First, back up your stuff!
Before you reset your system, you’ll want to back up important information that you don’t want to lose. This includes documents, photos, music, and movies, but there are other items to back up as well. Make sure that you know all of your saved passwords, export all of your browser bookmarks, and have installation files for all the software you’ll want to reinstall — or know where to get them.Also, make sure you back up app-specific data, like custom filters saved in a photo utility and save files from your favorite games. If you use Microsoft Outlook, you’ll want to export your email file as well so that you can back it up.
While you can backup these files manually, you may be better served by using backup software that automates the process, reducing the room for error and saving you time. You might be able to use the cloud for this, but there’s a great chance that the volume of data will exceed the capacity of a free Google Drive (15GB) or DropBox (2GB) account. If you’re willing to spend some money on a monthly basis, then you can go with a dedicated cloud backup solution like Carbonite.
Even cloud services can have issues, however, and so it’s not a bad idea to budget for an external hard drive if you don’t already have one. The best option is an external drive enclosure that holds two drives that can be mirrored, so that if one drive fails you have a backup. You can also use a non-OS internal drive in a desktop if enough space is available.
An even more advanced option is to purchase a network-attached storage (NAS) device that can be connected to your router and accessed by all of the machines on your network. A NAS device with mirrored drives lets you copy and back up all of your information scattered around in single, relatively reliable place that can even be easily removed in the case of emergency.
Whichever route you choose, configure your backup software to save to your chosen drive. Then, it’s important to make sure to disconnect your backup drive before you actually perform the Windows 8/8.1 reset. The following process shouldn’t delete data on a secondary drive, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. We’ve broken the guide down below based on your current operating system.
WINDOWS VISTA / WINDOWS 7
Windows Vista and its successor, Windows 7, do not have the built-in refresh and reset options found in Windows 8 / 8.1. Users with these operating systems have two choices when looking to perform a factory reset.
The first is to re-install Windows from scratch, which isn’t a factory reset at all unless you have all the original, factory-provided install media available. Still, if you want to wipe your computer completely clean and start from scratch, this is probably your best option. You can reinstall by opening Recovery (do a Windows search for it), selecting Advanced Recovery Options, and then selecting Reinstall Windows.
Your second option is to use a manufacturer-provided recovery tool and factory provided recovery partition. Here are common names for recovery software from each major PC manufacturer. Entering these terms into Windows’ desktop search tool can help you find them.
- Acer: Acer eRecovery or Acer Recovery Management
- ASUS: ASUS Recovery Partition or AI Recovery
- Dell: Dell Factory Image Restore, DataSafe, Dell Backup & Recovery, and a variety of other names
- Gateway: Gateway Recovery Management
- HP: HP System Recovery or Recovery Manager
- Lenovo: Rescue and Recovery ,or ThinkVantage Recovery (on ThinkPads)
- Sony: Sony Vaio Recovery Wizard
You can also access recovery from outside Windows, which is useful if you can’t find the software, or if Windows won’t load. To do this, reboot your computer, and pay close attention to the boot screen that appears before Windows loads. Keep an eye out for a shortcut key that brings you to the recovery interface. In most cases, the key will be F11.
Note, though, that you do need a recovery partition for these methods to work. If you don’t have one, your only option will be to perform a full reinstall of Windows.
POST-RESET CHORES
You may think that you’re done after you perform your factory reset, and in a general sense that’s true. Your computer may work very well in its factory state. However, most systems are improved over time by new hardware drivers, which you may have had installed on your system. They’ll now be gone and, in some cases, certain hardware may not work at all until the appropriate driver is installed. If you’re using Windows 10, simply head to the Updates tab in the Settings and your system should grab most of what it needs from the Microsoft servers, including chipset, GPU, and peripheral drivers.
You can often download these drivers by visiting the system manufacturer’s support page, and searching for your specific system. This is where you’re most likely to find motherboard and adapter drivers, as well as drivers relating to specific system functions (controlling display brightness via keyboard shortcut on a laptop, for example).
If you have a discrete graphics card, you’ll also want to visit AMD or Nvidia’s website (depending on who made your GPU) and download new drivers. These usually aren’t posted on manufacturer support pages.
Finally, install the drivers for any peripherals you use with your system. These will not be installed since they didn’t ship from the factory with your PC.
Conclusion
This is everything you need to know about restoring Windows to its initial state. Hopefully, the process has improved performance and decluttered your drive, or prepared it for passing along to someone else. If you’re still having problems, it may be because of faulty hardware or, if your system is getting on in years, then you may want to upgrade or replace it entirely.
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