I need to restore a friends laptop to factory condition. All info has been backed up on their external hard drive. I don't have a Windows 7 os disc, nor has there been a previous system image created. A simple system restore only goes back a month.
I have googled this a million times but all answers are either conflicting or way over my head. I can do some minor fixes with computers, but I guess I just need a confident yes or no answer! :)
I am operating the laptop from safe mode only, as there is a software issue causing a BSOD. Not interested in spending anymore time trying to fix the original problem - just want to restore to factory or however far back I can go without having the disc.
Thanks in advance.
How-To Geek Forums / Windows 7
Can I return Windows7 to factory without a disc and/or a system image?
(21 posts)
You can get a free disk from here,
http://www.askvg.com/direct-do.....nd-64-bit/
If it still boots Belarc Advisor will tell you what the Product Key is.
Recovery discs OR hitting F11 at boot will allow you to reinstall to factory default.
Xhi, the Belarc advisor shows 2 keys. The OEM key which is no good for activation and the original Microsoft key. But on the latter they warn you that it may or may not be the right one. I think it is safer to go with the COA sticker key (unless that is unreadable as was the case of one person recently).
No reason why F11 - factory restore would NOT work.
Except maybe hard disk failure and/or recovery partition is kaput / gone.
See section 'Recovery from the startup screen (during system boot)' from HP support site
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/ewfr.....ct=4078808
If you download and install from a Win7 disk you will not have a factory restore, just a Win7 O/S. If your attempting a factory restore hopefully the restore image partition is still good.
If you a Win7 install you will need all drivers for the computer model. You have to download from the mfg website so you have all of them available to install after you install your O/S
