DarkSerge Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Hi.Just curious, how does one make a system repair disc for a netbook? Just want to know to have one handy. I have a system repair disc for my notebook on a CD and it's been handy before. Would like to have one just in case for a netbook, but of course the only option would be a USB drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted February 6, 2011 Share Posted February 6, 2011 My eeepc can restore by turning it on and pressing F9. There is a "restore" partition. I also got a DVD with the image on it. I connect a USB optical drive and can restore from the DVD.I've since made an Acronis image on an external USB hard drive. I can restore from that.What brand and model is the netbook and what OS is installed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSerge Posted February 6, 2011 Author Share Posted February 6, 2011 Asus netbook with Windows 7. It does have the recovery partition, but if I ever needed it, wouldn't that restore it to factory default? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChipDoc Posted February 6, 2011 Share Posted February 6, 2011 Asus netbook with Windows 7. It does have the recovery partition, but if I ever needed it, wouldn't that restore it to factory default?Yes it would, but so would your System Repair Disk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewmur Posted February 6, 2011 Share Posted February 6, 2011 (edited) Asus netbook with Windows 7. It does have the recovery partition, but if I ever needed it, wouldn't that restore it to factory default?I think what you are talking about is the CD you use to boot that allows you to choose a "restore point." On your Asus I think that is an option on the F8 menu. You don't need a CD. Then again, there may be an option to boot from the "restore partition" that you reach by pressing f12. That should be just like booting from the Win7 CD and gives you the same "repair" or "reinstall" options the CD would.But what happens if the HDD has to be replaced and you have to install from scratch? Then you need an external CD player, that you attach via a USB port, and a set of CD purchased from Asus. If you don't have such a player, yes, you can burn .iso copies of the CDs to a USB flash drive and boot from it.Finally, there is the "restore from backup." But it only works when you have performed regular backups. And you have to have chosen a "backup suite" that has bootable USB flash support. "I have an image of my HDD, on an external drive, but my computer won't boot. So how do I restore the image?" You have to have a bootable flash drive with the restore application on it. My favorite for this is Clonezilla but your flavor may vary. Edited February 6, 2011 by lewmur Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewmur Posted February 6, 2011 Share Posted February 6, 2011 Asus netbook with Windows 7. It does have the recovery partition, but if I ever needed it, wouldn't that restore it to factory default?Not necessarily. It should give you the same "repair" options that a Win7 install CD would. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSerge Posted February 9, 2011 Author Share Posted February 9, 2011 What I want it just a repair. A few months back I had trouble with my laptop, and a repair CD I had made previously just in case fixed it right up. No factory default or anything, just the system booted and ran as if nothing had happened. There is a recovery partition on the netbook, and if it can do that without resetting to factory default, then I'm happy with that. That's what I'm interested in, repair options that don't format it to factory settings and pre-installed programs.Some may recall, several months back, around October, I posted asking for netbook suggestions because I was planning with my brothers and dad to get my mom a netbook. We got her an Asus netbook and she's quite happy with it. Being a special present for my mom, I'm a bit protective of it and I want to be sure if anything goes wrong, it can be fixed easily. So far she's had no problems with it and still loves it. I'm hoping to keep it that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewmur Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 What I want it just a repair. A few months back I had trouble with my laptop, and a repair CD I had made previously just in case fixed it right up. No factory default or anything, just the system booted and ran as if nothing had happened. There is a recovery partition on the netbook, and if it can do that without resetting to factory default, then I'm happy with that. That's what I'm interested in, repair options that don't format it to factory settings and pre-installed programs.Some may recall, several months back, around October, I posted asking for netbook suggestions because I was planning with my brothers and dad to get my mom a netbook. We got her an Asus netbook and she's quite happy with it. Being a special present for my mom, I'm a bit protective of it and I want to be sure if anything goes wrong, it can be fixed easily. So far she's had no problems with it and still loves it. I'm hoping to keep it that way. I'm afraid that what you are saying is self-contradictory. If you really want to be "protective," then the simple repair option that happened to work in one case will NOT necessarily work in another. That is why I pointed out the different options, with the last, creating regular backup images, being the only one that assures you can "fix it easily."The "repair option" of the Win7 CD, and the "recovery partition" of the HDD, will allow such a "repair" as you described. But it will only work in the case that you corrupted ONLY some system files. And the "restore" option works great to return to a point prior to a malware infection or an "update" that breaks your install. But neither of those options will help in case you have to actually repair or replace a crashed HDD. Only an image backup from an external backup will do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 ...of course the only option would be a USB drive. No, it's not the only option. It's worth buying an external DVD drive. I just bought one for $30 at newegg (this one is a burner, I have an external CDburner/DVD combo). Make an image, using Acronis and if needed, restore the netbook just like you'd restore a notebook by using the image. To me restoring an image is quicker than trying to repair.My netbook only holds 4GB so 1 DVD would hold my image.I also have an image on a 4GB USB stick. I rarely rely on just one method for archiving images. Almost all the computers in the houar have images on two different external drives and also burned to CDs or DVDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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