I'm trying to do a full system restore on my dell laptop, I know when I start it up I'm supposed to press F11 and it's supposed to open up the system restore thing. But whenever I do press F11 it just asks me if I would like to turn on the computer in safe mode, safe mode with networking, or safe mode with command prompt, or start windows normally. Can anyone help me out? I need to return it to factory settings, I brought it home from the pawn shop I own and it has an administrative password on it, and I want to clear that, along with the 23498304928 other problems it has, I'm giving it as a gift to someone.

 

if you have the factory cd and or clean xp/vista disc

1. boot up
2. enter setup/bios
3. make your cd drive boot first
4. insert cd and restart you system.
5. Allow it to boot up from the cd.


Now if you wanna perform a clean clean install

press f8 or in your case f11

enter command prompt

type Fdisk

fellow the directions on screen to format your drive.

 

Holy crap! I thought i was going crazy for a second.

I work as a sysadmin, and see those kind of subject lines all day. S-chassis is my release from work, and when i pop on over to check out what's new, i
see more IT problems???

Oy vey o_O.


Adding to what biggamehit said, if you know the HDD is intact, then don't bother running a full format, a quick format will do just fine, and save you a ton of time. full format just checks the disk for errors before erasing everything. some kind of format is HIGHLY recommended.

 

I love the quick and simple service that S-Chassis provides.... Geek Squad wanted to charge me $130 so they can order the CD from dell and run it for me. -_-

Edit: Fdisk didn't work. and I dont have a windows xp disk

 

man... i hate geek squad. no offense to anyone who works there, but i despiiiiiise the so-called "service" they provide. so many of my friends have shelled out TOO much money only to come ask me for help once geek squad has made their problem worse. fine for installing TV's and whatnot i guess, but don't trust them with anything OS related.

 

Is going to "My Computer" right clicking on Local Disk (C and then clicking "Format..." the same thing?

 

it's not gonna let you format the drive your OS is installed on. Boot from a disk, then format. it doesn't have to be a windows disk. you can find a free linux bootable OS online available for download. Once i get home, i'll post a link. but if you just google it you'll find one. just remember, once it's formated, no more Windows.

 

oh, well i dont want that, because I need windows, I'll just wait till tomorrow when my cousin gives me his Windows CD and I'll just re-install it

 

yea.... hahah i have been working on computer for years...

yea as K wak said fdisk is the long long way not as long as low level, but long lol...

if you get an xp disk it will all come up just select quick Ntfs format

 

Thanks guys =)

 

Np

 

buy a mac

 

HAHAHAHAH..............HAHAHAAH..

you can have both....

I have never had issues with my PC's well until vista came along with 100000000 billion patches.. and half of my power programs don't work.
right.


i built a PC just for video editing.. pretty decent for the time it was built ... and i looked at a Mac that had less that and was processing and rendering faster.. so im going to pick up a G5 soon.

 

I don't have that kinda money, and it's rare that one comes to the shop. I do want a macbook pro though. those things are sexy. My friend just bought one, and it cost her about $1,900.

 

yea i know i was just joking around too see if someone would get there undies in a bundle about mac vs pc stuff

glad to see u got the dell taken care of