System restoration

** Updated 2019 / 01 / 22 **

Got the restoration DVDs or fancy recovery USB flash drive?

It was a smart choice, the restoration flash drive can have your system back in business in as low as 15 minutes. Yes, from blank SSD to running system in a quarter of an hour, there is no need to spend a whole day in a clean install and hunt for drivers and basic apps.

Our customized Windows PE recovery environment is one of the superior highlights of our systems, and clearly embodies our design philosophy of better system by design. We are fully aware that at some point in time, you will need to get the PC back to factory settings. The system restoration media will help you do that.


A few highlights:

  • Custom bootable WinPE environment.

  • New partition structure since 2018. Will not work on partitioned disks not prepared by us, or on PCs that we shipped before 2018. Don't use it no one of our older PCs! If you have an older restoration flash drive and want to use it in one of our newer PCs, it won't work either.

  • Not preactivated. All of our PCs have a windows 10 digital license assigned to the motherboard. Once the restoration is complete windows will activate on its own the first time it connects to the internet and verifies the activation status with Microsoft's servers. If the image was deployed to another PC without a license, the resulting status would be not activated, as it would just take the activation status from the servers for that PC.


Future changes:

  • BIOS locking. Current version are not BIOS locked. Some older version of our recovery environment were locked, as they checked for TheGeekyHippo string in the BIOS. If the string was found the restore could take place, if not found then the process would stop. The string detection however was finicky, so many PCs that we built were detected as "not by TheGeekyHippo" and the process would halt. This was a headache so we stopped it. Further study of the newer UEFI firmwares will allows us to bring this one back.

  • Stronger image encryption. Our current deployment images are password protected, but we plan on adding an additional layer to ensure integrity.



* I try to enter the BIOS, but no matter how many times I press the DEL key I cannot enter.

Try changing USB ports, specially if you had the keyboard and mouse connected to a USB 3.0 port (blue) Some motherboards that have USB 3.0, but not native to the chipset will have trouble recognizing keyboard and mouse before making it to windows. For maximum compatibility, stay with USB 2.0 ports (non blue)

This is the same situation is trying to enter windows boot options (F8) to select safe mode, keyboard and mouse always in USB 2.0 ports!

* I want to restore my system using the restoration DVDs, but when booting from the windows DVD I cannot see that option

The windows DVD should not be used for restoration. Insert DVD labeled "Restoration 1" instead, boot from it, you'll see splash screen like windows 10, wait until you make it to the welcome screen, proceed from there. It is the same if using restoration USB flash drive, boot from it, once you make it to the welcome screen, proceed from there.

* I have inserted restoration DVD 1, and still cannot boot from it.

The system is configured to boot from hard drive first, so even if inserting restoration DVD1 or the windows DVD, the system will try to boot from hard drive. You need to force the system to select another boor option. Restart the PC with restoration DVD 1 inserted (or USB flash drive) and after 1 or 2 seconds after the restart, press the key to invoke the boot menu (F8 for Asus, F9 for Biostar, F11 for MSI and AsRock, F12 for Gigabyte. Check the box of your motherboard)

You will see a new menu, use the arrow keys to select DVDRW or USB flash drive.

* I need directions on how to use the restoration DVDs (USB flash drive)

Download the attached .pdf file (Restoration DVDs WinPE)