What are factory settings?
Almost all computers comes pre-configured with the factory setting from the vendors. These settings are important for the computer’s gradual operations. This quite understandable for a notebook computer which have special buttons for multiple operations like function buttons and touch screen computers which requires special drivers for its proper operations. Factory settings are actually default window settings and it doesn’t have any customizations or changes that you may do later.
But the may come a time when you could decide to remove all your customize setting and restore your computer to factory settings. This may happen if you are willing to sell your system or your system is badly affect by malware or some corrupt software problem. In this post we will discuss how you could factory reset your computer.
STEP 1: Save your files and folders before continuing
Whatever be the reason, now you want to restore your system so, first make sure all your files and folders are intact and save it at proper place. It may be different for different systems. Depending upon the system and windows configuration each and every system may have different recovery systems. Some system may be able to save all your personal data and files but it is not sure that your version of the recovery system may save all your files so it would be better if you start off by saving all your data.
The restore of the factory setting should be taken in a similar way as that of the formatting of the entire hard drive. So, we will recommend you to backup all of your data to an external hard drive. Don’t care for the programs you can backup later just save all your important personal data.
STEP 2: How you can restore your computer
There are actually two ways by which you can restore factory defaults to your system. That by:
- By re-installing the windows from the windows installation disk.
- By using recovery partition or recovery disk.
For using first method you will need a windows installation disk. From the disk you need to get access to the windows reinstall or repair process. This is actually possible by using the windows installation disk.
But as now most of the vendors are not providing any installation disk with their systems so it may be rather tricky. Instead of that computer now comes with a recovery partition or a recovery disk. Each vendor ships their recovery programs with different names but they are all same and do the same function. For Acer it is called Acer eRecovery, for Sony it is Sony viao recovery wizard, for dell it is dell factory image restore, for HP it is HP PC system recovery etc.
You can access these recovery tools from the windows itself but in the case if your window is not starting you can also use the boot option. At the time of the booting of the system, just look for the text stating to take you to the recovery wizard. It is actually a function key that should be pressed to access the recovery screen during boot process.
STEP 3: Restoring your system to factory settings
As each vendor has its own set of the recovery program for the restoration so there is no definite way to describe all the vendors and their recovery tools. But basic workings of all the recovery tools are almost same and work in a general way which has been summarized in this article. The basic processes are same for almost all recovery tools and follow these processes.
- First of all you will need to start the restoration program or the recovery program in your windows. And if your computer is not starting or is suffering from some problem which is not letting you to start your recovery program from inside window then you can also access it from your computer’s boot cycle. You need to start your system and look for something in the boot screen that suggest you recovery or restore. You need to press some function button during boot process.
Once, you start the recovery program it will notify you that most or all of your data stored on your hard disk may be deleted during the process.
- Once you confirm and start the process, you will be guided to some sort of the process screen. This screen may appear after your computer reboot or in some of the system it has been found that recovery screen is reached directly by shutting down the current window and boot directly to the restoration program. Once this process is started, now you can not the cancel or abort the process as you are set in the course. This process may take several minutes to several hours depending upon your system configuration.
- Once the restoration process is complete the computer will reboot and will begin the windows setup process again. The computer is now restored to the previous default factory settings and now you will need to complete and setup your windows by creating your user account and choosing the right settings for yourself like you did when you started your computer for the first time.
STEP 4: Finalizing the restoration process
By default the restoration wizard will completely restore all the factory settings and default customizations to ensure proper working of your system. But in some situations there is possibility that some of the drivers may not be installed. It might be possible that you will not be able to set up screen resolution or may not be hearing any audio. For the installation of these drivers you will need to use the driver disks which are provided with the system by the respective vendors. These disks contain the proper driver that configures your system for optimum performance.
If you don’t have the driver disks then you will need to download the drivers to your computer from the respective vender’s online support site. You can choose the drivers according to you laptop’s model no. and the type of windows installed.
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