Factory Settings
 

On Most Computers theres A Factory Restore Point that Allows you To Restore The PC and Start Windows With Drivers On A Disk, Others Have The Option To Restore From A Partition On The Hard Drive.

I want to Know How I can Do this On My Own Machine. IE; Create A Factory Setting Restore Partition, Or At Least Create The System Settings So I dont have To Install All The Driver Disks.

My Wifes Laptop Has A Factory Restor Point, And No Actual Vista Disk, Just The CD Code On The Laptop.

I'm Wondering How I can Do Something similar to My PC, Once I've Formatted, For Future Ease.

Can Anyone Help?

Re: Factory Settings
 

I believe windows 7 has the function to create a full system image then you can either create a boot cd or use the windows 7 installation media to restore it

Norton Ghost or Acronis for example will do it with other operating systems

Re: Factory Settings
 

Personally I use Acronis to create an image to a couple of other storage places. A restore partition is a waste of time when your hard disk dies.

Re: Factory Settings
 

I dont care about the hard Drive, Just a restore to Factory setting, which in this case is what I choose. If the hard drive dies then so be it, but in the chance it doesnt fail, i want to be able to restore everything

Re: Factory Settings
 

In that case why not create a new partition on your hard disk and use it to store an Acronis image?
All you have to do for a restore is boot from the Acronis CD and tell it to restore the image to C: and the job is done.

Re: Factory Settings
 

All I do is have a small 160gb hdd in my pc that I do the full install on to and then clone it on to the other hdd or ssd.

I then leave the hdd in my pc but disconnected so it can't get infected etc and then when I need to I throw the Acronis boot disc in and clone it back, and hey presto I have a fully working OS within 15 minutes with everything on it ready to go.

Re: Factory Settings
 

How exactly do you clone it? Can you do that via linking the 2 hard drives in the same machine? Or burn it to disk?

Acronis sounds good, might

Re: Factory Settings
 

Basically Acronis creates a mirror image of your system disk. It can write that to a different partition or to a secondary hard disk in the machine. It can also send the image to a usb drive or even across a network to a different machine. The only thing it can't do is write the image to the same partition that you are trying to save.
The image it creates will contain everything on your C: drive including drivers and all installed programs so when you restore it you put the machine back to exactly the state it was when you made the restore file.