I am trying to help a friend. SHe has an HP Pavilion xt963. She has erased essential files to the point that XP's System restore won't come up (missing file) and there are NO restore disks. The manual says there is a 'restore partition', but I don't see it....I want to do a full restore back to how she bought it. HP customer service is either non-functional or no help....

drdeputy: To restore the PC to its original configuration, click on START, click on HP tools, click on HP PC System Recovery. Then, just follow the prompts. Be aware that any software she installed after purchase will be lost, as well as any Microsoft updates. It would be prudent for her to backup any important personal files. Solarian

Thanks.....I saw "HP Tools" on the menu, but didn't explore it as I thought it was to do with the HP printer she installed after she bought the computer. I'm giving it a go now.

Oh and yes, I had her commit to a full destructive restore before I took it on, so she's fine with that. I noted that in the HP Recovery that's running now, it offers both a non-destructive recovery or a full recovery. She had trashed things so badly, I felt a full recovery was the best thing to do. The Restore is doing the format now....thanks again.

drdeputy: Glad to help. The Destructive Recovery is a good choice: A brand-new installation of the operating system, plus any free software the company installed at the factory. A Non-destructive Recovery is supposed to do that as well, plus leave your personal files untouched. But unless you have an enormous number of personal files to backup, my own choice is the Destructive Recovery. Solarian