Restoring to factory settings??

[ed123]

how do i restore to factory settings. I dont want to have to reinstall all the drivers

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hiyya ed123 mate what machine have you got? usually it is just holding down or tapping an F(numeral) numeral or function key (Esc Del etc)on power up.

Look up your machines site - for example I know that to default my Toshiba laptops I just have to hold down 0 (zero) on power up and follow the prompts.

 

[ed123]

I have a compaq isn't that Hp ?

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yep ed it is either F10 11 or 1 depending on what Google you hit on - just try each and you will son see if it is the right one as it will come up with a screen that asks if you want to do this? At least thats what happens with the Toshiba.

Just as matter of curiousity what model is your machine?
This is for the spare Compaq laptop that I have Using System Recovery, Factory Reset and Minimized Image Recovery Options Compaq Presario CQ43-113BR Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

Hope this helps you out cos I know it's pretty daunting when you haven't done it before

 

[ed123]

i have a compaq cq60-615dx and thanks a lot I will try this and will reply back with what I find thank you !

 

[ICIT2LOL]

OK ed the HP page looks the same to me on a Google Using System Recovery, Factory Reset and Minimized Image Recovery Options Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

Let us know how you go should be fine mate

Oh forgot to metion it will install all the bloat again thats the downside

 

[gregrocker]

You must be thinking of XP when you say you don't want to reinstall all of the drivers. Win7 is driver-complete in the installer and via optional Windows Updates.

Follow these steps to get the superior Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

If you do run Recovery to restore all of the crapware be sure to Clean Up Factory Bloatware

 

[ed123]

You must be thinking of XP when you say you don't want to reinstall all of the drivers. Win7 is driver-complete in the installer and via optional Windows Updates.

Follow these steps to get the superior Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

If you do run Recovery to restore all of the crapware be sure to Clean Up Factory Bloatware

so your saying windows 7 will automatically get the drivers once i do a clean installation ? :huh::huh: i didnt knowthat

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yep ed has always done that with the too many to count I have had to do on them darn Toshys.

Oh and Greg I have just looked at that tut of yours and just disabling services is that instead of uninstalling the bloat? or or as well as?

I actually didn't know that the Toshy bloat wasn't needed until I put in the SSD and OEM'd the machine.

 

[gregrocker]

Ed, read the Clean Reinstall tutorial to see exactly how drivers are best handled in Win7.

John, disabling startups gets the freeloaders off our system's back, but the overall best way to shrug off the bloat is with a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 so the crap isn't installed in the first place.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Thanks Greg I thought as much I just wanted to make sure with you.

The only niggling bit about doing a clean install is that some of my friends buy those machines that have an Office starter pack with them and as most like myself only use the Word and spreadsheet features and I am trying to find a way of saving just that as Microsoft - out here at least will not sell the basic starter for that separately.

Otherwise the fresh OS only install is just the ticket

 

[win7newuser]

ed123, I just did a factory restore on my toshiba laptop two days ago and it went great. It was very simple but I called the manufacturer before I did ANYTHING. I read a lot of posts on the Internet on what steps to take, but I wanted to make sure that I knew what I was doing. They were very helpful and walked me through the entire thing. I had no warranty left and they didn't even charge me.

If you are still online, which, I hope you are, please, call your manufacturer, and ask them for help. That is the best thing for anyone to do in fact. You are better off doing that than going by what others say (it's not that I hold anything against anyone) because he made sure that my system even had the hidden partition. Thank goodness it did! Some of these systems now as he told me, may not even have them, even if they are sold now, so, be sure to call your manufacturer! You are better off!

 

[ICIT2LOL]

ed123, I just did a factory restore on my toshiba laptop two days ago and it went great. It was very simple but I called the manufacturer before I did ANYTHING. I read a lot of posts on the Internet on what steps to take, but I wanted to make sure that I knew what I was doing. They were very helpful and walked me through the entire thing. I had no warranty left and they didn't even charge me.

If you are still online, which, I hope you are, please, call your manufacturer, and ask them for help. That is the best thing for anyone to do in fact. You are better off doing that than going by what others say (it's not that I hold anything against anyone) because he made sure that my system even had the hidden partition. Thank goodness it did! Some of these systems now as he told me, may not even have them, even if they are sold now, so, be sure to call your manufacturer! You are better off!

Agree with this because that would be failsafe but there is also this http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/150576-partitions-view-hidden-partitions.html if you want to try this first.

I meant to add that I have defaulted my own Toshy L550 five times now and I found adding an SSD and just transferring back data the best thing as you get rid of all that bloat - you can then use the old drive as an external

 

[gregrocker]

Hi again John -

MS is discontinuiing Starter with the release soon of the next Office. They plan to put the free version on the web and will be promoting that, so a download which was previously available and linked in the Clean Reinstall tutorial has been pulled.

Read more about it here: Microsoft begins phasing out Starter edition of its Office suite | ZDNet

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hi again John -

MS is discontinuiing Starter with the release soon of the next Office. They plan to put the free version on the web and will be promoting that, so a download which was previously available and linked in the Clean Reinstall tutorial has been pulled.

Read more about it here: Microsoft begins phasing out Starter edition of its Office suite | ZDNet

Thanks Greg well it will put M$ back in my good books if a stripped down version is available as many I fix for cannot afford the full version and the freebies are not really quite the same are they?
It will make my life a little easier too as I only ever use Word and as I have so many machines now it gets pretty expensive for me too.