Sometimes a computer owner is faced with the need to clean the system of various bugs that interfere with normal operation. This can be done by reinstalling the operating system, or using special utilities. But there is a method that has several undeniable advantages over them.

Resetting the settings to factory defaults will help restore the device to functionality in most cases, even if you cannot start the OS. This method is especially relevant for those who do not want to waste time reinstalling the OS.

When restoring factory settings, the OS will be reinstalled automatically. You will not need to enter the OS activation code again. That will be restored Windows version, which came with the laptop upon purchase.

By rolling back the BIOS, you will eliminate the problems listed above. In this article we will look at how to return a laptop to factory settings and restore its functionality. There are several methods, which we will take a closer look at.

The option to reset settings may be needed if:

What are the factory settings?

Factory parameters are set by the manufacturer for specific model computer or laptop. They store BIOS settings and computer configuration parameters. This information is located in the device's dynamic memory, which is called CMOS.
All factory settings take up very little space and are separately powered - from a small battery located on the motherboard. You can reset the laptop parameters without access to the BIOS. To do this, simply remove the battery, wait 30-40 seconds, and insert it again.

After the reset process is completed BIOS settings and the OS is reinstalled, you will receive the laptop in the same condition in which you bought it in the store.

It is worth noting that to successfully return the device to factory settings, in addition to CMOS, you need a Recover partition, which stores setup files and other necessary system information.

Video: Laptop factory settings

Where is Recovery located and its activation

A hidden partition on the hard drive that stores all the files needed to restore the system is called Recovery. It is created by default on all laptops, and is deleted or damaged in most cases as a result of incorrect user actions.

You can see where the hidden section is located:

There you can see the size that Recovery occupies on the HDD. Typically this is 20-25 GB of system information and installation files.

If you have a Toshiba laptop, then you have probably already noticed that on drive D there is a system folder called HDD Recovery. It also stores the information necessary to reset the system, so it cannot be deleted.

Activating Recovery starts the process of resetting user BIOS changes, restoring factory settings, and reinstalling the OS and system programs and drivers.

To activate Recovery, press a specific hotkey combination. This will allow you to enter the system menu, where you can select several system recovery options. It should be remembered that each manufacturer has its own combination of hot keys; below we will look at the most popular ones.

Restoring settings using hotkeys

In order to return your laptop to factory settings, you should remember several hotkey combinations. When the system boots, you should press hot keys to access the BIOS Setup menu, from where you can start the process of restoring parameters.

Depending on the manufacturer computer equipment, hot keys and their combinations differ:

1. Toshiba - depending on the model F8, or 0, or Fn+0;
2. Sony - F10;
3. Acer – Alt and F10 at the same time;
4. HP, LG and Lenovo – F11;
5. Samsung – F4;
6. Fujitsu - F8;
7. ASUS – F9;
8. Dell - both Ctrl and F11, but in some models F8;
9. Packard Bell - F10. If you have Windows 8 installed, you can use the power button when you log in. You should hold down Shift and at the same time select the “Reboot” menu item;
10. MSI – F3, and on some models F11.

How to reset a laptop to factory settings via BIOS

Using hot keys, you can roll back custom system changes and return the BIOS to factory settings.

On the black screen that appears, select sequentially:

1. option "Running the recovery center" for Sony, or "Troubleshooting your computer" for Toshiba, or "System Recovery" for HP;
2. menu item "Load Defaults BIOS".

Depending on the manufacturer, the option name may vary: "Load BIOS Setup Defaults", "Load Safe-Fail Defaults", but the words "Load" and "Default" will definitely be present.

Preparation

Prepare for a factory reset:

After you start the process of resetting the settings, the process of collecting information and preparing system files. This may take some time, so don't worry.

Recovery process

Once you start the recovery process, all actions will be performed automatically, without your participation. The computer may reboot if required by the installed software. During the process of resetting the settings, device drivers will be restored and standard system programs will be installed.

It is worth mentioning that it is not always possible to successfully reset the settings on a laptop. This is possible if:

If a smartphone or tablet running Android starts to work incorrectly or is blocked, the user can log into Recovery menu and reset the gadget to factory settings, thus restoring its functionality. What about Windows laptops, is it possible to bring them back to life in a similar way? In principle, yes, but for this there must be a special partition on the laptop’s hard drive. What this section is and what advantages its presence on the computer provides will be discussed below, but for now let me say a few words about restoring factory settings on the laptop itself.

