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Question

INITAL SETUP OF PC

Aug 31, 2015 1:37PM PDT

Okay,after 4 years I apologize for being back in Newbies,but CRS has a real grip on me.My wife, soon to be ex, stole my 3yr old hp that I had just installed win 10 on, I was in the process of trying to figure out how to stop CORTANA to quit calling me STOPIT.She also took the external backup,that has my file history on it.I have a new pc now running 8.1 I can't afford any periphrials right now since she emptied my accts before I knew how bad this was going to end.Sorry to digress HERE is my question,I am 30 min into setup of ASUS ALL IN ONE WIN 8.1 ASPIRE MODEL.I have signed into my MS acct but a lot of my files are missing,ASUS offers their version of what appears to be file manager,photo mgr etcetra I am unsure if these programs can access my stuff,also I am unfamiliar with anything but MS utilities ,photo gallery,hotmail,office,adobe reader.I am considering a restore to back in the box it just came out of.Will that wipe out all documents and pictures from the the last 10 years? I don't have my saved camera cards since she took that as well.Did I make any sense and could anyone help me? I am standing by on a GALAXY 2, she missed and even found the charger.NEW PC is ready for advice.
Thank you all,you have always had the answers if I asked the questions correctly. Please keep it simple,I am not the smartest person,obviously. AND no ASHLEY MADISON was not involved,by me anyway.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Recovery Back To Factory Condition Will Only....
Sep 1, 2015 11:22AM PDT

...wipe out data that is ON the computer, unless you back it up first. It won't remove any data that you have saved on an external server, it sounds like the data on your MS account is stored somewhere else, and it certainly won't cause you to lose any data that you've backed up to a CD/DVD, etc.

Hope this helps.

Grif

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Answer
Protect yourself
Sep 1, 2015 11:36AM PDT

I have no idea how you set-up your accts. but if like many users, you set it to "automatically" sign-in then your EX has the ability as well just as much using your old laptop already geared to log-in once going to whatever website. You thus need to visit every website you normally had on your old laptop and reset passwords and such in order to protect yourself. Any data is lost to you if it was on the old laptop. Of course, if you have CD/DVD or cloud storage(password???) then that's available to you. As for any MS files/data and using Asus data manager *MAYBE* similar or even alike but it does it under Asus pgm. way of doing things. It may transfer or translate data in order to use it under Asus own manager, but overall they're NOT the same, they can't be because of "copyrights, etc." so either get an actual install of MS pgms./apps to continue on as before or accept how things will be handled and learn the method. I think you're best served getting those MS apps/pgms and leave it at that even though it will cost.

tada -----Willy Happy

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Inital setup of PC
Sep 1, 2015 4:38PM PDT

Thanks Willy, her new guy is dumber than HOGANS GOAT,so I am taking your advice and getting MS apps and of course changing passwords,of course right now there is no need to worry about online banking,but I do keep getting her statements.HMMMMM nah,not my style.
THANKS COMMUNITY,OVER AND OUT

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Answer
Not clear.
Sep 1, 2015 11:45AM PDT

You talk about a new PC; if I understand your post correctly that's the all in one ASUS Aspire with Windows 8.1.

Now a lot of your files are gone. That makes sense on a new computer, doesn't it? Even more remarkable, apparently a lot of your files are present. Where do they come from on a new laptop?

I don't know what special software Asus put on that desktop, but if it's Windows 8.1 it sure has all normal MS Programs like Windows Explorer to access files, Internet Explorer to access hotmail and you can install MS Office (or any other office suite) and adobe reader. So what's your problem here?

On a new PC a restore back to 30 minutes ago (that's how far you are in the setup, you write) will only remove what you did change and add that 30 minutes. That's unlikely to be 10 years of documents and pictures, it seems to me.

Can you tell more, and tell it better?

Kees

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Answer
Put Linux on it, installed with.....
Sep 1, 2015 5:32PM PDT

...encryption during the install (gives you that option) and even if someone steals your computer in future, it's all gobbledygook to them, no information at all they can access. I suggest Mint, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Zorin among others.