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.

[timppu]

rewben wrote:
i'm sorry that i'm not familiar with how UEFI works 😕 if the recovery is impossible, the best bet would be a fresh windows install via bios instead of uefi.

How is the install "via BIOS instead of UEFI" performed? Do you mean UEFI (secure boot) should be disabled in BIOS settings? The problem is, in BIOS v221 the UEFI settings seem to have disappeared altogether. It is hard to me even tell whether UEFI secure boot is now enabled, or disabled, on my G75. The problems my system has detecting any UEFI boots now indicates UEFI is now disabled... but then again my previous working Win7 installation was installed with UEFI, I believe, and it booted fine with v221. At least it had a separate hidden EFI partition in the beginning.

[rewben]

first, imo UEFI is not SecureBoot; SecureBoot is a feature that can only be used with UEFI enabled. what i have suspected is this: the new bios set UEFI as default, and BIOS becomes secondary. that might be one of the reasons why this UEFI boot option was taken out. then, another option called "Launch CSM" is used to allow any bootable media, UEFI or BIOS, to boot freely. again, all these are solely my guesses.

now getting to your question, How is the install "via BIOS instead of UEFI" performed?; that's what i know that worked for sure, before all the above:
1. convert the stock disk to MBR;
2. set bios to "Launch CSM" enabled, "SecureBoot Control" disabled;
3. boot with your installer to proceed.

you can check your windowsif it's installed via UEFI or BIOS:
1.open the file c:\windows\panther\setupact.log;
2. search for the string Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect
3. the immediate next line ( Detected boot environment: ) will tell you if it's EFI or BIOS

this is mine on w8, UEFI:

2012-12-03 23:17:45, Info IBS Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect:FirmwareType 2.
2012-12-03 23:17:45, Info IBS Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect: Detected boot environment: EFI

[steeefyyy]

Hi , is there any way that someone who has a g75 can put here the recovery DVD ? I dont have the Recovery partition in my g75 (because I had to format my whole computer and it was deleted) and my father lost my DVD recovery, I would like to put my laptop to its factory like condition, and i dont know how can i do it 😞

[Jofica]

dcisive: thank you for your reply.

I agree with you with respect to the image to a large drive, that's exactly what I do with my Desktop and working stations after all my applications are installed. But that's a lot of space and HD
Everybody has a different reason; or to make an image or to get the real recovery discs.
It is nice to have at least the O/S discs.

In my case with the G55VW-DH71 notebook, I found out how to create an image on a USB flash drive (minimum 16GB) and a System Repair Disc.
Typing "Recovery" on the Search function and then the Settings will show you all the apps for the image and for the System Repair Disc.

[isurus]

are you kidding me, you have to pay for recovery software, that's why we can't find it? bullsh1t!

http://us.estore.asus.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=4969

[falledangel88]

hi. sorry for my bad English. I have one problem with my asus g75vw.io I followed your instructions:
- Download the new version of AI recovery (1.0.28)
recevory-burned the DVD (6DVD)

I have restored but when I reboot I get this error:

windows boot manager
windows failed to start. a recent hardware or software change might be the cause. to fix the problem:
1-insert your windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2-choose your language settings, and then click next.
3-click "repayr your computer."

if you do not have disc, contact your system administrator or computer manufacter for assistance.

File: \ Boot \ CD
Status: 0xc0000225

info: an error occured while Attempting to read the boot configurtion data

[falledangel88]

at this link in the other site post you can download the AI recovery v. 1.0.28

[dkolacz]

So via the guidance of this thread, I have been trying to get a working set of recovery DVDs for my G75 with 1 TB drive.

I burned the 3 DVDs via the shipped version of AI Recovery that came with system.

I have installed a 320GB drive in the same bay as the original drive.

BIOS is the latest...223.

The 3 DVDs run and says the image is restored correctly, however on next reboot, it does not start the recovery process and I get error about "boot device not found...yada...insert boot media...yada"

If I power on the machine and hit F9 once, or a hundred times, nothing happens...gets same error as above.

Now for a curveball...After the restore of the 3 DVDs, the BIOS does not list the drive as a boot option. Likewise, if I hit ESC at boot, only the CDROM is listed there.

Then, I loaded up GPARTED and there were in fact 5 partitions created by the restore DVDs. Boot, EFI, OS, Data, and Recovery.

I then "created a partition table" within GPARTED to clear everything the restore DVDs created....and NOW upon reboot the drive is listed in the BIOS, and when I hit ESC it is listed there as well...

wtf ?!?!?!?!?!

Any ideas....I am about to give up.

[Cecil_2099]

According to post #142 of this thread (http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?16557-Step-by-Step-Using-ASUS-Recovery-DVDs-to-Restore-G75&...) it looks like the latest BIOS is the culprit. If I remember correctly there's a way to restore the original BIOS. You'll have to search around on the forums for it. You can try restoring the original BIOS or an earlier one (before 22X) and see if you get results.

[dkolacz]

Ah, that must be it...thanks....I am reluctant to try the BIOS downgrade since it seems many people end up with bricked machines after messing with BIOS changes. Is it 100% safe to do the BIOS changes from within the BIOS itself? Is WinFlash the culprit in the vast majority of problem cases?

I called Asus support and they offered to give 25% discount on the recovery DVDs. I pleaded my case that I should pay $0.00 since it was broken out of the box, but no go.