Solved Options for complete wipe and reinstall w/recovery only

moze229

Member
Messages
35
Location
Raleigh, NC
Scenario:

I have a Gateway laptop that I'm going to sell because I don't use it anymore. It originally came with Windows 8 (no install media), but I had since accepted the 8.1 upgrade whenever it became available. So to prepare for the sale, I chose to reset the PC to the factory Gateway settings from the recovery partition (went without a hitch) and being the nice guy that I am, went ahead and did all the updates, and attempted upgrading to 8.1 again. Nothing but problems. Several times I got messages that it couldn't install properly, needed to restart, or some other problem. I finally got into 8.1, continued to do the updates for 8.1 and now I'm stuck in an endless "Automatic Repair" boot. No matter what I do, I can't get it to pass this portion of the boot.

I did, at one time, setup a Live boot (USB) of Linux with this laptop, but never messed with any of the drive partitions or anything. Only used the portions of the OS that would operate via the USB (was just trying a particular distribution.) When I go into my BIOS, one of the bootup options is "ubuntu", which I assume is being picked up from one of the partitions on the HDD. How this got there I have no idea. There must have been something that the live boot did at one point or another (or I did accidentally) to rename one of the partitions. However, diskpart doesn't report this label, GParted (in Linux) doesn't report this label, and I can't figure out how it got there. At this point I'm assuming that this (not the label, but something else) is possibly causing my issues.

At this point I feel that I need to just wipe the drive completely off and start over. But I can't do that because Gateway didn't provide any install media. I have 8.1 media that I purchased for another machine, but I obviously can't use that.

Is there a way to extract an installable tool from what I have available to me? I would also need to find out what OEM number Gateway provided with the initial installation so that I can legally install. Microsoft provides a free upgrade to 8.1 - I had a notion to call them, explain my situation, and ask them if I could just use my 8.1 media to do what I need. But I'd have to at least (if they would even do this) provide them with my Gateway 8 OEM number, which I don't have access to. It's blocked out except for the last 4-5 characters. (During the activation, you can see the verification.)

What can I do? Will Gateway (Acer) provide install media for me to use? About how much will it cost? I"m not opposed to spending a little money since the problem could be caused by something I did to the partition. Thanks for any advice.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 / Linux Mint 17.2 / OS X
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel i5 4660 3.2
    Motherboard
    Asus H97I-PLUS
    Memory
    8GB
Well alrighty then.

After spending several hours of looking up through Google exactly what I wanted to do, I realized that what I wanted to do could not be done. I did resolve the issue, however. I'm not sure how. Thanks.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 / Linux Mint 17.2 / OS X
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel i5 4660 3.2
    Motherboard
    Asus H97I-PLUS
    Memory
    8GB
Sorry, did not see your post.. And I was here several times within the last 22 hrs..

would of told you how to re-register the factory image..
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro X64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo IdeaCenter K450
    CPU
    Intel Quad Core i7-4770 @ 3.4Ghz
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    16.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3 SDRAM 1600 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Integrated HD Graphics
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP h2207
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050@59Hz
    Hard Drives
    250GB Samsung EVO SATA-3 SSD;
    2TB Seagate ST2000DM001 SATA-2;
    1.5TB Seagate ST3150041AS SATA
    PSU
    500W
    Keyboard
    Wired USB
    Mouse
    Wired USB
    Internet Speed
    3GB Up, 30GB Down
    Browser
    SeaMonkey
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender; MBAM Pro
    Other Info
    UEFI/GPT
    PLDS DVD-RW DH16AERSH
Uh, yeah. That would have been nice to know yesterday. :) That's exactly what I needed at the time - I'll have to read through that page thoroughly and remember that. Useful resource.

However, in the meantime I had recalled that I in fact DID make the requested backup DVD's that the bloatware kept bothering me about the first few weeks that I had it. Basically, the Gateway backup software creates one DVD with the bloatware and drivers and another that is just a Windows 8 boot disk with repair/restore/troubleshooting etc. When I booted from this DVD and did the install (restore PC) that way, everything worked fine. After 4 hours of reinstalling Windows 8, doing all the updates, and installing them I went to bed. Woke up this morning, downloaded Windows 8.1. did the install and updates, and everything works. :think: When I did this procedure basically twice from the machine HDD I was getting errors.

All of these problems would be easily alleviated if media disks were included with computers. I'm very familiar with the process of doing fresh installs WITH MEDIA, but this whole new EUFI, cryptic hidden recovery partition mess is ridiculous. Yes, it's more convenient in some cases, but in others it's going to leave the end user in a lot of trouble. Crashed hard drives don't magically hold on to recovery partitions and make everything else go bye bye.

I'm glad that you all are here. From the mid 90's to about 2003 I worked extensively with all of this stuff. I've been away from Windows so long I don't know how any of it works anymore.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 / Linux Mint 17.2 / OS X
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel i5 4660 3.2
    Motherboard
    Asus H97I-PLUS
    Memory
    8GB
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