Step-by-Step: Using ASUS Recovery DVDs to Restore G75

[Cecil_2099]

Since there seems to be a lot of confusion and mis-understanding on how to use the ASUS Recovery DVDs you burn by using the AI Recovery program to restore your computer to the "straight from the factory" state, I thought I should make a step-by-step guide to walk owners through it. So here goes:

The version of the AI Recovery Utility currently shipping on all G75s does not recover systems with 1TB hard drives. So before you go around wiping your drive or creating the Recovery DVDs, update the AI Recovery Utility to at least 1.0.24 (download it from the product support page where you can download the drivers).

• If you haven't already, use the AI Recovery Utility (version 1.0.24 or newer, not the 1.0.23 version that comes shipped with the G75) to burn your ASUS Recovery DVDs. You should do this prior to uninstalling any and all "bloatware" and prior to reformatting/wiping/re-partitioning your hard drive. On a G75VW-BBK5 you will end up with three (3) DVDs.
  
• A few notes/assumptions prior to starting:
  - Your computer is off and no DVDs are in the optical drive.
  - You have only one drive connected to the G75 on the right-hand drive bay (based on the drive caddy letter) and that is the drive you want to restore TO.
  - It doesn't matter if the drive is an HDD or SSD and the size does not matter.
  
• Start up your computer and immediately start hitting the 'Esc' key until you see the following screen appear:
  
  
• Place the first ASUS Recovery DVD into your optical drive.
  
• Select your optical drive (on my G75VW-BBK5 that is the HL-DT-ST drive) and hit 'Enter' key.
  
• You will get a black screen with the words "Windows is loading files..." at the bottom with a grey bar at the bottom that will fill white:
  
  
• Windows will load and you will get a dialogue box titled "AI RECOVERY" saying "Are you ready to restore this image?" Click the 'OK' button.
  
• You will get another "AI RECOVERY" dialogue box, this time telling you "Restoring will overwrite your hard drive. Do you want to continue?" Click the 'OK' button.
  
• If you are using the ASUS Recovery DVDs to restore onto a new hard drive, you may get another "AI RECOVERY" dialogue box saying "Your disk layout has been changed. AI Recovery needs to partition your disk again. You will lost all your data in your disk if you continue with the data recovery operation." Click the 'OK' button.
  
• Otherwise you will see an "AI Recovery Restore" dialogue box that says "This DVD/BD will help you recover hidden partition. Check the AC adapter connection and do not interrupt the restoration process." This will have a progress indicator.
  
• The computer will automatically eject the first DVD and prompt you to insert the second DVD and later the third DVD.
  
• When that is complete, the last DVD will eject and an "AI RECOVERY" dialogue box will tell you that it "Successfully restored the disk from the ASUS Recovery DVD/BD. Elapsed time: 00:XX:XX". Click 'OK'. (It took me 00:43:23 (43 minutes) to restore the recovery partition.)
  
• The computer will restart and you'll get another black "Windows is loading files..." screen.
  
• Windows will start and you will get a DOS screen followed by an "ASUS Preload Wizard" dialogue that asks you to select your language to continue. Pick your language and click the 'Next >' button.
  
• Click through the next screen.
  
  
• On the next screen you can choose whichever option you feel is best.
  
  
• Click through the next screen.
  
  
• Click 'Finish' to start the process.
  
  
• This is where you leave the computer alone. You will see a series of DOS screens and the computer will restart itself at least 6 times. Whatever you do, do not interact with the computer. It doesn't matter if it prompts you for something or restarts on its own. Leave it alone to finish everything.
  
• When you see the following screen, you know the recovery process has completed successfully.
  Congratulations, your G75 is now back to it's factory-like condition.
  
  

So in total it took about 1.5 hours to complete (43 minutes to recreate the recovery partition from the DVDs and another 50 minutes to restore back to factory state).

I hope this helps clear up the process!

Update: After serious testing across multiple G75VW users, we can confirm that the ASUS Recovery DVDs do NOT work on 1TB drives (regardless of manufacturer) if they are burned with the base AI Recovery Utility version that ships with the G75VWs. Make sure you install the latest version (1.0.24) BEFORE creating your Recovery DVDs.

[Cecil_2099]

Arvinaaaaa wrote:
thanks bro, i will do the ai recovery tomorrow, but what will happen to my recovery partition in the g55, will it be automatically deleted? or do i need to delete it by formatting the g55 again? or can i just leave it so i have two sources to restore from(recovery dvds and partition)please advice, thanks 🙂

AI Recovery creates the Recovery DVDs from the Recovery Partition, so when you create your Recovery DVDs the Recovery Partition stays. It does not get deleted unless you use a partition management software and manually delete the partition. So yes, you can leave it and have two sources to restore from.

Arvinaaaaa wrote:
so does this mean the ai recovery dvds reinstall the windows to its factory state? all my personal files, games and anything i done to the g55 on my own will be gone?

Yes, the AI Recovery DVDs as well as the Recovery Partition will only reinstall windows and drivers and factory-installed programs so it's back to the state it was when you first unboxed the computer. All your personal files, games, programs that you installed after you first turned it on will be gone.

Arvinaaaaa wrote:
and what do you mean by "since they must recreate the hidden partition first." i thought you said the recovery partition cannot be deleted? or will the recovery dvds format the whole hard drive, then recreate the hidden partition again?

