched to a new motherboard, etc.

[chris3090]

ok thnks alot pengy gunna try that 2night.. had to go buy another monitor  mine got broken last night  :-? dont know how that happened but i was looking for an excuse to get a new monitor