I have an HP Pavilion desktop, originally I had XP installed. I later installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64 but I no longer have the disk for the installation.
I want to bring my computer back to factory settings but I also want to keep windows 7. Is it possible for me to do this?
Is there a Windows 7 file or folder that I can backup onto a usb and just reinstall?
Thank you
Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.
A factory restore will format your hard drive and wipe out Windows 7.
Do you still have the product key for Windows 7? How did you acquire the software?
A friend of mine gave me the CD and I misplaced it :/ So there's no way to get windows 7 back unless I buy a new one?
That's about the size of it.
Below are unfortunately the only options to reinstall Windows 7
All I can suggest is to use a system restore point
Equally you could call Microsoft and explain your situation to them
A system restore point would be pointless since most of the restore points don't go too far back.
And I doubt microsoft would be able to do anything about this.
How was the copy of Win7 which your friend gave you activated? Was it a $100+ gift?
Most people keep track of property worth more than $100 which is why we normally only see students who got the $40 deal not backing up their Product Keys, although some can still recover them using their receipt email or bank statement they might still have.
If you tell us more about this copy of Win7 then maybe we can help you reinstall it.
Do I understand this right - you want to reset the PC to factory settings which in your case would be XP. And then you want to add your current Windows7 installation to that XP setup.
I think that should be possible on a desktop - especially if you hae 2 HDDs in the box. It would take a Win7 image and an XP reinstallation from the XP recovery partition (if that still exists).
If you want to persue this route, post a picture of your Disk Management first so that we get an idea of your real estate.
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