Windows 7 System Restore with out disk

[JC0133]

I am trying to system restore my Windows 7 OS. I want to reset it to when I first bought it, so wipe everything out and start as if it was a new system.

I read online how to system restore but everything I read basically tells me how to go back to a restore point, not completely restore my system?

How do I do this with out my disk that came with my laptop?

 

[corkyg]

System Restore is basically a feature that reverts to an earlier Registry following updates and/or new app installs. You seem to be wanting a system reinstall or rebuild. For that you must have the OS disk or file that came with your laptop. You should be able to get one from the OEM. Otherwise, any OS disk will work along with drivers for your laptop downloaded from the OEM's website.

Nowadays, most laptops come with a partition containing the original OS.

 

[John Connor]

If you go to the control panel | Administrative Tools | Computer Management | Storage is there a partition before C drive? It would be around 3 GB in size. If so that contains Win 7 and you can restore from that. What is the computer make and model?

 

[TheITGuru]

Windows System Restore isn't meant to restore a system in the way that you're wanting it to. You should be able to restore to the previous OS with a re-install of the OS.

Have you also considered a tool like Comodo Time Machine or RollBack Rx? If you prefer the quicker and easier restore methods in WSR you may want to try those programs as they are easier to use to restore a machine.

 

[John Connor]

How on earth do you download Rollback Rx? I tried three damn browsers and when I click the download button it goes to the top of the page. Very irritating!

Since this software use a boot file, will that mess up my Truecrypt boot files? I should test in VMware first. God forbid the boot loader for TC gets messed up.

 

[John Connor]

I had to download Rollback Rx from Cnet. I can confirm that it WILL mess up the bootloader for a Truecrypt encrypted computer. Thank God for VMware for testing. I'm now going to test this software and delete all kinds of critical Windows components and registry entries and then roll back and see how it goes.