IBM Aptiva, Handbook

Page: 162 / 202

148 Chapter 8: Diagnosing and recovering from problems
Recovering factory installed
programs and files
Your Aptiva computer comes with preinstalled system
and program files. If you accidentally erase any of these
files, or if some of these files become corrupted when
you install a new program, you can recover them. To
recover lost or corrupted files that were installed at the
factory, you need the Product Recovery CD-ROM.
The recovery process formats the hard drive, erasing all
the files there, and then installs new copies of the
system and program files on the clean drive.
To protect your personal data and any special system
configuration, you should make regular backups of your
data and configuration files. You will need these backup
copies if you ever need to recover your system. See the
online Aptiva Helper for help with backing up system
files.
It’s a good idea to duplicate the directory structure that
is on your hard drive when you make backup copies of
files. Otherwise, you need to keep notes about where
your files belong on the hard drive. If you ever have to
recover your system, you will need to copy your
personal data and configuration files back to their
original hard drive location.
To recover the factory installed system and program
files, follow these steps:
1.
Make sure your computer is turned on.
2.
Insert the Product Recovery CD-ROM into your CD-
ROM drive.
3.
Make sure you do not have a diskette or CD-ROM
in any other drive.
4.
Turn off your computer.
5.
Wait 30 seconds.
6.
Turn on your monitor and system unit.
7.
When you see the Aptiva Product Recovery menu,
use the arrow keys to select
Recover all Original
Aptiva Software . Press the Enter key.
8.
After the Aptiva software has been reinstalled,
copy your personal configuration and data files
back into their original directories on the hard
drive.
Depending on how your startup devices are defined,
you might not be able to use the Product Recovery CD-
ROM to recover a system that will not start on its own.
For example, your computer might not attempt to read
the CD-ROM at all if it reads first from the hard drive that
contains corrupted operating system files. For
instructions on selecting startup devices in the Setup
Utility, see “Configuring startup options” on page 43.
See the online Aptiva Helper for instructions on
recovering specific files, such as Mwave drivers and files
your computer uses to create the graphical user
interface (your desktop).