Hello everybody!
In this video, I’m going to show you how to reset a laptop.
In one of the previous videos we showed you how to reset an Android device to make it
operable again.
You will find the link in the description: In the same manner, you can bring a Windows
laptop back to life.
However, the laptop’s hard disk should have a special recovery partition, created by
the manufacturer.
Here we go.
Restoring a laptop to factory settings is a completely automatic reinstallation of Windows
with all applications and drivers that have been pre-installed by the manufacturer.
When the resetting process is over, you will have the laptop in the same condition it had
when you bought it.
When resetting, Windows is restored from a backup which is kept in a special hidden recovery
partition.
You can see it when you enter the Disk Management menu.
It’s usually called Recovery partition and takes up from 5 to 20 Gb of space.
However, the size can be very different, depending on the size of the pre-installed apps.
Without this partition, you can’t factory reset a laptop.
Though, this partition can be absent as a result of accidentally deleting it during
manual reinstallation of Windows, or if you bought a laptop without a pre-installed operating
system.
Please note: When the operating system is reset, all data from disk C will be erased!
The sequence of actions when factory resetting a laptop may differ depending on the manufacturer.
However, the differences are slight, while the algorithm of actions is similar.
• The first step is to get into the laptop’s recovery environment.
How you do it depends on your laptop manufacturer.
Let’s have a look at the most popular ways.
Some manufacturers have a special dedicated button for this purpose, like Lenovo’s Novo
Button, or Sony’s Assist button.
This button may be placed above the main keys of the device, or even on the side or back
panel.
You can use it both when the operating system is running or when the computer is off.
It starts a menu where you should select the necessary action.
Usually, it’s System Recovery or Recover Your System.
Yet most laptops can take you to the recovery environment when you restart the computer
and keep on clicking or holding down one of the functional keys before the system starts
booting.
This functional key can be: - F9 – Asus;
- Alt+F10 - Acer; - HP Pavilion - Escape when starting the laptop.
Then go to the start menu and press F11; - Samsung - F4;
- Toshiba - F8.
In latest models, it’s 0, or sometimes Fn+0; - Dell – F8;
- Fujitsu Siemens - F8; - LG - F11;
- Lenovo – F11, if there is no dedicated button;
- Sony – if there is no Assist button, press F10.
• As a result, Recovery Environment, Windows Boot Manager or Advanced Boot Options will
start.
I’ll show further steps with a Dell laptop I’m using.
But as I said before, the algorithm of actions for laptops by other manufacturers will be
similar.
• In the menu that appears, choose: Repair your computer, Recovery center or System Recovery.
• The computer will load the files required for recovery.
• After that, select the language and user account.
• You will see the System Recovery Options window.
• Usually, the last line in this window is the manufacturer’s backup & restore firmware.
For example, in my Dell device it’s Dell Backup and Recovery.
But other manufacturers may have other names, like:
- Toshiba HDD RECOVERY - Sony Vaio Recovery Center
- HP Recovery Manager - Acer Recovery Management
- Samsung Recovery Solution - Lenovo OneKey Recovery, and so on.
However, sometimes when you press the necessary button, the laptop may start loading the recovery
utility at once, so it skips the Windows Recovery Environment.
Most often it happens when the laptop has a special recovery key like Assist or Novo
Button.
If your laptop can boot Windows, then you can start any of these recovery utilities
from the running operating system.
If Windows can’t boot, or the laptop’s native recovery utility doesn’t work for
some reason, then you can reset the device from the recovery environment only.
• In my case, I select Dell Backup and Recovery.
• The interface of this utility for factory resetting the laptop is loading.
• I select Advanced options / Factory refresh - only restores the system partition / Next
• After that, don’t touch anything.
The recovery process is completely automatic and doesn’t require any user actions.
The computer will restart several times during the recovery process.
• The recovery is complete.
Restart • After the restart, the laptop will boot
in its factory state, that is, the way it was when you bought it.
All programs pre-installed by the manufacturer will be restored.
As you can see, it’s very easy.
In details, the process of factory resetting a laptop may differ in Windows 7 or 10.
On the whole, such things don’t matter much; the point is to have a recovery partition
on the hard disk, and make sure that files of the backup copy are not damaged.
Otherwise, bringing Windows back to life will require at least having an installation disk
with the operating system.
There is a special video about installing Windows from a USB drive or DVD.
Find the link in the description
In one of the next videos, I’ll show you how to create a recovery partition to factory
reset your system, and how to use it for system recovery.
Make sure you don’t miss it.
That is all for now.
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Thank you for watching.
Good luck.