Help needed to return laptop to factory settings please.

robmar0se

I have to say I am unclear as to the status of yr hard drive, number of partitions and their sizes. Acer's often have 3 main partitions, C: - & a recovery partition

To answer your question on putting back to factory settings. could you do the following and report back?

Click on "computer" then on each hdd/partition right clcik, then on the pop-up panel click on properties. This will then tell you the size of the hdd/partition, and the amount of free space.

If you want to retain yr personal data, we also need to check the location of any personal folders, assuming you want to retain the data, right click on "Documents", then clcik on properties, then on location – just tell us where your documents are, we’ll assume that yr pictures/music are in the same location for now.

xxdeebeexx

robmar0se wrote: »

I have to say I am unclear as to the status of yr hard drive, number of partitions and their sizes. Acer's often have 3 main partitions, C: - & a recovery partition

To answer your question on putting back to factory settings. could you do the following and report back?

Click on "computer" then on each hdd/partition right clcik, then on the pop-up panel click on properties. This will then tell you the size of the hdd/partition, and the amount of free space.

If you want to retain yr personal data, we also need to check the location of any personal folders, assuming you want to retain the data, right click on "Documents", then clcik on properties, then on location – just tell us where your documents are, we’ll assume that yr pictures/music are in the same location for now.

This laptop belongs to DS1 and he has no data, as such. he has downloaded all sorts.... last time I scaned the laptop it showed 17 viuses / un wanted programmes!

We have made a back up on an external Hdd for music and school work.

There are 2 hard drives
Acer (C) 136 GB used 6.17 GB Free
Local Disk (D) 387 MB used 142 GB Free

(The info on (D) dates back to 2009)

I can't see a recovery partition

dx

robmar0se

Okay you have 2 user partitions, with most of yr stuff on C the total allocated is less than 284gb so I suspect you also have a hidden partition with some recovery software on it - we could prove it but probably not worth it.

It would make sense now that you have win 7 that you go that route, especially as you don't want any of the stuff on the system.

What I would do is forget what you have at present on C, and do a clean install of win 7, just "wiping" the C partition during this process. I would however first download from the Acer website the Win 7 drivers for your system - just check that you have the 32 or 64 bit version, and downlaod the relevant versions, store them on D as that partition will be retained - the most important in case of difficulty will be the network drivers, as once you have these you will be able to get back on the net if you have any subsequent difficulty.

Once done I would do 4 other things:

1) Shift the User folders from C to D - can explain this later if required.
2) Remove the recovery partition as it will be irrelevant going forward (would only put you back to Vista) - a free partiton manager can do this.
3) Install a antivirus asp
4) download Windows updates especially Win 7 SP1

Oh and good luck

macman

xxdeebeexx wrote: »

This laptop belongs to DS1 and he has no data, as such. he has downloaded all sorts.... last time I scaned the laptop it showed 17 viuses / un wanted programmes!

We have made a back up on an external Hdd for music and school work.

There are 2 hard drives
Acer (C) 136 GB used 6.17 GB Free
Local Disk (D) 387 MB used 142 GB Free

(The info on (D) dates back to 2009)

I can't see a recovery partition

dx

So the only issue is that you have less than 5% free space on that main partition, which is where the OS is.. Get rid of all the carp and it will be fine.How can he have 'no data'? What he has been downloading if not music/videos etc?

robmar0se

macman wrote: »

So the only issue is that you have less than 5% free space on that main partition, which is where the OS is.. Get rid of all the carp and it will be fine.How can he have 'no data'? What he has been downloading if not music/videos etc?

I guess that they did an in place upgrade to 7 - hence not only all their personal stuff they don't want, they still have all the Vista drivers etc in there too - as you probably know Vista system files/drivers just grow and grow.

The OP wants to go go back to factory settings - but using Win 7, si I guess a clean install woul do that??

macman

Agreed, so do a Factory Restore back to a clean Vista OS, then run the upgrade disk to go to W7.
Clearly the system is so full of carp that a clean restore/install is the only sensible way to sort it.

xxdeebeexx

Thanks for the help.
I am planning to give it a go this week end.
I have 2 discs with the upgrade kit
1) Windows 7 upgrade media
2)Acer upgrade wizard, applications, drivers for windows 7

Why is DS1 data not being saved on the D drive