Here's the way the Recovery DVD's work: The DVDs format the entire hard drive, recreate the hidden partition, then restarts and begins the factory restore process from the hidden partition. This is why an F9 restore from the hidden partition is faster since it skips the format and recreation of the hidden partition.

Arvinaaaaa wrote:
sorry for so many questions..please reply bro, thanks for kind help 🙂

Don't worry about it. That's what we're here for.

[Arvinaaaaa]

Cecil_2099 wrote:
AI Recovery creates the Recovery DVDs from the Recovery Partition, so when you create your Recovery DVDs the Recovery Partition stays. It does not get deleted unless you use a partition management software and manually delete the partition. So yes, you can leave it and have two sources to restore from.



Yes, the AI Recovery DVDs as well as the Recovery Partition will only reinstall windows and drivers and factory-installed programs so it's back to the state it was when you first unboxed the computer. All your personal files, games, programs that you installed after you first turned it on will be gone.



Here's the way the Recovery DVD's work: The DVDs format the entire hard drive, recreate the hidden partition, then restarts and begins the factory restore process from the hidden partition. This is why an F9 restore from the hidden partition is faster since it skips the format and recreation of the hidden partition.



Don't worry about it. That's what we're here for.

🙂 🙂 🙂 thanks for answering all the questions bro, now i understand completely the recovery process...looks like making the recovery dvds using ai recovery is quite important,i will do the dvd creation process tomorrow...thank you again for your kind help bro... 🙂

[KuUuUn]

When I do the recovery from recovery partition, on one of reboots, the fan suddenly runs full speed, even louder than when I use furmark to test GPU. Is it normal? Does recovery process uses CUP a lot?

[Hydroxide]

Does this work on X42J brand? I really need a emergency restore on my computer due to my computer getting slow. For my computer my C drive has 116GB of space & my D drive has 329GB of space. My C drive is running low whenever i want to download something it says my disk space is full please format it. My C drive is a primary hard drive, Can i make my D drive as primary hard drive during the restore? Because my D drive has a large amount of space and my C drive has small amount of total space. So can i make my D drive format as window 7 HP as for my C drive is a sub. I need this reply by end of next week. 😞

Here's my hard drive. i hate this!!! i wan D drive to be the primary!! It really get annoyed whenever i see my bar is RED T-T Please help me.

[mluo3]

OMG! someone that can finally helped me! So the first time i factory reformat my laptop(without burning my cd) i apparently deleted the partition somehow. So AI recovery DOES NOT work for me at all. I had to order a disk from the ASUS e-store. And I have a 1 TB hard drive asus g75vw. And At first i thought the CD was faulty, because what happened was, after i press esc and chose to boot my DVD drive, the windows loading screen would pop up. After Going all the way, a white/silvery wallpaper will show. And then my Laptop would restart itself! So i really thought it was the Asus Recovery Dvd's fault. So i went through all the trouble in returning it and receiving a new one today. And the same problem occured. Is it because my hard drive is 1 TB? what can i do to fix this? Please help! Thank You!

[Miss_Vampi]

mluo3 wrote:
OMG! someone that can finally helped me! So the first time i factory reformat my laptop(without burning my cd) i apparently deleted the partition somehow. So AI recovery DOES NOT work for me at all. I had to order a disk from the ASUS e-store. And I have a 1 TB hard drive asus g75vw. And At first i thought the CD was faulty, because what happened was, after i press esc and chose to boot my DVD drive, the windows loading screen would pop up. After Going all the way, a white/silvery wallpaper will show. And then my Laptop would restart itself! So i really thought it was the Asus Recovery Dvd's fault. So i went through all the trouble in returning it and receiving a new one today. And the same problem occured. Is it because my hard drive is 1 TB? what can i do to fix this? Please help! Thank You!

I had the same issue but with the 750gb version. Its apparently an issue with these high memory ones. It's been covered in a thread. At least you got to return yours T___T Im way past the return policy boooooo! The factory pre-installed AI recovery utility DOESN'T WORK! Bleh

[GtownWing]

So what do you do if your restore disks were burned with the older software. I still get the error after a"successful restore". So what do you do when your restore disks are crap, because you used older version and didn't know to burn new ones with the new software update?

[john_from_ohio]

GtownWing wrote:
So what do you do if your restore disks were burned with the older software. I still get the error after a"successful restore". So what do you do when your restore disks are crap, because you used older version and didn't know to burn new ones with the new software update?

Restore onto a smaller drive first ... update that system to latest asus recovery utility ... burn a new set of "better" recovery disks ...

[jsheldon]

On the g75vw-bbk5, once a system image has been done to a capacious external HDD and the win 7/64 repair dvd has been created by the win 7 utility, I can't seem to get the system to boot from the Repair DVD (though I've done this with other hardware (HP for one).

What am I missing since the Repair DVD was seemingly created OK by win 7 ... is there some "secret herbs & spices" I'm mssing?

[john_from_ohio]

jsheldon wrote:
On the g75vw-bbk5, once a system image has been done to a capacious external HDD and the win 7/64 repair dvd has been created by the win 7 utility, I can't seem to get the system to boot from the Repair DVD (though I've done this with other hardware (HP for one).

What am I missing since the Repair DVD was seemingly created OK by win 7 ... is there some "secret herbs & spices" I'm mssing?

As I noted along here somewhere ( probably several times ) creating a Win 7 recovery disk DOES NOT WORK on these systems.

It is a windows problem ...

Boot it up with a Win 7 install disk that has SP1 already on it ... and use that for the recovery ... that will work.