No recovery disks, no recovery partition. Want to make a fresh start with settings like he was when i bought it. It was with Windows xp installed. Any suggestions ? ( except buying disk(s) from Acer )

It depends on which OS you are running. OS 10.6 or lower requires a system disk. OS 10.7 and above has a recovery partition on the hard drive which allows you to format the hard drive and re-install a fresh copy of the OS. (To access the recovery partition, hold down CMD + R during start-up)

To return your HD to the factory settings do a full system recovery using the recovery disks (CD or DVDs) you made when you first had the computer. This will return the whole computer to its as-shipped state: you will lose all your data and any software that you have installed. This will retain/re-install the original partition structure on your hard disk. To do this process you may also use the recovery partition on the hard disk.

To completely reformat the hard disk, in which case you will lose everything on it
press the start button at the bottom left of screen,
R-click on computer, and select manage. The computer management window will open. From the left pane click on disk management under 'storage'. A new pane will open, with information on the different disks in your computer. Select the disk on which the partition to be formatted is located. R-click on the partition to be formatted, and choose format, and ten work through the format wizard. (see http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-format-hard-disk-partition#create-format-hard-disk-partition=windows-7)
When you R-click on the partition other options will appear will appear as well as format, choose the appropriate option to create a new partition, merge, etc, By successively working your working your way through the partitions you may format/merge some while retaining others.

18.July.2014

There's two ways, one is using system restore and using the oldest restore point, as long as the points weren't deleted to increase storage space.

The other way is to use a windows XP install disk and doing a fresh install of XP.


As for a system, you can restore a system like a pre-built, say a eMachine using the recovery partition or recovery disks.

You can format by doing a fresh install of Windows. What operating system are you using? If you are using Windows and you have the windows installation disk then you can easily reformat your HDD. All you have to do is go into you BIOS (When your pc starts press <F2> repeatedly. When your BIOS is up look for your (BOOT Partitions). With the Windows disk in the disk tray it should show up on the list of partitions. Move the disk drive so it adds the Windows installation disk as the main boot partition. When you are done with the bios settings restart your pc and the installation disk should prompt you to install a fresh version of windows on the next startup. If you have Windows hope this helps :)

Usually, pre-loaded hp laptops have an utility to create (only once) recovery disks. U will need a few high quality DVDs or up to 20 CDs. The laptop must be connected to AC power during this process. The how-to is in Ur documentation that came with the laptop (probably in some pdf document). Usually, the procedure to create set of recovery discs is as follows (maybe it changes according to model): 1. Select Start > All Programs > Recovery Manager > Recovery Manager. Recovery Manager Opens. 2. Click Advanced Options. 3. Click Recovery disc creation, and then click Next. 4. Follow the on-screen instructions.
Pls, send the laptop exact model, so I'll be able to verify this procedure.
BTW, did U considered use of some partition manager to resize the partition?

On some computers, the disk-drive is "partitioned" into two parts -- your 'C:' drive and a 8GB "recovery" partition. If so, then when you start-up your computer, there is an option to boot from that Recovery Partition, and to reinstall Windows.

On some computers, there is software that lets you burn your own CD/DVDs that can then be used to reinstall Windows. Have 4 or 5 "blank" DVD disks, or 8 to 10 "blank" CD disks, before you run this software.

If you have "lost" the original disks, contact LG. For a small fee, they will ship you a replacement "System Recovery" CD/DVD set of disks.

To access the recovery partition you need to boot up on a DVD with a partition manager on it, then set the hidden partition as "ACTIVE" and un-Active, the existing partition, then remove DVD and reboot, then the laptop will boot from the recovery partition and should autorun start the recovery procedure.

You can create a password reset disk with windows password recovery tool. I recommemd Windows Password Buster.

What do you mean by "back to the factory settings"?
If you want the laptop back to when you first bought it then you need to format the hard disk and do a fresh Windows install plus install the device drivers for your laptop.

Usually the problem lies with your Software or Windows Installation. The problem is when you Boot your computer it can't read because some how the hard drive got scrambled. You have to Install a fresh windows to solve the problem, no other way around it. Obvioulsy, its no good to you in this condition, Insert your Installation disk and turn the computer off and then back on, Install a new Windows. Good Luck. When the computer asks you if you want to install windows to that drive, you might want to consider if you have to delete that partition, and then create it again, after you do Windows will automatically format the disk for a fresh installation.