What does it mean to restore factory settings on a laptop?

Resetting a laptop to factory settings is a fully automatic reinstallation of Windows with all system applications and drivers provided by the manufacturer. During the reset process, the system logical partition is formatted, all user data and settings on it are deleted, followed by Windows deployment from a backup located on a special hidden Recovery section or HDD Recovery.

Once the reset is complete, you will receive the laptop in the same condition it was in at the time of purchase. An exception is made only for drive D - the data on it is not deleted during the recovery process. There is also no need to re-enter your activation code. Windows key. It is important to note, however, that resetting a laptop to factory settings only affects software part, this procedure does not solve hardware problems.

When a factory reset may be necessary

Returning to factory settings will be relevant in case of serious malfunctions operating system, with frequent critical failures caused by problems and errors in the software, Windows infection viruses, as well as its blocking. Reset can also be used as an alternative to manual reset for other reasons.

In what cases is reset not possible?

If you purchase a laptop without an operating system, you should not expect that there will be a recovery partition on its disk. It is not possible to restore factory settings on such a laptop; in such cases, other methods are used to reset the system to its original state.

It will be impossible to roll back to the original parameters even when there was a recovery partition, but in the process of manual relocation Windows installations the master or the user himself deleted it, wanting to get more free space on the hard drive. The solution in this case may again be to reinstall or search for an image of the system partition for a given laptop model on torrents or the manufacturer’s official website.

Sequence of restoring factory settings on laptops

The sequence of actions when resetting a laptop computer to its original settings may differ from model to model, but, as a rule, these differences are insignificant. As an example, we will show how to restore factory settings for Asus, Acer, HP, Samsung, Lenovo and Toshiba laptops.

For Asus

To load the built-in recovery mechanism on Asus laptops, the F9 key is provided, which you need to hold down when you turn on the laptop, but before that you need to make sure that you have disabled the fast boot function. You can deactivate it (if the PC does not boot) in the BIOS on the Boot tab (Boot Master option).

In the recovery environment, select , agree to delete personal files and click “Next”.

Then click Only the drive on which the system is installed – Just delete my files – Restore to original state.

After this, the recovery procedure will be launched, upon completion of which you will be asked to re-create your account and set up your computer.

For Acer

The factory reset procedure for Acer laptops is slightly different. If the system boots, you can reset the settings using the proprietary utility Acer Recovery Management, launched through the Start menu (all applications). In the utility window, you need to select the “Restore factory settings” option, after which the recovery environment will be loaded, in which you need to repeat all the steps described in the previous paragraph (for Asus laptops).

If Windows does not boot, use a key combination to enter the recovery environment Alt+F10, having first made sure that the option is enabled in the BIOS on the Main tab D2D Recovery. If it is disabled, be sure to enable it, otherwise Alt + F10 will not work.

Otherwise, we proceed according to the first scenario: select on the screen Diagnostics – Return to original state and so on.

For HP

Like Acer, HP brand laptops come with a built-in proprietary utility HP Recovery Manager, which can be launched either through the Start menu or by pressing the F11 button when turning on the device. Resetting a laptop to factory settings with its help is not difficult. If the computer does not boot, press F11 when turning it on and select actions from the standard menu .

In the next window, enable the option “Recover without creating a backup copy of files” and click “Next” as many times as the wizard asks.

After a short preparation, the reset process itself will begin, after which all you have to do is set up your computer. If the operating system is still able to boot on its own, launch HP Recovery Manager through the interface, select “Environment Windows recovery" After reboot, select Diagnostics – Recovery Manager and repeat the steps described above until setting up your account.

For Samsung

IN Samsung laptops It also has its own system recovery utility. It is called Samsung Recovery Solution and is called by pressing the F4 button when turning on the computer. The recovery procedure in it is not too complicated, the only thing you need to do before starting it is to copy the files that are important to you to a removable hard drive or other portable media, since there is a high probability that during the process of returning factory settings, the partitions created by the user will be deleted with everything their contents.

So, press F4 when loading, accept in the utility’s welcome window license agreement, we refuse the offer to create backup copy system and click “Recovery” in the initial window.

At this point you will be prompted to set additional parameters. In principle, you can skip this step, but it will be better if you follow these rules:

1. You need to select the earliest restore point.
2. It is better to disable deleting data from additional partitions, although it is not certain that this will help.
3. Enable the “Save user data” option.

