How do i restore my Dell laptop to factory settings?

This laptop was second hand and i dont have discs or anything.I tried holding Ctrl + F11 at the Dell loading bit and the windows bit but that didn't work,there must be a way to do it does anyone no?|||CTRL + F11 is the correct procedure for dell. During startup and certainly during the time when the Dell Logo is being displayed continuously depress the F11 key


If that does not work then perhaps your laptop is to old for this recovery procedure or the hard disk has at sometime been replaced and the recovery not been copied over.


look into the other suggestion or buy another o/s|||you will need a factory restore disc.



i would say screw the factory restore, do a clean install of windows 7/XP



you own a legal copy of windows (presumably) so you can download it using a torrent or whatever and burn it to a disc, when it asks for a cd key put in the one on the bottom of the computer.



make sure to backup your drivers first though (if you have a working windows operating system, if not download them later from dell)



edit:



the advantage of a clean install is that you dont get all that crapware that dell gives you with the operating system.|||To restore your Dell laptop, go to the start menu and search restore, you will get a link that probably will say Back-up and Restore. Click on that. Once you get the window up click to recover computer to original settings, if there's anything else just follow the instructions. It may take time to restore, so do this when you're not busy so you won't have to keep an eye on it.|||What model number and installed operating system ? good to always post this to get the best help.





Go to http://www.support.dell.com and download the user manual and read section on doing a system recovery and re install of the operating system.





Order the system recovery disc set by model and serial number from Dell Support and use them to re install the original operating system new and freah just like came on the lap top.|||if you want to restore your laptop to factory settings then you will need either a set of recovery discs or an windows operating system installation disc.


system restore won't reset your laptop, this is just to reset the settings if things go wrong.


good luck.|||I use the F8 key on start up to restore my Dells.





But go here http://support.dell.com/support/topics/g鈥?/a> for instructions