Restore factory defaults failed

[Wereone]

i have a gateway FX 6840-15e that is 2yrs old and was getting a lot of BSOD errors and so i decided to use the built in option to restore the computer to factory default settings using a factory provided reimage but when i did it i found out that the partition was corrupted and so after it has wiped all of the information i am now stuck with a computer without an operating system, and i cant find any recovery discs, not even sure tat i got any with the computer. what can i do?

 

[Wereone]

Would it work to download a copy of windows 7, burn it to a cd and then reinstall windows that way using the key from my original purchase, or is there the option of purchasing a new copy of windows 7 or windows 8 and installing from that? Is there anything that I would need to do after that? Any software or programs I would need to download or install?

 

[tsnor]

This is not a problem.

People often forget to make/burn DVD recovery media and then have the hard drive fail. Sometimes malware or just poor programming corrupts the recovery partition on your hard drive.

Just contact Gateway support. In warranty make them send you a free backup. Out of warranty pay the small ($20 was the price with shipping) cost and have them mail you a recovery disk. It should be there in a week. Then make sure you run windows update, ipl, run it again, ipl, run it again to get all of the service needed to protect your PC.

 

[tsnor]

Would it work to download a copy of windows 7, burn it to a cd and then reinstall windows that way using the key from my original purchase, or is there the option of purchasing a new copy of windows 7 or windows 8 and installing from that? Is there anything that I would need to do after that? Any software or programs I would need to download or install?

Best option is to get a recovery disk as above, but...

This would work if you got a REAL windows install disk, ran the install then (depedning on the image) enter your windows key or use the windows function to change the key to the OEM key on your PC. The version of windows would need to match exactly (e.g. home premium 64 key only works in that exact version). Afterwards You would need to install all the software/drivers from the gateway download page for your PC. Sometimes this is a pain, for example your wireless might not work until you get drivers loaded so you might need to run a hardwired Ethernet cable during build, etc.

No way I'd download a potentially hacked/rooted version of windows. Even if the legal issues don't offend you (legally you can't get a win7 distribution this way, morally it's more grey given you're licensed and plan to use your real key), the cyber safety issues should scare the bleep out of you.

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