How do I hard reset my laptop?

[steve z]

Have a Dell Inspiron laptop that I need to hard reset to get ready for sale. Could someone let me know how I do this?

[philthy]

Do you have any disks that came with the laptop? or is it an image on a seperate partition of your hard drive?
Browse through your installed programmes, and see if you have something like "Dell system restore" installed.

[steve z]

philthy said:

Do you have any disks that came with the laptop? or is it an image on a seperate partition of your hard drive?
Browse through your installed programmes, and see if you have something like "Dell system restore" installed.

I don't. I bought it second hand initially, but i'll check to see if they're on there.

[philthy]

It might help if you let us know which model number it is.

[steve z]

philthy said:

It might help if you let us know which model number it is.

Inspiron 6000 I think!

[neil_bolton]

steve z said:

philthy said:

It might help if you let us know which model number it is.

Inspiron 6000 I think!

Dells only come with 2 discs - A Windows installation disc, and then a driver disc. You may have additional application discs if it had them preinstalled.

You simply want to blow the existing windows partition away, install Windows again, and then reinstall the drivers.

Depending on how nice you are feeling, you could then download all the Windows Updates etc, but thats down to you.

Technically, a hard reset is when you power a device down and back up again in an ungraceful manner, in many cases by holding down the power button until it goes off.

What you want to do is rebuild the machine by reinstalling Windows.

[steve z]

Thanks Neil.

How do I 'blow the Windows partition away'?

[Muntu]

CTRL & F11 on boot up normally works with XP Dells - may work with yours ? If it does, it will restore it to the same condition that it left the factory.

If not, phone Dell and see if you can blag a recovery disc from them.

[neil_bolton]

steve z said:

Thanks Neil.

How do I 'blow the Windows partition away'?

When you insert the disc and run it, you'll be given a choice to either install Windows or something or other else (can't remember off the top of my head).

When you've accepted the EULA, you'll get to choose whether to install on a new partition (if any) or delete existing partitions.

As Windows will be installed on an existing partition, delete that, and then recreate a new partition and install Windows on that.

Thats why we say 'blow it away' - essentially deleting the partition XP is installed on

[philthy]

Try hitting Ctrl + F11 on boot up.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=3...

If that doesn't work, a frsh windows installation, and installation of these drivers will do the trick:

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/devices....

Hope this helps?

Edit to add:
Too slow....doh!
Further edit to add:

Once you have re-installed windows, download this:
http://www.fileshredder.org/
and shred free space on the highest settings possible. Just to be on the safe side.

Edited by philthy on Wednesday 30th July 14:42

Edited by philthy on Wednesday 30th July 14:45

[neil_bolton]

Muntu said:

CTRL & F11 on boot up normally works with XP Dells - may work with yours ? If it does, it will restore it to the same condition that it left the factory.

If not, phone Dell and see if you can blag a recovery disc from them.

Depends on whether or not its a later Dell with the (IMHO annoying) restore partition.