RECOVERY MANAGER - Need help in understanding what to do, please (reposting this question)

[KeithStanford]

(I had a fellow on here helping me, but he has since disappeared.)

My laptop froze up, and I rebooted it. The screen said 'CHOOSE AN OPTION: TroubleShoot or TurnOff.. I chose Troubleshoot. Next screen said: 'RECOVERY-MANAGER or ADVANCED. I chose Recovery-Manager. Next screen had these 4 options: HELP-SystemRecovery, MAINTENANCE-RunComputercheckup, PRECAUTIONS-FileBackup, SUPPORT.

So if I follow the prompts on the screen of the RECOVERY MANAGER (PRECAUTIONS-FileBackup), I eventually get to a screen where I can choose which Files&Folders I want to "backup". I see all of the Files&Folders that I want on that FileManagerTree.

If I 'tick-the-boxes' then click OK, what will happen next? I am guessing those Files&Folders will be "backedup".... but to where? And I am hoping that as I continue down that RecoveryManager process that somehow the computer cleans itself, then I can go back and find those Files&Folders that I backed-up.... Is that a correct assumption and should I give it a try?

Thank you all so very much in your assistance. It is much appreciated.

Keith

[CherylG]

You must have an external source to hold the backed up files such as USB flash drive, USB hard drive or DVD's if you have an optical drive. The System Recovery will format/clean the entire C partition and completely reinstall fresh Windows.

[KeithStanford]

Thank you so much Cheryl, for your help with this.  I am a relative newbie to these kind of issues and fixes.  

I hooked up the problem laptop to an external Seagate hard-drive with amble free storage and it is now uploading all of my chosen files to that device.  No doubt this may take a while as it was almost 400GB. I'll follow the prompts on the laptop once it is done uplaoding and report back to you.

I might need to know what to do next....

Staytuned,

Keith

[CherylG]

400GB? Do you have that many personal files.. music,photos,etc?

[KeithStanford]

I would not have thought that I did.  However, when I was shown the file-manger listing of all of the options to check-mark to be saved, I only check-marked about half of the boxes that were presented to me. (Not too much music or photos, but probably quite a few videos that I use in my business.)  And really only the files that I recognized as needing.  I did not check-mark any of the Program files nor the Program Files (x86) as I assumed those would still be there when I got further in the Recovery.... even if that meant I had to do a Factory Reset.  I hope that was a wise decision?  

One thing that I have struggled with for the past year is that I use GoogleDrive for storage and I did not know that it was also saving duplicates on my laptop.  Hence about 300GB of my 1TB on the laptop was those GoogleDrive files.  I learned how to stop the automatic sync, but It did not remove the GoogleDrive duplicate files that are on my laptop.  Wouldn't that be cool if this Recovery issue that I am trying to work through actualy got rid of thos GoogleDrive Files off of my laptop.  One can only wish.

BTW, the files on my laptop are still uploading to the 1TB Seagate external hard drive.

Keith

[CherylG]

Recovery Manager usually shows/suggests a lot more than are needed. Program Files will be reinstalled when you do the System Recovery- other than ones you added to the laptop.

The System Recovery should remove everything- including the duplicate files from Google Drive- and return the laptop to out of box state. I hope you didn't include those duplicate files in your backup or you will be getting them back when/if you restore the backup files.

[KeithStanford]

yeah, I don't think I included those googleDrive duplicate files in my upload.... but we will see.

On a realted note, is there a way to find those and to delete them at a later date.  I have tried, but keep getting a mesage indicating that it will delete them from all devices and I would assume thta means off of GoogleDrive as well and I want to keep them there.

[CherylG]

All devices refers to any laptops.tablets,etc that you are syncing files on. For instance if you install Google Drive on a laptop and a desktop computer and login with the same google acct you will have same files showing on both if you set file snyc.

One of these articles may be helpful in managing files:

https://www.cloudwards.net/how-does-google-drive-work/

https://infoinspired.com/how-to-guides/how-to-delete-files-on-google-drive-on-my-pc-without-affectin...

[KeithStanford · Accepted solution]

Howdy again, my friend.  After the HP Program  took almost two full days of moving my manually selected files over to my 1TB Seagate External Hard Drive, I got an error message indicating that it could not be done.  So I  again tried to move those files over to to my 1TB Seagate External Hard Drive, but this time I used the HP 'automatic' way of doing that.  And after about an hour it gave me another error message indicating that the Drive did not have enough space.  So I gave up in trying to save those files and just went ahead and RESET the laptop to the original factory mode and that worked fine.

I want to thank you very much, Cheryl, for your kindness in trying to help me. Even though I was not able to save those files....I was not alone in my efforts and thaat made it tolerable.  I sincerely appreciate the 'hand-holding' and the advice. Be well, my friend....

Keith

[CherylG]

Sorry you weren't able to save the files. HP Recovery Manager often isn't the best at that process. Happy to hear you are back up and running and you're welcome for any hand holding I was able to offer.😊