How To Reset to Factory Install on a G74SX-A1 - Keeping Windows 7 Intact

[jasonmizrahi]

Hi,

I'd like to gift my Asus G74SX-A1 laptop to my sister - however - I want to restore/reset the computer back to its original state when I first bought it (before I got into the Windows Setup to enter my computer name, time zone, etc etc). I want her to start it up as if it was a new laptop.

Problem is, I didn't get a Windows 7 Home Premium CD - nor have I created recovery discs. I'm not sure if this computer has a built in Recovery partition or not like my previous HP DV7-1285dx laptop.

I was researching and found this off the Asus Support site: http://support.asus.com/Troubleshooting/detail.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=3&m=G74SX&s=336&hashedid=n/a&os=&no=1775

WIll this do the trick? I of course don't want any of my pics, documents, Office products, movies, games, etc in the laptop.

[BrodyBoy]

You can look in Disk Management to see if you still have a recovery partition. (START -> diskmgmt.msc) It will appear as a 25Gb hidden partition (i.e., no drive letter) before the C: partition on your primary hard drive.

If you have the recovery partition, you can use the F9 method to restore your computer to its out-of-the-box condition before giving it to your sister.

But wIthout the recovery partition or a set of recovery disks, you cannot perform a factory restore. In this case, assuming you don't want to buy the $50 system disk from Asus, you could just try to clean up all your files, or do a clean install of Windows.

[jasonmizrahi]

You can look in Disk Management to see if you still have a recovery partition. (START -> diskmgmt.msc) It will appear as a 25Gb hidden partition (i.e., no drive letter) before the C: partition on your primary hard drive.

If you have the recovery partition, you can use the F9 method to restore your computer to its out-of-the-box condition before giving it to your sister.

But wIthout the recovery partition or a set of recovery disks, you cannot perform a factory restore. In this case, assuming you don't want to buy the $50 system disk from Asus, you could just try to clean up all your files, or do a clean install of Windows.

Thanks Brody, I see it. Thanks! Will try and see if it works.

[BrodyBoy]

If you have a 2nd hard drive on your model, you may also want to reformat its partitions if you have any of your personal data on them. (The factory restore procedure doesn't change the 2nd HDD at all.)

[jasonmizrahi]

If you have a 2nd hard drive on your model, you may also want to reformat its partitions if you have any of your personal data on them. (The factory restore procedure doesn't change the 2nd HDD at all.)

WIll definitely do that too. Thx again.