Hello everyone,
I hope someone here can help me, even if my question is probably completely stupid and might sound really inexperienced. I'm from Germany, so my English also isn't perfect, but it hopefully will be fine.
Because my old computer is on the verge of breaking, I have been given a used laptop as a gift. My father had bought it on vacation, so I have unfortunately no methods of contacting the original owner. When I booted it, I was shown a non-wiped harddrive also full of what I know as problematic software. As I cannot tell which installed programs are needed and which aren't - I never had an ASUS before - a complete wipe seems like the best solution.
The problem is that absolutely no recovery things were included. As I said, my old computer is, well, old, and I'm used to having a recovery CD for drivers and one for Windows included. If one of these things ever existed for my "new" computer but were just never given to me... I have no idea. All I found in the computer options was a "AI Recovery Burner" which allows me to create a set of DVDs for reboot/recovery, but I have severe doubts that will also include any drivers. I do not own an original Windows 7 CD, I have absolutely no documents when it comes to the new laptop so also no Key I might need for a reinstalled Windows 7... what should I do? Is formatting the harddrive/a complete reset even possible at this point? I admit I am completely lost as to how to approach this because I never had to do something like that before.
My new laptop is an ASUS R900V currently running Windows 7 Premium. I do absolutely not want to upgrade to another Windows version - part of why my father just bought the thing from someone he didn't know was because I was absolutely unable to find a new laptop which still came with WIndows 7 installed.
Any help would be really appreciated! Thank you so much!