Having prepared in this way, click “Restore”, confirm the action and wait for the procedure to complete.

Procedure in fifth Samsung versions Recovery Solution slightly different. Here we also press F4, in the utility window we select Recovery – Full recovery.

For Lenovo

Next on our list are Lenovo laptops. Let's see how to reset a laptop of this brand to factory settings. There is nothing complicated here either, since Lenovo uses its own proprietary utility to reset OneKey Rescue System. Unlike previous models, entering the recovery environment is not done using standard keys top row, and using a special “Novo Button” button located next to the power button of the laptop.

With the laptop turned off, press this very button and use the arrow keys to select the System Recovery option.

In the utility window that opens, click sequentially Restore from original backup – Next – Start and confirm the action by clicking the “Yes” button.

The factory reset procedure will begin, and you will be notified of its completion by a corresponding message.

For Toshiba

In the case of Toshiba laptops, everything is very similar, but there are also some nuances here. Restoring to original settings is done using proprietary software Toshiba HDD Recovery or Toshiba Recovery Wizard(in older models). To go to the utility interface on new Toshiba models, you need to hold down the 0 key and then turn on the laptop. When is it heard sound signal, the 0 key must be released. Then everything is simple, you just need to follow the instructions of the wizard.

Older models use the traditional F8 key to load the recovery tool, which opens a menu of additional boot options. In this menu you need to select Troubleshooting your computer - Toshiba Recovery Wizard. After reading the warnings, click sequentially Restoring the factory default software – Restore to the state at the time of purchase – Next.

After this, the procedure itself will begin, upon completion of which you will be asked to restart the computer and reconfigure the system.

Instead of a total

The recommendations given in this article are of a general nature; the details of the process of reverting a laptop to factory settings for Windows 7/10 may differ. There may be differences in the interface of proprietary utilities different versions, it is also possible that in some laptop model the recovery environment boot key will be different. For example, the “Novo Button” button in Lenovo may be located in a different location, and so on. All this is generally unimportant, the main thing is that there is an HDD Recovery partition on the hard drive and that the factory backup files are not damaged. Otherwise, to restore Windows functionality, you will need at least installation disk with the operating system.

If your laptop freezes or slows down, the operating system is “cluttered” with unnecessary modules and applications, or is blocked, the easiest way out is to do Hard Reset, reset to factory settings.
This article is dedicated to restoring factory settings on a laptop. We will tell you step by step how to do this, and in what situations Hard Reset is impossible.

When you can't restore factory settings on your laptop

Reinstalling the operating system on a laptop is the first reason that prevents you from resetting user settings. Every second person, after purchasing a laptop, installs another software- most often Windows 7. The thing is that when reinstalling Windows 7 or 10, the partition on the hard drive is deleted, which is responsible for resetting the settings. This section is hidden and therefore the deletion occurs out of ignorance.

But even if you call a professional computer technician to replace the software, 85% of the time the same situation will happen. Computer technicians, workers service department delete a section either out of ignorance or because of the belief that pirated version the operating system is better, and therefore there is no need to reset the settings to factory data.

If the OS was reinstalled on your laptop, you can look for a disk with an image of the partition that was deleted. Such a disc can most often be downloaded from pirated resources. There is also an official opportunity to buy a disk with reset settings; this can be done on the manufacturers’ websites. Another option is to install a clean operating system on your laptop.

If the OS was not reinstalled after purchasing the laptop, a Hard Reset is not so difficult to do, but only if you follow the instructions strictly. And you should know that the steps that will lead to a factory reset will be different for different models portable personal computers.

You should be prepared for the following to happen after the reset procedure:

1. Deleting all user information on Drive C.
2. Formatting the system partition and reinstalling the operating system without entering a key.
3. The first launch of the system is accompanied by the installation of all branded applications and drivers.

If the restoration is done from the first to the last step, your laptop will return to the condition in which you purchased it. But at the same time, hardware problems with the laptop will not be solved after restoring the factory settings. If the laptop overheats or reboots when running, for example, demanding applications, it will continue to do so. In order to fix such problems, it is necessary to replace the components.

Factory settings of Asus laptop

Asus laptops can be easily restored using special program. Follow these five steps to reset your settings:

Step one The Boot Booster in the BIOS is enabled by default on this brand of laptop. To disable it, you need to go into the BIOS. Immediately after turning on the laptop, press “F2”. The BIOS settings will open. Using the arrows, click “Boot Booster” in the “Boot” tab and disable it. Now you need to save this by clicking the corresponding “Save changes and exit” item on last tab. After saving the settings, the laptop will automatically restart. After rebooting, log out.

