Steps To A Factory Restore?

[Wandering Flame]

Was told each company of computers have their own steps. I have a Dell Inspiron 1545, with Windows 7. I know the first couple of steps is to press F8 on boot, and then repair your computer. Then I choose country, then log in with my admin account...then I choose Dell Datasafe Restore and Emergency Backup.

From that point on, I don't know.

 

[not so gray matter]

Dell Logo > F8 repeatedly > Repair your computer > Enter

Country > OK

Username & Password of administrative account

Dell Factory Image Restore (To Cancel, Don't hit that, hit Restart or Shutdown)

You've got the entire process. Once you hit that last button it'll take about 45 minutes to complete.

Link:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2134715_dell-windows-vista-factory-settings.html

It's for Vista but it doesn't make a difference.

 

[Wandering Flame]

It's different bro...I am given several more questions after choosing the Dell Restore thing. I was wondering if anyone knew about the up-to-date tutorial...Dell Factory Restore seems a little different than Dell Datasafe Restore and Emergency Backup...which is the only current option that is all the way at the bottom. Then after that are a series of questions. That tutorial above is like "Click yes and the process will start" however the current way now asks you several questions afterwards, with the Dell Inspiron 1545 with Windows 7.

 

[Ztruker]

From what I find, Dell Datasafe allows you to restore the system to factory installed state without losing yuour personal data. Dell Restore wiped the drive and you started over from scratch.

Most likely, that is what the additional prompts are. Asking you if you want to Repair (restore over, keep data) or Clean (format, lose4 everything).

What do the prompts say?

 

[Wandering Flame]

After choosing option F "Dell Datasafe Restore and Emergency Backup"

I choose "more options" because the only other option asked me to back up my stuff, which I already have

Then I choose Factory Restore.

Then restore my computer without saving anything.

Then I click the Factory Restore that is on my computer...the one with the date of the laptop purchase

Then I just go ahead with the restore...took me a while to confirm this was the actual procedure. Not many people over at Dell know about this one, even though it's "different" on other laptops, even among their own, they STILL should know about it...especially when it's their most popular laptop for goodness sake, the freaking inspiron 1545.....


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[Ztruker]

Then restore my computer without saving anything.

Was ther an option to restore and save your data also?

 

[Wandering Flame]

Yes, but that was kind of useless plus I don't want to rely on Dell to save my data. They don't even know that that option was there. I wonder why I should trust it even works.

 

[gregrocker]

The Recovery utility sometimes has the ability to save your files if they are still readable on the HD, even if Win7 will not boot and has been damaged otherwise beyond repair.

However this is not a reason to not back up your files at all times, because a virus may have infected the HD requiring the drive to be cleaned.