New
#11
Hi there
IMO the best way of "Factory state" restores is to create an image immediately you have purchased the PC on to a separate medium say with Acronis or another stand alone backup program.
Now as you've already got Windows running why not image the whole HDD including recovery partition. Then if you can't boot for any reason you've got a bootable "Bare metal" restore -- no need for swapping out HDD's again.
This also works if you replace your entire HDD too. Just restore the recovery partition on to the new HDD and run the recovery program.
Cheers
jimbo