Solved Is it possible to format my laptop and reinstall W7 with a backup?

[a223]

I have had this Acer laptop for less then a year and its 250GB harddrive is almost filled and has many files that I cant remove.
I have a 150GB eternal hardrive that I can backup the files I want to it.
It would be easier to reinstall W7 but my laptop came with W7 already on it and with a one use boot disk.

can I make a back up of just the OS files that I can use to clean out my laptop

 

[Ztruker]

No, but you should be able to create a set of Recovery DVDs that you can reinstall from after you save your data. Also, there is almost certainly a recovery partition on the hard drive you can restore from. You normally access it by pressinf a FN key during boot. Many times it will tell you somewhere on the screen what key or keys to press to do this. F10, F11, F12, Ctrl+F11 are all used by different manufacturers. Some even have you press and hold the 0 (zero) key during boot.

Post the model number of the Acer laptop and we should be able to find the Users Guide online which will tell you how to do both of the above.

Also, please fill out completely your System Specs, that makes it easier for us to see what you have.

 

[a223]

thanks I think I have found the recovery partition by the online manual on page 65, i have the acer aspire 5517 and i will be filling out System specs.

 

[Orbital Shark]

Hi, welcome to the forums

You should be able to just run the Acer Recovery Management (or similar) console from the start menu. This will reboot your machine and guide you through the recovery process using the factory partition


OS

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello a223, welcome to Seven Forums!



Have a look at this info below but be advised that this will over-write all the data on the PC so be sure to make back-ups of anything you don't want to lose before you start.

   Information

Here are the standard Acer Recovery Instructions


1. Power on the machine

2. At the white ACER BIOS screen, hold the “Alt” key and press the “F10” key simultaneously to start Acer eRecovery

3. Once eRecovery has loaded, click “Restore to Factory Default Settings”

4. Click “OK” to continue

5. From here, the eRecovery process will update all the data on the C: drive and restore a fully functional factory image (approximately 10 minutes).

6. Once eRecovery has run, press “OK” to reboot unit.

 

[a223]

thank you very much, this is what i want to do wipe everything out and start almost new out of the box

[

Hello a223, welcome to Seven Forums!



Have a look at this info below but be advised that this will over-write all the data on the PC so be sure to make back-ups of anything you don't want to lose before you start.

   Information

Here are the standard Acer Recovery Instructions


1. Power on the machine

2. At the white ACER BIOS screen, hold the “Alt” key and press the “F10” key simultaneously to start Acer eRecovery

3. Once eRecovery has loaded, click “Restore to Factory Default Settings”

4. Click “OK” to continue

5. From here, the eRecovery process will update all the data on the C: drive and restore a fully functional factory image (approximately 10 minutes).

6. Once eRecovery has run, press “OK” to reboot unit.

Yes i did see these, i just first quoted the wrong thing
I am transferring the files i still want now.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Be sure to keep us informed!

 

[a223]

Thank you everyone I am now back with my laptop cleaned and running perfectly.

 

[Orbital Shark]

Thank you everyone I am now back with my laptop cleaned and running perfectly.

That's good to hear

Please enjoy the rest of the forums

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Good to see you got it running and thanks for the update.