Lenovo G575 Recovery Discs
Unrecoverable boot errors can turn your Lenovo computer into a useless heap of metal and plastic unless you restore the system to an operational state. If you have a Lenovo recovery disc, you can.
TL;DR - As OneKey Recovery doesn't exist in Windows 10, can I still recover to the factory Windows 8.1 image? What would pressing 'Reset this PC' do in a Windows 10 that was upgraded from 8.1 - restore to factory Windows 8.1 or a clean Windows 10? And what would pressing 'Reset this PC' do in a clean Windows 10 install - restore to factory Windows 8.1 or a clean Windows 10? In any scenario, is the factory recovery partition ever completely redundant? Or is there always a way to restore to the factory 8.1 installation, regardless of whether the OneKey recovery software is installed on Windows or not?
Lenovo state in their Windows 10 upgrade guide that the OneKey Recovery software will not be functional in Windows 10 and should be uninstalled before the upgrade. I've struggled to find any information regarding the implications this has on the correct way to perform a recovery if something terrible happens, and I have a few questions.
1. In my laptop's (Z50-70) manual on page 26. It says:
'If Windows cannot be started:
Shut Down the computer
Press the Novo button. From the Novo button menu, select the Lenovo OneKey Recovery System and press enter.'
So am I right in thinking that after upgrading to Windows 10, even though the OneKey Recovery software won't be installed, when the computer is shut down I could still press the novo button to launch into the OneKey Recovery System via the BIOS? In other words, there's an implementation of OneKey Recovery baked into the BIOS somehow that doesn't require Windows to run, and allows you to restore from the factory image (i.e. Windows 8.1 that came pre-installed on the laptop)?
2. Windows 10 has a 'Reset this PC' option. After upgrading to Windows 10 what exactly will choosing this option do? Will this pick up on Lenovo's recovery partition and recover the system back to Factory Windows 8.1? Or will it perform a clean installation of Windows 10?
2a. If 'Reset this PC' will reset it to the factory Windows 8.1 image, and my answer to question 1 is yes, then I think that means there's actually two ways to get back to the factory Windows 8.1 - either by shutting down and pressing the novo button, or by using 'Reset this PC' in Windows 10. But then, how do I perform a clean install of Windows 10? Is the only option for a clean Windows 10 install to boot from a bootable media containing the Windows 10 ISO and install that way?
2b. If 'Reset this PC' will reset to a clean Windows 10, what are the differences between resetting this way, and doing a full clean install using a bootable media containing the Windows 10 ISO? Or are they exactly the same?
3. If I upgrade (checking that Windows 10 has activated successfully), and then proceed to format the system partition and do a clean install using a bootable media containing the Windows 10 ISO (which according to everything I've read is allowed, and the clean install should activate automatically), would this have any implications on recovery? What would pressing Windows 10's 'Reset this PC' option do then? Factory Windows 8.1 or Windows 10? Would the novo button still work and pick up the BIOS versions on OneKey Recovery? Or would the recovery partition now be redundant as nothing can access it?
Any clarification on any of this would be much appreciated - I want to fully understand the whole recovery process within Windows 10 before I upgrade.
Thanks!
Lenovo G575 Recovery Disk
