Dell Laptops - Restore factory settings

Before restoring factory settings on a Dell laptop,take a backup of all data and restart the system. There is no separate recovery disk shipped with Dell laptops; it is possible to restore the default configuration for Dell laptops through the BIOS settings menu. There is an option to restore the Dell Factory Image in the menu that will restore factory settings for the laptop. Once the system restoration starts, the drive will get formatted and the system software will be restored to factory condition. Once it is done, the laptop has to be restarted and other hardware device drivers or anti-virus software have to be installed manually. 

Intro

Here are the main steps to restore your Dell laptop to its factory settings. Depending on the model you own, the the procedure may vary slightly. 

Steps

Restore the computer to the default factory configuration 
Note: 
When you restore the computer to the default factory configuration, all data on the C drive is deleted. Before performing this procedure, back up any personal files. If you do not back up these files, the data will be lost.

1. Restart the computer 

     To do this, click Start, click the arrow next to the Lock button, and then click Restart.

      2. As the computer restarts, press the F8 key until the Advanced Boot Options menu appears on the screen.

  Note: You must press F8 before the Windows logo appears on the screen. If you press F8 after the Windows logo appears, the Advanced Boot Options menu does not appear on the screen. If you do not see the Advanced Boot Options menu, restart the computer, and then repeat this step until you see the menu on the screen.

 Press the Down arrow to select Repair Your Computer on the Advanced Boot Options menu, and then press Enter.

Specify the language settings that you want, and then click Next.

 Log in as a user who has administrative privileges and click OK.

Click   Dell Factory Image Restore.

In the Dell Factory Image Restore window, click Next.

 Check the box saying Yes, reformat the hard drive and restore system software to factory conditions.

Click Next. The computer is restored to the default factory configuration.

 When the restore operation is completed, click Finish to restart the computer.