Solved Please Help Me Reset My Windows 8.1 Computer

[jwilock]

I used a "PC Mover"-type software to copy from my old desktop to my new Windows 8.1 PC. It didn't work well and left the new PC a mess, almost unusable. So I want to restore back to the way the PC was when it arrived. I have both the Windows 8.1 disk that came with my PC as well as a USB flash drive on which I created (I think) an image copy. But nothing I've tried to do the restore is working. Here's what's happening.

I hit Shift-Restart to bring up a screen that allows me to "Troubleshoot". If I choose that option I get a screen with an option to "Reset Your PC". But when I select that my screen just goes black and the computer just appears to sit there. If I select the option that says "Use a Device" it shows me a few options including the Sandisk USB flash drive on which I created my image copy. But when I select that option the same thing happens as when I do the "Troubleshooting" option - the screen turns black and the computer just sits there. Finally, when I put the Windows 8.1 disk in the disk drive and start my PC it ignores the disk and just boots normally.

Also, I wanted to get into BIOS to change the boot order so it would boot from the flash drive but it appears that the old F2 doesn't work in Windows 8.1. I've got my OS on an SSD and the PC boots from screen off to the startup screen in about 10 seconds. There's no intermediate screen where I know it's time to hit F2.

I've got a new Cyberpower PC with a Gigab97X-SLI motherboard

I might add I'm no techie, obviously, so if you offer advice can you spell it out so a relative beginner can follow your advice. Thanks. Oh, and I might add that I'm perfectly OK deleting all files I've added since the PC arrived and just going back to how it was when I unboxed it.

 

[David Bailey]

Have you tried this---

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2302-reset-windows-8-a.html

 

[jwilock]

I hadn't yet tried this suggested way. I just did and got essentially the same result as my other efforts. I got to the recover option, told it to wipe out data from both of my drives and told it to proceed with the recover. At that point my screen went black and the computer just sat there - just like the other two methods I had already tried.

I've now had this result trying three different ways to restore (maybe they're essentially all the same?). I have a problem of some sort. Either the recover is running and not communicating with my monitor which seems really very unlikely, or there's no way to get it to run. If the latter I have no idea what could cause that or how to proceed. Could be a problem with the factory install of Windows, or maybe with the BIOS on my motherboard? Any thoughts?

 

[David Bailey]

Perhaps order factory recovery disks.

 

[whs]

With your installation media you should be able to reinstall your system. You have to change the temporary boot order to boot from DVD or Flash Drive. It should say on your BIOS splash screen which key to tap during power-on.

You never said what make your PC is. Some makes use F12, others use ESC and still other use anything else to get into the temporary boot order setting screen.

 

[jwilock]

For those who offered to help I thought I owed you an explanation of what the problem was. I tried four different ways to restore my computer and they all resulted in the screen going blank and the PC just sitting there. I finally received and HDMI cable to connect my monitor to the nVidia GPU instead of using VGA to the motherboard. It turns out that the recovery WAS working it just wasn't communicating to the monitor through VGA. As soon as I started up the computer with the HDMI cable in place I saw the Windows 8.1 screens for setting up 8.1. I went through them all and - voila, I'm back to how it was when it arrived.

 

[Clintlgm]

For those who offered to help I thought I owed you an explanation of what the problem was. I tried four different ways to restore my computer and they all resulted in the screen going blank and the PC just sitting there. I finally received and HDMI cable to connect my monitor to the nVidia GPU instead of using VGA to the motherboard. It turns out that the recovery WAS working it just wasn't communicating to the monitor through VGA. As soon as I started up the computer with the HDMI cable in place I saw the Windows 8.1 screens for setting up 8.1. I went through them all and - voila, I'm back to how it was when it arrived.

Thanks for letting us know how you solved it, I would never have thought of the screen not working during restore as being the problem.

 

[Berton]

I'm 'late to the party' but I have seen similar with having an add-in video card and the onboard is disabled by Windows. And it didn't matter whether VGA or DVI, for that reason I keep a monitor with both types of connection on my workbench.