Bought used Dell laptop, how to re-install windows for a clean setup?

It seems the admin account was called "user" & I just created a password for it, so hopefully when I get back into system recovery options it will accept it, find out in 1 min.

JohnnyScience said:

I'm in the "system recovery options" right now, not trying to log into windows but it's still asking for a password?

I know you are but you also said it doesn't ask for a password when logging in to the guest account.

It sounds to me like you don't have admin priveledges, which is one of the first steps in the links provided by rraod.

I got everything figured out & it's formatting now.

Thanks guys.

Just needed to give the admin account "user" a password to continue.

Hey Johnny -

All this trouble to restore the factory crapware and useless duplicate utilties that have better versions built into Win7?

Why? Are you selling it?

Most tech enthusiasts choose to get the superior Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

gregrocker said:

Hey Johnny -

All this trouble to restore the factory crapware and useless duplicate utilties that have better versions built into Win7?

Why? Are you selling it?

Most tech enthusiasts choose to get the superior Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

Hey mate long time no see!

I did a successful full clean reinstall using the OS on the partition.

What additional benefits would doing it with via a cd bring?

I'm not selling it, I just bought it so I wanted to scrub it as good as possible & I thought that's what I did?

Just for the record it's win7 64 Home

Johnny if you ran the Dell Factory Recovery then it reinstalled all of the bloatware that originally came with the PC. That's not the same as a Clean Reinstall.

Even Dell supplies a clean copy Win7 Reinstallation DVD to get a cleaner reinstall than that. But you don't need it since everything is in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

But run it for awhile and if you like the Factory Recovery you can probably improve performance just by working through these steps to Clean Up Factory Bloatware.

Sounds great I'll download the OEM reinstall & start over.

Thanks.

Read also the Special Notes for Dell Owners so you understand your options about the factory partitions.

Run Dell Diagnostics from F12 menu first to check it out good and confirm that still runs, as if it doesn't you don't need the Tools partition.

Keep us posted as you go.

Ok do I really want to delete the factory OS partition? It's nice to have in a quick jiffy sometimes if you dont have the disk