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General discussion

I have lost my recovery disks, can I still make others?

Jun 12, 2010 2:30AM PDT

I have an Acer desktop PC
It is an ACER ASPIRE M3600 with an INTEL CORE 2 DUO CPU E4500 @ 2.2 GHZ
2 GB RAM and it is running Windows Vista Home Premium with service pack 2

Anyway It had windows pre-installed when I bought it a couple of years ago, I admit that this was my first PC and upto then I knew nothing about PC's
(My knowledge has grown exponentially since then and I have become the family member that many turn too when things go wrong,I do very well managing to recover systems that have been virus damaged)
That is what makes this such a hard question for me to ask as I normally try to find the answer myself.
I know I can get recovery disks from ACER direct, but what I want to know is if I can still produce recovery disks for my ACER M3600 even though it has been in use for nearly 3 years now.
Also I know that I can recover my system from the hidden partition using ALT and F10 when booting up and that is supposed to restore the PC back to factory settings.

I have backed up all my important files/photos etc and have done that since I started with my computer, I didnt make the recovery disks at the time because I was new to computing and could just about surf the internet let alone produce my own recovery disks.


So Can I still produce a working set of recovery disks for my desktop?
and, Can I still do a clean/fresh install of Windows Vista or restore my PC back to factory settings from the hidden partition as Windows was preinstalled on my PC?

Many Thanks to all for taking the time to read and answer

Discussion is locked

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If it's like the Acers I've owned.
Jun 12, 2010 4:04AM PDT

You can create them at any time. However some limit you to one set but nothing stops you from making a duplicate or spare copy of said media.
Bob

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You should be able to....
Jun 12, 2010 8:02PM PDT

Create those discs first [Start>Programs >ACER ? ], then recover from the hidden partition... then create a new set from the "back to factory condition disc.]