DaveO

Now that your system is back up it might be a good idea to make your own "recovery disk." It appears that you have the Win7 recovery disk provided by Dell(?) but Windows systems update frequently and you are likely to soon encounter the "update" problem. When you use an original recovery (or installation) disk, you get the version that was released when you bought the computer, so you then need to go to Microsoft update to get all the updates that have come out since then. The updates can require several hours in some cases.

Since WinXP, I think, you can use a built-in Windows utility to create a recovery disk that will restore the operating system in the same state as it exists at the time you make the disk. Using the disk that you make should replicate the entire system setup, including all the options you've chosen, to what you had when the disk was made.

Restoring from a "Recovery disk" you've made recently should avoid the need to go fetch updates made before the time when you made your disk. (And you can make a new one any time you want to.)

The method(s) vary a little with the specific Windows version you're using, so it would be best to get them directly from the Help files on your computer. They shouldn't be hard to find, using "Recovery Disk" or "System Recovery Disk" as a search term.

System Restore automates recovery to some extent, but it can only keep a few "prior states" and it's quite common for a problem to go undetected through severl updates of those restore files, so that the problem is restored by any of the restore points available in System Restore. The disk you make records a single setup permanently.

Those who do use passwords should also know that all recent Windows versions allow you to make a "Password Recovery Disk." Lots of people use a thumb drive for this, since the files are small; but I believe you need a separate one for each user (including Administrator). Instructions for making a Password Recovery Disk should also be in Help on your computer(s).

John