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I wanted to know because I messed up my system (long story) and I want to bring my computer (Laptop Acer Aspire 5100-3357) back to its factory default, meaning back to when I first bought it and first turned it on.

I pretty much corrupted every partition on my computer I believe and I want to start over.

There was a partition (10 GB) that was used specially for recovery of the system in case of something going wrong. I try to access it but it won't even start up (it's where you press ALT-F10 during boot). What I also want to know, as well as the question above, is that can I restore the files from that partition and format a new partition so that it works as the recovery partition again?

If you're wondering how I managed to corrupt all the partitions on my drive--to make a long story short-- I tried to dual-boot Ubuntu on my laptop. I then clicked "Start Install," after setting up the settings for installing it, then I panicked and tried to stop the installer before it could start (I know, I'm stupid for doing such a thing). It was starting to format the disks and that is why I can't access my Windows Vista partition (that was my original OS) and not even the Windows Installer DVD can recognize the OS.

If I could, I was also thinking of taking that partition and restoring the files to a new partition and then try to boot. I don't know if that will work or not but if anyone can clarify this, I would appreciate it.

In short, I want to know if I can either (a) order Recovery Discs from Acer, (b) restore the Recovery Partition so that it can be used again, or (c) restore the main partition for my OS and place it into a new partition. Thanks

EDIT: This thread might be in the wrong place but I couldn't think of anywhere else better to put it.

Nevermind, I reinstalled Vista on my laptop and it's acting better than I thought it would...WAY BETTER. I didn't even need to reinstall any of the drivers for it to work. It's even faster without the bloat-ware that comes pre-loaded.

Turns out that my partitions were never corrupted...but I still can't figure out why it wouldn't boot. It kept saying "Missing Operating System."

Why not just buy a copy of XP, install it, and download all the associated drivers etc...