Restore HP Laptop to factory settings?

[luckyrick]

I have a HP Pavillion g4.

Long ago, I used Disk Management to split my C Drive into two, but now I've joined them back together.

The recovery info is saved in the D drive, labelled "Recovery".

I think because of my meddling, HP's full system recovery has been disabled.

I tried to use Disk Management to set the D drive as the active partition, but that option does not exist!

When I use F11 (System Recovery) on startup, it says:

(Status: 0xc0000225)


I desperately need to restore my laptop to factory conditions, what should I do?

 

[theog]

   Information

We always assume you have made your Recovery Disks using the OEM manufacturer's Recovery Media Creator app the first day you had your new PC.
& made the Startup Repair CD.
startup repair disc-create
​

Did you make the OEM manufacturer's Recovery Disks?

You can Order HP Recovery Disks from here:
Country-Language Selector | HP® Support

 

[gregrocker]

The problem is that you converted your HD to Dynamic which is only meant to be used to span a partition across multiple HD's. Apparently you didn't see the warning message when adding a fifth partition. The best way to do this while keeping HP Recovery and OEM Tools bootable is to convert C to Logical and then add as many adjacent Logical partitions as you want.

You need to convert HD back to Basic for it to continue booting. The solution to solve this non-destructively is to boot free Partition Wizard CD version 4.2 which is the last one which offers this as a free feature: pw422.zip ISO - Windows Live.

Download the ISO, rightclick to burn it to CD using Windows Image Burner, or use ImgBurn. Boot CD by pressing HP ESC key at boot.

Then follow these video steps: How to convert dynamic disk to basic disk with Partition Wizard?

If Win7 will not start and you confirm it's been converted successfully, then confirm that the 199mb System partition is Set Active partition - Partition Wizard Video Help, then rebuild MBR using Partition Wizard Rebuild MBR - Video Help. If it still wont' start, boot DVD or System Repair Disk to run Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times.

After conversion you can try again running HP System Recovery from boot, mark Recovery partition Active to reboot into Recovery, order your Recovery Disks, or since HP has the worst load of corrupting bloatware in the industry do what most tech enthusiasts do and Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. In fact you can do that now deleting all partitions during the booted Clean Install Windows 7 as shown in Step 7/8.

 

[luckyrick]

The problem is that you converted your HD to Dynamic which is only meant to be used to span a partition across multiple HD's. Apparently you didn't see the warning message when adding a fifth partition. The best way to do this while keeping HP Recovery and OEM Tools bootable is to convert C to Logical and then add as many adjacent Logical partitions as you want.

You need to convert HD back to Basic for it to continue booting. The solution to solve this non-destructively is to boot free Partition Wizard CD version 4.2 which is the last one which offers this as a free feature: pw422.zip ISO - Windows Live.

Download the ISO, rightclick to burn it to CD using Windows Image Burner, or use ImgBurn. Boot CD by pressing HP ESC key at boot.

Then follow these video steps: How to convert dynamic disk to basic disk with Partition Wizard?

If Win7 will not start and you confirm it's been converted successfully, then confirm that the 199mb System partition is Set Active partition - Partition Wizard Video Help, then rebuild MBR using Partition Wizard Rebuild MBR - Video Help. If it still wont' start, boot DVD or System Repair Disk to run Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times.

After conversion you can try again running HP System Recovery from boot, mark Recovery partition Active to reboot into Recovery, order your Recovery Disks, or since HP has the worst load of corrupting bloatware in the industry do what most tech enthusiasts do and Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. In fact you can do that now deleting all partitions during the booted Clean Install Windows 7 as shown in Step 7/8.

Is it alright if I ignore most of the above steps and just follow the instructions in this link?

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html


And it'll be like having a brand new laptop?

 

[gregrocker]

Yes, but you'll need to convert the HD to Basic first which can be done by booting the Win7 installer, press Shift + F10 at first screen to open a Command line, then run Diskpart Clean Command.

Then close the command box, click Install Now to Clean Install Windows 7

But first read over thoroughly Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 . As long as you stick with the steps given you'll get and keep a perfect install.

 

[Kari]

Is it alright if I ignore most of the above steps and just follow the instructions in this link?

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html


And it'll be like having a brand new laptop?

Yes, those illustrated steps will show you how to do a Custom install deleting all partitions during Steps 7 and 8.

But first read over thoroughly Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 . As long as you stick with the steps given you'll get and keep a perfect install.

Shouldn't Luckyrick first convert dynamic disk back to basic?

 

[gregrocker]

Good catch, Kari. I edited my steps just above.

 

[luckyrick]

You need to convert HD back to Basic for it to continue booting. The solution to solve this non-destructively is to boot free Partition Wizard CD version 4.2 which is the last one which offers this as a free feature: pw422.zip ISO - Windows Live.

Download the ISO, rightclick to burn it to CD using Windows Image Burner, or use ImgBurn. Boot CD by pressing HP ESC key at boot.

Then follow these video steps: How to convert dynamic disk to basic disk with Partition Wizard?

Yes, but you'll need to convert the HD to Basic first which can be done by booting the Win7 installer, press Shift + F10 at first screen to open a Command line, then run Diskpart Clean Command.

So I can use either of these two methods?


Sorry, I'm extremely noob and I wanna get everything precisely right the first time round. I could end up with all the problems in this section.

 

[gregrocker]

I gave you the exact steps for converting the disk back to Basic non-destructively in my first post, as shown in Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk Option 1.

But you replied that you would rather do the Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 which requires first wiping the HD with Diskpart Clean Command. If you choose this you must back up your files first as it wipes out everything for reinstall.

Ask back if you have any specific querstions after studying the tutorials.

 

[luckyrick]

If I convert the disk back to basic, will HP's System Recovery be re-enabled? As seen in the 2nd image, the one with Rage guy.

 

[gregrocker]

There's a chance HP Recovery will run once you convert back to Basic using the non-destructive method with Partition Wizard.

If it won't run from within Win7 as shown in your screenshot then try it from boot as shown in HP System Recovery.

 

[luckyrick]

Yes, it worked like a charm.

Thanks Greg!

 

[gregrocker]

If you ran HP Factory Recovery then I would Clean Up Factory Bloatware
at the minimum.

HP has the worst load of preinstalled crapware and useless duplicate utilities in the industry, which smother Win7 native performance. This is why most tech enthusiasts choose to Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

 

[luckyrick]

It's okay. I actually use some of their bloatware from time to time.