The dreaded 'Tiny' PC problem

[pazza198]

Hi all,

Im in need of some help regarding my Tiny PC and doing a factory restore without the original restore CD. I've been doing some research and found out you can restore it from the hard drive partition. I've had the computer whilst at university and its on its last legs. Will it wipe the computer if I just upload the current OS (xp) again.

Thanks in advance

[Possy_99]

if you have the option of recovering from a recovery partition it will put your computer back to when you first bought it.

[inspectercoley]

Yes I am pretty sure everything will get wiped.
If you want to salvage any of the information on it then im sure you could fit it all onto an external usb hard drive which are quite cheap these days anyway.
Or if its really not running at all then you can take the hard drive out and then copy the files to a new machine quite easily and then run a clean install on the drive and copy the stuff you want back from the other machine.

[pazza198]

Hi there, im wanting to restore it to its 'first turned on' state. Everything on there can go for all im concerned, its only music! I can try and get hold of windows XP and reinstall that but will it actually restore it? I thought the only way to restore factory settings was via a reload CD, of which I cant get hold of because Tiny went bust and are a bloody nuisance..
And if I could use a partition how would I go about it, is there a tutorial anywhere!
cheers

[Possy_99]

there won't be a tutorial as each pc manufacturer has different methods.. keep any eye out on screen just as your turn on your PC, you should see something like Press F* to *, so for example if it says press F12 for recovery.. press F12 on boot.. that is how recovery partitions are accessed.

you could use a downloaded disk, if you have a certificate of authenticity just download the version of windows stated on the certificate (will most likely be an OEM version) so long as you use the serial from your certificate the install will be legit.

[Modcoms]

Used to work for the company that supported Tiny the Restore disks trash the whole pc

[Over Carl]

I would advise trying the backup/restore method first - if tiny have made a nice image you might as well run with it, but if you don't like their installation, then why not scrub the drive and build your own?

[Possy_99]

if tiny have made a nice image you might as well run with it

whilst i agree official methods would be best.. i have yet to come accross a manufacturer image style recovery which I would classify as 'nice'.. usually they've got loads of crap bundled with them - recent example.. a m8 asked how to make recovery disks for his new laptop... 3 bloody dvd's.. windows has never been bigger than a dvd, so what's the other 2 for... shite nobody probably uses..

[pazza198]

There is a certificate of authenticity on the side of the tower, can i download the OS online then input the key thats on the certificate? Im going to try and find the partition now.

[Over Carl]

whilst i agree official methods would be best.. i have yet to come accross a manufacturer image style recovery which I would classify as 'nice'.. usually they've got loads of crap bundled with them - recent example.. a m8 asked how to make recovery disks for his new laptop... 3 bloody dvd's.. windows has never been bigger than a dvd, so what's the other 2 for... shite nobody probably uses..

We have some old ibm workstations at work - I prepared an image from scratch, and I prepared one in the same manner except by starting with ibm restored image then removing everything. The one from the ibm image boots a few seconds quicker and was a tiny touch quicker when using it.

However, I very recently prepared our images for our vostro 430's, I did these from the dell factory image, and when ever I restore my (sysprepped) images, a few little bits of my preparation revert back to how the pc came from factory!

Also before I sysprep a pc I always take an image as a couple of times, sysprep has killed my build. Never looked into / figured out why the images prior to sysprep are normally a few Gb larger.