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How to restore or format hard drive

post #1 of 8
2/16/10 at 12:50am
Thread Starter 
My wifes Extensa 5620 got a virus. Office Depot removed it with MalBytes. I'm still leary of something being missed. I would really like to restore it to factory defaults. When I go into Acer eRecovery Management I see pick the Restore tab at the bottom of the window. Now I am given the choices to 1. Restore system factory default. 2. (Which is grayed out and option not avaialable) Restore form users backup 3. Recover from CD/DVD 4. Reinstall applaications/drivers. So I pick 1. Restore system factory default.
Next I am asked for the empowering technology password. Well I don't have it and don't know how to get it. I would choose number 2. if it were an option. If I place the disk I made into the CD/DVD unit will the option become available? I tried option 3. and it said to place the restore disk inthe drive. I don't really know what to next as I don't really know which options I have and which one will really do what I want. Sorry to be such a noob but I have only built desktops and have little to no experience with laptops.
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post #2 of 8
2/16/10 at 12:56am
You'll have to ask your wife if she remembers what password she set for the recovery. If she can't remember, try using a blank password and see if that works
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post #3 of 8
2/16/10 at 1:39am
Thread Starter 
Whats the difference between using the Factory default option and restoring from cd/dvd?
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post #4 of 8
2/16/10 at 7:31am
For me they are the same since the recovery disk would put the system back to the original state.

cheers ...
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post #5 of 8
2/18/10 at 1:07am
So I booted into Ubuntu, couldn't locate the file that contained the password. I restored to factory defaults (or so I thought) from the disk I made when we first got the computer. So all is well until I see that after everything is installed, I see that my sons Itunes folder is on a second partition. How the heXX is that possible? Now I don't truly have a complete redo. Couldn't a virus be in this untouched area. That was the whole point of restoring.
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post #6 of 8
2/18/10 at 1:14am
Acer has it set up with multiple partitions so when you restore the OS you don't have to lose all your data. while there could be virus-infected files in the other partition, there are no operating system files there so the OS won't be affected unless you open an infected file on an unprotected OS.

In other words, you're fine as long as you install and run a decent anti-virus.
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post #7 of 8
2/18/10 at 1:21am
Okay. Thanks
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post #8 of 8
2/18/10 at 9:32am
If the recovery partition was not touched, then Alt F10 would have restored the machine back to out of the box too
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