Repair Installation

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Perform a repair installation if a computer will not boot or other issues.

Recovery Partition

A factory recovery partition is a tool used by OEMs to restore the OS environment to its ship state.

• created on internal fixed drive
• if main installation fails, system firmware can use the recovery partition to boot
• start by pressing a key during startup
  • F11 or CTRL+F11 are often used
• OEM media will not usually recover user data or settings
  • set back to factory state
  • recover user data from backup
  • can take up a lot of space
  • will not include updates since ship date

Windows Reset and Refresh

• Windows supports refresh and reset options to try to repair the installation
• refresh recopies the system files and reverts most system settings to the default
  • preserves user personalization settings, data files, and apps from Windows Store
• reset option deletes the existing OS entirely with data