Factory Reset Without Disk?

Not sure if the OP is still watching this thread. I recently bought a refurbished HP Elite 3100, which came with Windows 7 Pro. I decided to keep it, upgrading with Simplix and activating with a W7 Pro Key I have from my i7 music computer (which unexpectedly worked). I also put LMDE (Linux Mint, Debian Edition) on a separate SSD (W7 is on a HDD).

To each their own, but why bother reinstalling? you're going to end up with the same thing, after uninstalling programs you don't want, installing ones you do, etc. I'm thinking of upgrading it to W7 Ultimate, after seeing a thread here on that.

SIW2 said:

I have an 8300 sff. Noisy and windy little thing. Not sure if it is worth replacing the fans

Phil is doing an 8200 which is very simlar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OouB84X37Zo

I got mine because my old Gateway GT5656 from 2009 was acting strange. I love it, it's just for basic web surfing, which I mainly do on Mint. W7 and Mint are my two favorite systems of all time. both intuitive, reliable and beautiful. I was doing my music composition on Mint for about a year, but migrated back to Windows 7 because I had to keep some of my virtual instrument licenses on the cloud, due to Linux not being able to deal with dongles. Meaning, no internet, no work. So now I use Mint for the web, and W7 for my music. I'm in operating system heaven.

Interesting video. The only upgrade I did was to add a SSD, to put Mint on. I taped it to the DVD unit. not a lot of room in there.

I did something like that on my barebone custom-built i7, which does not have an nvme slot. I also used the Evo 970, and a pci adapter card to put it on. I use it to store some of my virtual instrument libraries. Makes for fast loading.

The Gigabyte mobo on that machine also has an M-sata slot. I considered buying on of those drives, but wasn't sure it would be as fast as the nvme. I guess they weren't around for very long. but it would be a neat way to add another drive, no adapter needed, if I decide I need one down the road.

Mowerras said:

Check if your Dell has a recovery partition. When you start up your computer, press F8 repeatedly until the Advanced Boot Options menu appears. If there's an option for Repair Your Computer, select it and see if it guides you through a factory reset process.

If that doesn't work, you might have to use the Reinstall Windows option. You can create a bootable USB drive with the Windows 7 ISO from Microsoft's site. You'll need your product key, which should be on a sticker somewhere on your PC.
For future reference, if you ever switch to Windows 11, here's a handy guide: How to Factory Reset PC Windows 11 - Operating Systems