Win8 boot CD

[JON1987]

Hello everyone,

just bought a new laptop; asus a550ca-ebt51, and i realized there were no CD's/DVD's in the box. The laptop came preinstalled with windows 8. how would i go about wiping out the laptop and doing a fresh OS install? pardon my ignorance as im used to the "old" way of doing fresh reinstalls with XP and simply putting in the windows XP CD and letting it run. Will this procedure require a OS CD or is there another method. as soon as i turned the laptop on i created a recovery point. Im not sure if this helps... any help will be greatly appreciated.

thanks

Jon

 

[rolli59]

Most OEM's do not ship with disks any more instead they have a partition on the HDD to restore the machine to original state.

 

[bgunner]

in windows 8 move the cursor to the bottom right and bring up the funky window ( can't remember exactly what they call it) and at the bottom you will see a gear saying settings, click on it, now on the bottom you will see "Change PC Settings, click on this. In the left side panel click on general and scroll to the bottom. you will see Refresh your PC and Remove everything and re install windows. this is what your looking for if you have issues.

Now this does not beat a full Format and re installation but comes close. the windows OS makes a back up immediately of windows as soon as it is activated to do a refresh and reinstalls so there is no need for you to do a back up right off the start.

hope this answers your question.

 

[JON1987]

@rolli59: is this said partition the D: drive? i noticed the laptop came with two partitions; C: and D:


@bgunner: i know exactly what you are referring to. i remember seeing the gear when i moved the mouse over to the right...just out of curiosity, how would you do an actual full format/os install? that is what i would like to get a clear understanding off. i do not plan to wipe it out as i just got it runs with 0 issues, its more just to learn how to.

thanks once again

 

[WinOutreach2]

To create a recovery drive that includes the factory image, follow the steps provided here at Windows Support to create a USB recovery drive. This copies the factory image to the USB drive along with the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) which can help with a variety of circumstances. You will need a USB drive large enough to fit the factory image .

Otherwise, restore disks are typically provided by the system manufacturer for order. ASUS usually lists them at the ASUS eStore, but I was unable to find them. You may need to contact ASUS for further information.

 

[rolli59]

@rolli59: is this said partition the D: drive? i noticed the laptop came with two partitions; C: and D:


@bgunner: i know exactly what you are referring to. i remember seeing the gear when i moved the mouse over to the right...just out of curiosity, how would you do an actual full format/os install? that is what i would like to get a clear understanding off. i do not plan to wipe it out as i just got it runs with 0 issues, its more just to learn how to.

thanks once again

Very likely but follow the instructions above from winoutreach2

 

[bgunner]

@rolli59: is this said partition the D: drive? i noticed the laptop came with two partitions; C: and D:


@bgunner: i know exactly what you are referring to. i remember seeing the gear when i moved the mouse over to the right...just out of curiosity, how would you do an actual full format/os install? that is what i would like to get a clear understanding off. i do not plan to wipe it out as i just got it runs with 0 issues, its more just to learn how to.

thanks once again

If the situation arises that you need to do a complete format of the drive you will need a win 8 disk/usb in order to re-install. This has not changed from XP up through Win 8. The need to do a complete reformat should not be necessary due to the new features I have mentioned before. The only situations I can fore see the need for a complete re install would be a faulty HDD or your back up becomes corrupted by a virus of some sort.

follow WinOutreach2's suggestion on making a copy of the OEM install for future needs.