Your Packard Bell computer comes with a hidden partition that holds all the necessary information to restore your computer back to it's orginal state. We recommend that before attempting the recovery you backup any important data to CD, DVD, USB pen drive or another reliable source so you don't lose any important data.
The recovery program offers two modes that you can choose from:
Partial Recovery - the process attempts to save your user profile and restore it back at the end of the recovery hopefully without losing any of your data. There is no guarantee your data will be saved so when ever possible make sure you have a backup of your data just in case.
Complete Recovery - all data is wiped off the computer and your machine returned to the same state it was in when you purchased it.
The recovery program can be started in two ways which are detailed below.
Start from within Windows Vista™
The recovery can be started from within Smart Restore as follows:
Click start
All Programs
Packard Bell Support
Smart Restore
Click continue at the User Account Control warning
Click Packard Bell Recovery in the left hand menu
Click the Packard Bell recovery button
Your computer will restart and load the Packard Bell Recovery Program which will now follow the exact same process you go through if you load it using the F11 key on startup.
Start the recovery by tapping F11
To load the recovery program from outside Windows Vista™ you need to start tapping the F11 key immediately after pressing the power button to turn your computer on. Keep tapping the key until you see the Loading Files screen.
The first available options allow you either load the Vista™ recovery tools or the Packard Bell recovery program. Choose the Packard Bell recovery program if you have tried the Vista recovery tools and failed to resolve the issue.
Don't forget the Complete Recovery removes ALL data
You now have the ability to choose either the partial or the complete recovery. Click the appropriate option you wish to choose.
At this point choosing the Complete Recovery will launch into formatting the hard drive with no further warning about data loss.
The partial recovery will now prompt you to select the user account you wish to try and retain. Select your user account and click next.
The recovery process will now start backing up your data and restoring Vista™ onto your hard drive.
After the recovery has completed copying files click on finish and the computer will then switch off.
When you turn the computer back on it will finish installing Vista™, detect and install your hardware, take you through the Out Of Box Experience (OOBE) and then restart.
After this final restart your computer will have been restored back to it's default state (and attempted to save your data if you chose the partial recovery).