Step two Restoring a laptop from ASUSTeK Computer Inc. is preceded by pressing the “F9” button, after which you see the laptop booting.

Step Three The utility with which you perform a hard reset will need some time to prepare the files necessary for the Hard Reset. Then a warning will appear indicating that all information has been lost.

Step Four Immediately after this, the hardware reset and software reinstallation procedure starts.

Step Five While the procedure lasts, several system reboots will occur.

HP laptop factory settings

Before resetting your Hewlett Packard laptop, you need to disconnect all external media. Then follow the step-by-step instructions:

Step one Immediately after turning on, press the “F11” button, which launches the Recovery Manager. This is the software that comes with your Hewlett Packard home laptop. If the "F11" button does not bring up the Recovery Manager, launch it yourself (it can be found in installed applications).

Step two In this program, you need to click the “Recovery OS” button.

Step three Before performing a hard reset, the program will offer to copy the necessary files and information to external media.

Step four Hard Reset will automatically start. During the procedure, your HP laptop will reboot several times.

If you complete each step, the operating system will be reinstalled, new drivers necessary for the correct operation of all components, and proprietary applications from the developer will also be loaded.

Acer laptop factory settings

Making a hard reset on Acer laptops is even easier and faster. Before restoring factory settings, turn off your laptop. After turning it on again, press “Alt and F10” until the password entry field appears. Users who are doing a Hard Reset for the first time can enter the factory password - six zeros. After entering the correct password, the data reset menu will appear. Click on Factory reset. Here's a quick way.

There is another one that the factory program offers. It has an option to restore your computer.

Samsung laptop factory settings

The Recovery Solution software utility performs data reset for a Samsung laptop. If you cannot find it on your hard drive, or the system cannot be booted, use another method. Turn off/on your Samsung computer and while it is loading, press the “F4” button. This button will launch another system program with which you can reset to factory settings. Follow the step by step instructions:

Step one Click "Restore".

Step Two Click "Full Recovery"

Step three Click "Factory data reset".

Step Four The system will warn you about rebooting. Agree, and then follow the operating system commands.

The utility will automatically install drivers, settings and those programs that come with your Samsung laptop. But for all these settings and settings to take effect, you need to reboot again.

Resetting your Toshiba laptop to factory settings

The recovery program for Toshiba laptops starts after the PC is turned off/on. For the Hard Reset procedure, do the following:

• Press zero on your keyboard several times;
• Turn on your computer;
• After a characteristic “squeak” appears, release the button.

After launch software utility from Toshiba follow the instructions. If everything was done correctly, a hardware reset will occur and the laptop OS will be reinstalled.

Auto Windows reset to a state “like from a store” (Factory Reset) - a good alternative to installing an operating system from scratch. This in many cases makes life easier for the user, as it eliminates the need to reinstall it manually. And it’s a pity that this feature is not available on every device, but only on those where the system is installed by the manufacturer. This is almost 90% of all laptops, all-in-one PCs and branded desktop computers.

In what cases is it useful? reset windows 7 to factory settings:

• if you decide to sell your computer - state of hard the disc, just from the store, will only be “at hand” for the buyer;
• at enterprises - in case of transfer of a computer for use to another employee;
• if the operating system has suffered from a serious failure that cannot be fixed by anything other than a complete reinstallation;
• after long use and repeated installation and reinstallation of programs, the system began to work slowly - due to litter in the registry and system directories;
• Windows 7 stopped loading after installing a new driver - resetting to factory settings will restore the known working drivers that were installed initially.
• Windows 7 crashed for unknown reasons - the reset function will help solve the problem if the problem is not related to a malfunction hard drive.

Hidden recovery partition: where is it?

Why is the factory reset feature not available to everyone? The fact is that on computers where it is, HDD is marked in a special way: it has a hidden recovery partition (which is otherwise called a service partition), where it is stored copy of Windows 7 with all drivers and proprietary software. This partition is created by the PC manufacturer and about 15-20 GB of disk space is allocated to it (this is where the free place!). It does not appear in Explorer, but is visible through Disk Management. Let's see if you have this section.

• Open Control Panel >> Administrative Tools >> Computer Management applet.

