ok I'm screwed. AI revocery burner won't work because "factory default backup is deleted". *PIC*

Help! what can I do?

 

If you deleted the recovery partition there's nothing you can do.

 

Fresh install with a legal image is my advice if you need to reinstall in the future. This thread has legal downloads for images. These are not hacked/cracked/preactivated illegitimate copies of windows. These are raw images that will ask you for your product key. Download your appropriate version (check your product key sticker to make sure), and either burn to a dvd, or if you prefer, use the Microsoft Windows 7 USB tool to write the image to a thumbdrive (4gb should be enough, but I used an 8gb to be safe), and just boot from and install from that.

Short of ordering recovery media from Asus at cost, you really have no other option. Fresh install with that image is perfectly legitimate, just a bit more time consuming as you need to download drivers from Asus (though you may be better off, newer drivers than your factory restore would be). AI recovery depends upon the recovery partition, so if you removed that, it definitely won't work. I've worked as tech support/sales in a retail computer store, and one of the primary pieces of advice I gave to people buying new machines was to make your recovery media ASAP. It doesn't come in the box, and some companies charge $50 or more to get a copy down the road. Burn a copy or just store the ISOs in a safe place when you buy your computer, and you save a lot of grief down the line. I usually like to wipe my machines with a fresh install anyways, but if I had to return the machine, I would like to reset it to factory default first.

 

Ask Asus. Maybe they will play nice. I know Dell did.

 

forget it. Download the windows iso, and download & burn the drivers from asus.com

it's the best way because you don't get all the bloatware installed.

 

Do you still have a recovery partition? It's possible that it just needs a chkdsk run on it, but you need to first change the partition type from hidden to normal using something like a linux livecd or easus partition home. You then need to change the partition type back to hidden.

Otherwise if you blasted the recovery partition, or it is corrupted, that's all there is to that. You can call ASUS and they will possibly sell you a recovery DVD set for money. But I agree with the posters above, just get a windows ISO and use the key code on the bottom of your laptop or use ABR.