If Windows decides to crash and burn on my new Zenbook Prime, is there a way to recover/reinstall/restore the operating system? I didn't get a restore disk with it so I'm not exactly sure how I would go about this.
This hasn't happened to me, but I'm kinda worried about how I will go about it if it does decide to happen
Actually, the way to do a Factory Restore in the Asus Zenbook without a Windows DVD or Asus Recovery Disc is to press F9 during power on: when you first see the ASUS logo immediately after powering on the system, keep tapping F9 until you see a screen asking you to select the Windows Setup. From there you will be able to re-install the operating system back to the status it was in when the system first came out of the box.
F8 simply brings you to the Windows Statup Selection (Safe Mode, Last known good config, et) screen and ESC gives you the Boot Selection screen (if you want to boot from an external device like a USB key or other).
You may create a bootable USB drive with the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool.
You will need a Windows 7 ISO file, available here; just make sure you use the license key that's located on the power brick of your Zenbook Prime.
Finally, drivers and utilities are available from ASUS' support website.
The Zenbook comes with a recovery utility "AI Recovery". Use this to burn a set of recovery DVDs and then store them somewhere safe.
You can then boot off the DVD (with your USB cd-drive attached) and run the restore.
Alternatively, pressing F8 at start-up will give you a repair option, this invokes the Asus recovery image that's stored on your recovery partition. Use this if just windows is crashed. Use the DVDs if you replace your drive or think you recovery partition is damaged.
This I learned as I'm bust doing it now as I type.