Or in the context menu of the “Computer” folder, click “Management”.

• On the right side of the window, in the list of administration options, there is a “Disk Management” item. Click it.

Among other volumes, we see the same hidden partition under the name Samsung_REC (shown on the example of a laptop of this brand). It does not have a letter and is not accessible to the user from a running system. To look into it (but we do not advise you to do this unless necessary), you need to boot the computer from external media to Windows based or another OS, go to “Disk Management” and assign a letter to it. Then he, like the others, will be visible in the explorer.

If on your system disk such a section is present, you have the opportunity to reset Windows 7 to its original state. If not, then no.

How to reset your system

Some manufacturers equip their equipment proprietary utilities, which allow you to start the reset process directly from under running Windows. But this will not benefit those whose system does not boot. Therefore, almost every laptop, all-in-one or branded desktop is equipped with a rollback tool, which can be launched from the recovery environment or by pressing a certain key at startup.

Here is a list of some of them for devices of the most common brands:

ASUS-F9
Acer – Alt+F10 (but first you need to go into the BIOS and activate the D2D Recovery (Disk-to-Disk Recovery) option in it)
Dell Inspiron – Ctrl+F11
Dell XPS-F8
Lenovo ThinkPad – F11
Lenovo IdeaPad – special key “OneKey Rescue”
Fujitsu Siemens – F8
Toshiba – F8 or 0
Sony VAIO – F10 or “ASSIST” key
Packard Bell-F10
HP Pavilion - F11
LG-F11
Rover – Alt (hold)
Samsung - F4.

Preparation

Important! Before resetting Windows 7, transfer all important data that is stored on your hard drive to another drive. And not only from the system partition, but from all of them. On some devices, for example, from the Toshiba brand, the restoration procedure to factory settings is accompanied by repartitioning the disk and deleting information in all partitions. Restoring it after this will be very difficult, if not completely impossible.

Also make sure that the laptop battery is not discharged, otherwise a sudden power outage can cause a lot of trouble. Desktop computer and connect the monoblock to an uninterruptible power supply during this time.

Rollback with hotkeys

Pressing the above key starts the recovery wizard. In some cases (be careful, not in all!) you will be prompted to make a backup copy of your data. Before skipping this step, make sure that you have already created it.

The wizard’s instructions have been translated into Russian, so there shouldn’t be any difficulties using it. Just remember that once the recovery process has begun, it is impossible to cancel and you will definitely have to complete it. On average it takes 10-15 minutes.

After the procedure is completed, you will see the Windows 7 initial setup screen. The next step is to create the first account, activation, etc., is done in the same way as after a normal system installation.

Rollback using Windows utility

Consider running the recovery utility on a Packard Bell laptop, where it is built right into the Windows shell.

• Open Control Panel and launch the Backup and Restore applet.

• Click “Restore system settings or computer.”

• Click “Advanced Recovery Methods”.

• Select “Restore your computer to factory default state.”

Rollback from recovery environment

Another way to reset Windows is to run the Rollback Wizard from the Recovery Environment (Windows RE). To get into it, press F8 after starting the PC and select “Troubleshoot computer problems” from the menu that opens.

After loading the RE environment, select the interface language,

user account (password may be required),

Many have heard about the simple ability built into Windows 10 to soft reset the operating system, after which the user gets almost the same effect as after reinstallation. But something similar happened before, in previous versions! But not everyone knew about this “trick”...

In this post I want to talk about how you can simply reset Windows 7 to factory settings without reinstalling it. The only condition is that for work we will need an installation disk or one with “Seven”. Well, then everything is simple.

First, you need to boot using the installation media to launch the Windows Setup Wizard. Click on the “Install Now” button and reach the stage of selecting the installation type. Here you need to select not “ Full installation", as is usually done, but "Update".
This way you will start the procedure Inplace Upgrade. It involves updating the existing operating system on the computer.

Next you need to go through the steps that will be proposed, after which the OS will be restored to its original state (the same as it was after initial installation). But the best part is that this process will allow you to reset Windows 7 to factory settings and at the same time save the files and programs installed on the system drive!

Comment: Before you start the update process, I would recommend make a backup files stored on the system disk, and also prepared the latest versions of drivers in advance - they may well come in handy!
Please note that the above reset Windows settings 7 and restoring it to factory settings will only work if it starts normally. Otherwise, you will not succeed and you will simply waste your time.