How to factory reset Asus ROG G750JW back to Win8 or properly install Windows 10?

[z3r0gk]

Hello everyone. I'm here for something simple yet Microsoft and a lot of communities can't seem to answer correctly or give very odd solutions. I've been searching far and wide for one solution and many questions.. First:

How do I FACTORY reset my laptop.. not reset settings, not "refresh" whatever that means windows!.. NO! I'm looking to COMPLETELY RESET this sucker. like back to Windows 8/all the drivers it came with fresh out of the box. I've tried doing it once but it just deleted everything and reinstalled Windows 10 and didn't install or have any of the drivers installed. I was forced to install tem manually but when I tried to install all the drivers.. I couldn't see any Windows 10 version drivers on the asus drivers download page. I'm seriously loosing my MIND!!!! I just want to reset my laptop but apparently I need a recovery disk because this laptop didn't come with one.. I'm so lost now that I'm begging any of you to help me out here.

A few questions.
This laptop came preinstalled with windows 8 updated to windows 8.1 and got the ok to update to windows 10 from asus ROG.. It's been running fine for 4 years or so.. and then it started acting up getting slower and all that junk.. so I decided to refresh the computer and it reinstalled Windows 10 and "reset my computer" but when I took a look at it, most of my programs were gone.. like Asus programs and other internal prgrams it use to have, i.e. wavemaxx, asus charge +, etc!

Anyone know and have instructions on how to properly install Windows 10 on this laptop and or what to do after installing Windows 10 on this specific model?!

and does anyone know if it even matters that some programs/drivers are gone?

I just want to get this laptop working again and I'm unsure if factory reseting the laptop would even help.
I don't want to deal with anything with restoring or repairing anything with this computer, I don't mind re-downloading and re-installing stuff again.. I just want to refresh this Asus ROG G750JW
I'm so lost any help would be apreciated.

[redduc900]

As long as you didn't alter the partitions, you can still perform a system recovery from the F9 Options menu (hit F9 during POST). In the Options menu, select Troubleshoot--> Reset your PC--> Only the drive where Windows is installed--> Just remove my files. This will reformat the root partition, and reinstall Win8 and all Asus pre-installed software as it was when new. If you want to rebuild all the partitions on all installed SSDs/HDDs, then you'll need to use Asus Backtracker from within Windows to create a bootable thumb drive. This method will erase any programs or data you have saved on any drive(s)/partition(s), so you'll need to backup anything you don't want to lose beforehand. You can read more on the Backtracker software here...

ASUS BACKTRACKER AND BACKING UP YOUR ASUS FACTORY WIN8 RECOVERY PARTITION
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?40548-ASUS-Backtracker-and-Backing-up-your-ASUS-factory-Wi...

[cl-Albert]

z3r0gk wrote:

How do I FACTORY reset my laptop.. not reset settings, not "refresh" whatever that means windows!.. NO! I'm looking to COMPLETELY RESET this sucker. like back to Windows 8/all the drivers it came with fresh out of the box. I've tried doing it once but it just deleted everything and reinstalled Windows 10 and didn't install or have any of the drivers installed. I was forced to install tem manually but when I tried to install all the drivers.. I couldn't see any Windows 10 version drivers on the asus drivers download page. I'm seriously loosing my MIND!!!! I just want to reset my laptop but apparently I need a recovery disk because this laptop didn't come with one.. I'm so lost now that I'm begging any of you to help me out here.

Welcome to the forums!
You may have a better idea than me, but just wondering if the problems you are seeing are caused by software or hardware if you want to try to do more troubleshooting that way. If you just happen to have a spare hard drive lying around (not likely?), would like to try it to compare.

Anyway, I may be wrong about this, but the latest Windows 10 version 1607 (run/search 'winver' inside Windows to check) may update your recovery partition so that you can no longer go back to the original Win8.1 factory image unfortunately. If you no longer see an option to 'go back to the previous build' (which Windows 10 will normally automatically remove after 10 or 30 days?) and you didn't see any options for this in the Windows 10 'reset' process, this may be the situation.

So your options to get back the original ASUS factory Windows 8 image will be rather limited (but also wondering if this will solve the problems or not).

• If you happen to know anybody using the same G750JW Windows image as you who has not upgraded to Windows 10, check if they will let you back up their recovery partition to a USB drive using the ASUS Backtracker software as mentioned at the thread below (Might still be worth a try, but ASUS Backtracker may not run in Windows 10 if you want to try to back up the Windows 8 recovery partition for your unit (which may also no longer be available?) as redduc900 suggested in the post above.) Don't remember if this will be an issue, but it may be better if they are using the same sized hard drive as you.
  https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?40548-ASUS-Backtracker-and-Backing-up-your-ASUS-factory-Wi...
  
• Not sure how well this will work and if you want to spend the money, but our U.S.website is selling recovery media through a third party if you prefer to go this route.
  https://www.asus.com/us/support/Article/782/
  
• You probably want to avoid going this route, but you can always send back the notebook to ASUS repair for (out-of-warranty) re-imaging if you didn't already know.
  

Yes, there may be ways to reinstall Windows 10 on this unit and get it running better, and hopefully others can help with this since I'm not as familiar with it unfortunately.

Just wanted to mention the other options in case you wanted/need to pursue them later.

Good luck!

[Julskey]

Better just install windows 10. You can follow gps3dx's guide at the sticky threads.

If you are concerned about the factory installed programs, if you don't need it, better don't install it. Just install the programs and apps that you need to keep your system lean. As for the drivers, you really need to install them for your devices to work properly. I know asus does not support win 10 drivers for old laptops, but that does not keep you from installing the correct drivers for your devices. As long as you know your hardware that need the driver, you can go to the manufacturer's website and obtain drivers from there. I think for windows 10, you can even use windows 8 drivers, they are very similar operating systems. I have even managed to successfully installed all drivers for my old g74sx running win10. I remembered to use win8 driver from g750**for my touch pad, and it worked.*

If you can do a factory reset, it would be better. You just then upgrade to windows 10. Once you already installed everything in your laptop, it is alway a good idea to make an image using imaging software (like macrium, paragon, acronis, etc) of your hard drive, or partition and save that to a separate external storage. Once something goes wrong with your computer, you just boot into the bootable flash disk of the program you used and restore the image you created. Everything will go back to when you made your image. Your laptop will be in a clean state again.*

I do separate image backups everytime i make big changes to the computer. That way i have a point to go back to when something goes wrong with an upgrade or program installation which messes up the system.*