Is there anyway to undo a factory reset

[coldrink]

I have a Dell XPS L521 laptop. It is running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit. Recently, I used Dell USB media and restored the laptop to it's factory settings. The old files were stored on a portable hard drive. As it turned out, the factory restore caused me to lose more than I gained. Does anyone know of a way to undo a factory restore? I have the old files on the hard drive, but can't find a way to restore them. I imagine it is a lost cause, but thought I might see if anyone had ever seen this done. Thanks.

 

[whs]

" I have the old files on the hard drive, but can't find a way to restore them. "

What exactly is the problem. Restoring files should be easy but you may have a special situation.

 

[Acecool]

Factory reset usually acts like Deep Freeze or other software ( which removes any changes made to the computer, including software, since Deep Freeze was installed and activated or since the computer left the factory ).

You'll need to reinstall your programs, copy your files back over, etc...

Now, for undoing it...

We need more information as to what the "old files" are... Is it a clone of the hard-drive from special software? Is it just dragged / dropped data? Is it a backup using provided software on your computer ( Microsoft Backup or... ).. etc...


If you created a clone of your hard-drive prior to doing it, then you can use that to restore ( requires special software or boot disks with software ).

If you simply dragged and dropped all files on your hard drive ( including windows/ ) to the external / secondary drive.. Copying them over can cause a lot of issues.

Factory reset will typically remove system restore files too, but you might be able to use that if available ( you'll need to use your operating system disk to boot from to get you to that menu or you can try running System Restore by simply clicking the orb and typing System Restore, then Enter when it appears. Or: %systemroot%\system32\rstrui.exe )