Restoring to factory drive configuration

I've found a few answers to my questions searching here but am still a little confused.

So I bought an A200 a couple of days ago, have made the Recovery Dvd's with the Creator utility. Now I would like to repartition the drive. But before doing so I'd like to know if the recovery discs can be used to set the hard drive back to the condition it was in before the first boot. I mean exactly the same. I'm getting conflicting reports from other people, with some saying if you format the whole drive, then you'll void the warranty and lose any pre-installed software.

So can anyone tell me what I can and can't do so I'll still be able to get the system back to factory settings? After messing round for the last few days, I'd like to restore it back, make a complete disk image for safety then start from scratch. Is this possible?

Thanks,
Dave

 

Restore discs return the computer to factory settings.

 

Thanks Lithus. So you mean exactly, as if I had just opened up the box and hadn't turned it on? With all software, all original partitions containing all the original files? It will restore the recovery partition even if I've deleted it? I just want to make sure since other people have told me something different.