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I want to fully restore my laptop to it's original settings but I can not do it for some reason. I have done this twice before by pressing the F11 button at the start up screen but there is a RESTORE.exe file missing so it just boots up my laptop normally again. The same happens when I click on smart restore on all programs. I get a message saying:

Windows is searching for RESTORE.EXE.

A few seconds later this pops up:

The drive or network connection that the shortcut 'Smart restore.lnk' refers to is unavailable. Make sure that the disk is properly inserted or the network resource is available, and then try again.

I also do not have the recovery disks that came with the laptop, nor can I restore my laptop to an earlier date.

I have searched around on other forums for people with the same problem as me, but can not find any information other than the fact that I should not restore my laptop because it is 'unreliable'. I want to fully restore my laptop and that is that.

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  • Yeah nothing on google about it 'cos nobody gets to any kind of restoring their system with F11 and with this restore.exe and stuff. So what are you talking about? What is the make/model of your laptop, maybe it's specific to the one from that manufacturer. System Restore is a specific operation and you are not talking about that at all AFAIK.
    – barlop
    Sep 6, 2011 at 9:03

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If you visit the manufacturers website and search for the "Support" pages for your specific model, you may be able to download some software to help with this task.


Update:

"Smart restore" is a Packard Bell program. If you have a Packard Bell computer you can run Smart Restore from Start > All Programs > Packard Bell Support > SmartRestore. I believe that it can also be invoked by pressing F11 soon after the computer is turned on. It seems likely that "Smart Restore" depends on software installed in a special system-recovery partition of the hard disk.

Apparently, one of the things you can do is create a recovery CD or DVD. You should do this when you first get the computer, before you have problems.

When you run smart restore, it may be possible to overwrite the system-recovery partition on the hard disk. Perhaps this is what has happened. If you do this, further restores are probably only possible if you have previously created a recovery CD or DVD.

I have read that you can purchase from Packard Bell a recovery DVD for a specific Packard Bell model, I would start at the support section of their website.


From a Packard Bell manual:

• Use the Packard Bell Recovery option in Smart Restore:
a. Click on ‘Start’ > All Programs > Packard Bell - Security & Support.
b. Select Packard Bell Recovery, then click on the Packard Bell Recovery button.
c. Your computer will restart and enter the Recovery Program.

• Use the F11 key when your computer starts:
a. Start (or restart) your computer.
b. Press the F11 key when the Packard Bell logo appears.

• Start your computer using Recovery or Master DVDs:
a. Turn ON your computer.
b. Insert Recovery DVD 1 (or Master DVD1) into the drive and close the tray.
c. Restart your computer.
d. Press any key on the keyboard when asked to boot from the DVD.
e. The drive's busy light should blink to show that your computer is booting from the disc.
Note: If your computer does not boot from the disc, restart your computer, press the F8 key when the Packard Bell logo appears and select the optical drive from the list.

• Start your computer using an external drive:
a. Connect the external drive that contains the recovery data to your computer.
b. Start or restart your computer and press the F8 key when the Packard Bell logo appears.
c. Use the arrow keys to select the external device from the list and press the Enter key.
d. The drive's busy light should blink to show that your computer is booting from the drive.

If none of these options start the recovery process, or are not available (for example, you have not created Recovery DVDs and the recovery data is no longer on the hard disk drive), you may request Recovery DVDs from the Packard Bell Call Centre (a fee may be charged)

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