As you know, many laptop manufacturers very often “sew” into the operating systems preinstalled on their devices all kinds of additional tools for quickly restoring factory settings or rolling back, in the general case called OneKey Recovery. However, it is also often possible to find similar third-party programs that can be installed on a laptop or even a stationary PC. The utility of the same name from the company AOMEI is quite popular. Consider this software product in more detail and compare it with similar tools in the form of pre-installed tools that are present on some laptop models.
OneKey Recovery: what is this program?
As already understood, this type of application was originally developed so that users of computer devices can always quickly roll back the system to a certain state in cases where there are problems or the OS does not load at all. By and large, they can be conditionally divided into two main categories: those that allow you to create backup copies and then restore a working OS from them, and those that can only reset settings to the factory state, which corresponds to a “clean” installation of the system (sometimes True, you can apply and save user files). As for the second type of applications, they really are embedded in the software environment of computer devices, and to roll back or reset the settings in most cases, just click one button, which, as a rule, is placed on the laptop keyboard panel. The first type of application works somewhat differently, integrating its own tools directly into the Windows boot partitions. But what is common for both classes of such software is that they independently create special hidden partitions on the hard drive, restricting access to them, and put images of a functioning OS there.
Application installation
So, let's start with the AOMEI OneKey Recovery utility, since most experts call it the most suitable even for ordinary users because of its simplicity.
First of all, you need to visit the official resource of the developer and download the installation distribution from there, taking into account the version and bit depth installed on your Windows computer or laptop.
Installing the OneKey Recovery application on Windows 7 and above is very simple.
You just need to run the installer as administrator, and then follow the instructions of the "Wizard". But after the installation is complete, it is not recommended to run the program yet. And that's why.
Preliminary actions with hard disk partitions
The fact is that OneKey Recovery will create its own partitions for the bootloader and store copies only based on the unallocated space allocated for its needs, and not in the system partition.
Therefore, it is first necessary to “bite off” part of the space on a logical disk using the disk management section with preliminary volume compression or (which is much simpler) the same AOMEI Partition Assistant utility. The amount of reserved space must be comparable with the size of the system partition. It is not necessary to reserve the full amount.
In extreme cases, you can just look at how much space is taken up on drive C, and then, for the sake of fidelity, throw another 100-200 MB.
Application Principles
After that, you can start the OneKey Recovery application. In the main window there will be only two items: System Backup and System Recovery.
The first is used for the initial creation of hidden partitions, and later on - for placing backup copies there, the second - for restoration. We launch the first item from the OneKey Recovery application. What does this give us? In the settings window, immediately go to the item Advanced settings (Advanced).
It will be shown here that on the basis of the unallocated area, a section with a bootloader will be created (it is needed to quickly call recovery when the computer is turned on) and the main section for copies of the system status. Next, click the Start Backup button and wait for the completion of all operations.
Two methods can be used for recovery. If the computer boots up, but you need to roll back, you can use the usual launch of the utility and then use the restore point.
If the system does not start, at the initial stage of the boot a menu will automatically appear in which the entry point to the recovery toolkit is selected. You agree to the rollback and press the start button.
Lenovo OneKey Recovery: utility instructions
Now let's move directly to the built-in utilities on laptops. Such tools are available on some models of ASUS, Lenovo, Sony VAIO, etc. Next, we dwell on the instructions for Lenovo OneKey Recovery. To call recovery tools, you must press a special button on the keyboard unit.
But what is it? OneKey Recovery in the form of a pre-installed applet looks almost exactly the same as a similar tool from AOMEI (only the second item differs in name). There is nothing surprising in this, since it is this company that is engaged in the main development of such tools for many laptop manufacturers. Actually, the use of the available operations exactly repeats everything that was described above, unless you need to create partitions for the bootloader and backups yourself (they are available initially). Then simply select the desired action and confirm its completion.
How practical is it to use OneKey Recovery?
This is a brief summary of the use of OneKey Recovery tools. What kind of software is, it seems, already clear. It remains only to find out how necessary it is to keep such a set on a computer or laptop. With laptops, everything is clear, because it was initially integrated into the system, so even in the most catastrophic situations it is possible to roll back the system quite simply (but only if no actions with hidden partitions were performed and the hard drive was not replaced). But when installing a separate utility, you will have to think very seriously, because it can take a lot of space to store images of a working system. If it is not enough on a logical drive, there can be no question of using this software (as mentioned above, it is better not to partition the system partition for the needs of the program).