When your computer is running at peak performance you probably won’t think twice about downloading some piece of software on the Internet. Most of the time, applications are safe and advanced computer users know how to download software safely and choose trusted download sites. However, sometimes it’s possible to let our guard down and accidently click on an email we shouldn’t, and before we know it a virus has found its way in. Once the malicious software has got it, its very design makes it hard for us to remove.
This is where System Restore comes in handy. As most of us know, it’s where we can roll back system settings to a predetermined point. It was available on XP and Vista, and you’ll also find it on Windows 7.
But now lets assume that for some reason Windows 7 won’t allow us to boot into Windows or run system restore in the usual way. What do we do now? Well, you can run system restore from your Windows 7 disk. Before you do this, make sure you have exhausted all other options first. One wrong move when running system restore from your Windows disk, and you could find yourself reformatting your drive – and that’s not what we want to do.
So begin by inserting your Windows 7 disk, and boot up your computer. We’ll assume that you already have your BIOS set up boot from CD first. If not you’ll have to enter the BIOS (usually by pressing F2 or DEL at start-up), and change the boot up priorities.
You should see a prompt to boot from DVD, and after you press any key the Windows 7 setup will begin. At this stage, no changes are being made to your computer so don’t worry, you’ll be given options later to choose what you want to do. The first screen you’ll see is where you’re prompted to choose your language and keyboard layouts. Again, we’re not changing anything on your Windows installation at this stage, we’re only choosing this for the benefit of the setup program, so go ahead and choose your keyboard layout and click next.
The next screen is the one we need to be careful about.
DO NOT click “Install Now”, because that will start a new installation of Windows 7. We want to click on the link further down that says, “
Repair your computer”.
Clicking on this will prompt the computer to search for installed operating systems. It will find our Windows 7 install, and you’ll be taken through a wizard. Click next, and choose “
System Restore” from the menu. What you see now should be the same kind of dialogue boxes as you’d see if you ran system restore from your Windows desktop, except in this case, we haven’t booted into Windows so no nasty viruses or bugs can stop us from carrying out the maintenance. Follow the instructions to choose a system restore point from a day you know your computer was working correctly, and when you reboot you should hopefully find you have a working system again. If not, repeat these instructions and maybe choose a restore point that was further back in time.
