Factory Restore vs Backup Restore

What do I mean by this and backup restore? Using it makes the OS the same as the day you bought the computer, backup restore is restoring the computer to the point where you last backed up your OS with an imaging program such as Ghost or Acronis True Image. One will delete your data the other will preserver your data...

Back in the late 1990's IBM and Compaq (both are now out of the Personal Computer business) came up with a way to "restore" (factory restore) the Operating System (OS) on a computer when something happened to the partition the OS was on.

This is how the drive was divided up in partitions:

• 1st partition was hidden (the restore data was here), normally 10 to 20 MB
• 2nd partition was the OS or System
• 3rd was data storage (if there was room on the drive).

What we have to realize is that before 1995 most computers were using either DOS or Windows 95/98 and very few were using the 32/64 bit Windows NT (Linux was a dream [nightmare] of geeky college students) and there were a few Macs.

When Windows NT 4 was released a lot of people (and IT nerds) came to the conclusion that this was a very Good Operating System.

By now Compaq was HP and IBM was moving it's laptop operations to China soon to be come Leveno.

Also hard drives were still in the 150 to 200,000 hour MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) operational range and were normally 20 to 100 GB so putting the restore or original installation files on a hidden partition made sense. New computers didn't come with a set of CD's all the files you needed to re-load or re-install the OS were on the hard drive. This makes for a faster install of the OS. This is also a "Catch 22" more on this later.

The problem with this "solution" is it is an "all or nothing" solution. That is if you start your computer and insert the "factory restore" CD and select the "restore factory defaults" the process will format the drive and put the image it has on the hidden partition on the OS partition.

Unless you backup your data on a regular basis, and to a device that is external to the computer you use, your data will be wiped by the format.

There is another problem with the "hidden partition" with the factory restore data: If the hard drive fails you will lose that partition also. Your options are very limited:

• You can replace the hard drive
• You can buy a new computer.

Troubleshoot, repair, maintain, upgrade & secure...     With this!

If you replace the hard drive you have another problem the "Catch 22":

You have to obtain an Operating System Installation disk, a hardware driver disk, and a optional programs disk because the hidden partition isn't on the new drive, it is on the dead drive.

Your options here are:

• You can contact the computer manufacture and pay for a set of CD/DVD's that you can load the OS, drivers, and model specific programs that came with the computer when it was new.
• You can buy a OS installation disk with new license. You will have to search for all the drivers for the proprietary hardware (believe me this is a long process).

So what is a computer owner to do?

1. Backup you data!
2. Make an image of the hidden partition
3. Make images of the OS partition anytime there is a major change to the OS such as a large update from the OS publisher (Microsoft/Apple/etc), make an image of the OS partition when you change hardware.

By the way this is not the Vista/Windows 7/8  restore points this is the factory restore.

Note: What I suggest you do is make an image of the hidden partition and the Operating System as soon as possible when you buy a new computer. (I have images of the ASUS laptops I bough three years ago, I have used one of the images to restore Windows 7 on one laptop, it does work).

You will see this on other pages of this web site: "Your restore is only as good as your last backup, NO backup, NO restore!".

You need to preserve your data not destroy it!

Last word: When you have a problem with the Operating System and think about using the "Restore CD" option to make the computer functional again read all the instructions because most of the options for the restore program are destructive to your data: IT WILL FORMAT THE DRIVE!