09/09/2015
If you need to give your laptop fresh start, we'll
tell you how to factory reset a laptop.
Restoring your laptop to the state it came out of
the factory can be handy for a number of
different reasons. Perhaps you're having
problems with your laptop's performance, a virus
or you simply want to sell it on and remove all
your programs, files, passwords and other
sensitive information. In these situations, a
recovery partition is your friend. See also: How
to speed up a computer.
It's a little more difficult than a smartphone or a
tablet but we'll show you how to do it step by
step.
Most laptops don't come with recovery discs any
more but if yours does then this is still a fairly
easy way of performing a factory reset. If you
didn't get any discs in the box, then there's a
good chance your laptop has a recovery
partition.
This is a hidden part of the hard drive which
safely stores a complete copy of Windows,
drivers and extra programs. You can use it
return your laptop to the exact state it was in
the first day you had it - and it will perform just
the same, too. This guide will show you how to
access and use the recovery partitions to factory
reset your laptop.
Please bear in mind that the processor will vary
between different brands of laptops and even
different models. The recovery software will be
called various names for each brand of laptop,
along the lines of 'recovery manager'. We've
done our best to put together a 'one size fits all'
guide.
In general this will work for Windows 7 and
previous versions but Windows 8 laptops will
typically have a recovery application which is
launched from within Windows so check your app
menu.
How to factory reset a laptop
Step One
Backup any data which you wish to keep before
performing a factory reset. You will probably
want to copy everything from your user folders,
including documents, photos, music and videos.
The factory reset will delete all these along with
any programs you've installed since you got your
laptop.
Step Two
Start-up or reboot your laptop.
Step Three
During the start-up process, hit the appropriate
F key or key combination which we have listed
below for your manufacturer.
Note: There is often a small window of
opportunity to strike the key so don't worry if it
takes you a few attempts. We advise pressing
the key multiple times.
Acer – Alt + F10
Asus – F9
Dell/Alienware – F8
HP – F11
Lenovo – F11
MSI – F3
Samsung – F4
Sony – F10
Toshiba – 0 (not numpad) while turning on,
release key when Toshiba logo appears
If these keys don't work then look out for a
message in the screen during startup which
might indicate how to start the recovery process.
You might need to check your recovery partition
is enabled in the BIOS. It's also possible your
laptop might not have a recovery partition (or it
may have been deleted) so we're making no
guarantees here. You might need to contact your
manufacturer.
Step Four
You should see instructions on the screen
explaining how to proceed. Different
manufacturers use different software to restore
the 'disk image' from the recovery partition, so
we can't provide specific guidance. However, the
process is almost always automatic once you've
confirmed you definitely want to proceed, so it
might be a case of waiting for 30 minutes for the
job to happen in one go, but some systems
restore Windows first, and then install drivers
and programs automatically when Windows first
boots. If that's the case, don't try to do
anything until you see a message saying the
restore has finished. posted by Modern Technology CEO and founder Anthony Tokpah for more details or any "IT" problem just post it on this page or send it on my email: [email protected]
