No, in no case do you ever need to pay to Factory Recovery or do the vastly superior Clean Reinstall Windows 7. You only need a working Recovery partition or the Product Key on COA sticker under battery or on bottom of laptop.
It should prompt on the BIOS splash screen which key to press to Factory Recover which is not the same as System Restore, usually F11 or F8 and similar to this: How to restore your Windows 7 computer to factory settings | Dell US .
But this reinstalls all of the bloatware which is not nearly as good as doing the Clean Reinstall Windows 7 using the Product Key which should be on the COA sticker on the bottom of laptop or under battery. Follow the steps in the link and you'll have the best possible install that will stay that way as long as you do.
Feel free to ask back any questions and let us know how it goes.
Answer from Greg Carmack on learn.microsoft.comNo, in no case do you ever need to pay to Factory Recovery or do the vastly superior Clean Reinstall Windows 7. You only need a working Recovery partition or the Product Key on COA sticker under battery or on bottom of laptop.
It should prompt on the BIOS splash screen which key to press to Factory Recover which is not the same as System Restore, usually F11 or F8 and similar to this: How to restore your Windows 7 computer to factory settings | Dell US .
But this reinstalls all of the bloatware which is not nearly as good as doing the Clean Reinstall Windows 7 using the Product Key which should be on the COA sticker on the bottom of laptop or under battery. Follow the steps in the link and you'll have the best possible install that will stay that way as long as you do.
Feel free to ask back any questions and let us know how it goes.
Make sure you can read the Key then you have your ticket to the best install possible if you follow carefully Clean Reinstall Windows 7 .
Also be sure during the booted install to delete all partitions down to Unallocated Space to get it cleanest.
Follow all the steps but especially those for drivers which are important enough they are printed in red, and the special steps to get Windows Update to run correctly since it's not worked without them for several years.
Feel free to ask back any questions and let us know how it goes.
Videos
How do I reset my Alienware laptop Windows 7?
How do I reset my Alienware laptop without a password?
How do I force my computer to factory reset?
- Use Reset This PC
- Use the created recovery drive
- Reinstall Windows via installation media
I want to reset my laptop to factory settings. I want to remove everything on it but keep all the software I had out of the box. Can I do this by using the Reset This PC option in Windows or will it restore a vanilla Windows if I do that?
Anyone know the best way to factory reset Alienware x15 Windows 11 Home laptop so it’s like when it came out of the box without losing all the Dell Alienware software .
You say that you have a boot media for Windows 10 that was created by the Media Creation Tool.
In that case, doing a reset to the disk is simple: Boot with it and do the installation. When you arrive at the disk selection step, select the disk and quick-format it, so it becomes totally Unallocated.
Now select the disk and install Windows. It will allocate the required partitions and install itself.
Alright, so I finally got my pc to work and was able to format it.
As a side-note, whatever you do, don't turn your boot mode to legacy within the BIOS, because your pc won't be able to turn on anymore and you'll have to reset the bios manually by disassembling the pc and taking out the CMOS... I digress.
This answer is specifically for dell users as I said in the comments above, the factory reset can (and should) only be done using dell's utility software because they identify the computer's serial number and serve the software with windows genuine software key.
- Download the software via dell's support, I used the following link but make sure you find the right link, from the website relevant to where you made your purchase.
- Put it in an adequate USB
- Disconnect every "extra" hard drive or SSD or RAM you put yourself on the pc as they seem to interfere with the factory reset. (By opening your pc and removing the said components). Keep only the original stuff the computer came with.
- Restart your pc and press F12 or F2 to select the USB as a boot option.
- Make sure you have an internet connection as you need to "Factory Reset and download the updates" and not just "factory reset".
- Follow through the procedure
- When your pc is up and running install additional updates.
These are the steps that worked for me.
Hello, I’m posting for a friend who says they have a 2013 Alienware 17-4700mq windows 7
They have tried restarting and then hitting f8, but it asks for a cd, which they don’t have. They have also called customer service but since they aren’t in warranty they want like $140 to help factory reset it!
Is there any other way to do this? Thank you
Hi guys,
I've got an m15 on order and I'm trying to figure out how I will restore this laptop back to factory default if I should ever need to. The problem is, I've read all kind of conflicting information, most of which seems to stem from some methods being out of date I think. I'd be wanting to restore EVERYTHING (i.e the stock software and Alienware customizations) like, exactly how it came when I turned it on for the first time.
It seems like in the past, you used AlienRespawn, but from what I can find, this software is no longer supported. I think it's replacement is the standard Dell backup and restore software used on all their PCs...? At the same time, I can't find any confirmation on if this will restore everything, as a lot of the stuff I read mentioned restoring Windows.
I think the most likely way of doing what I want is the "Restore Dell Factory Image" option in the boot options. The question is, what's the best way to backup this image in case something happens to the hard drive? Does the Dell backup software create a backup of this? Or would I need to use some disk imaging software or something?
I'm not quite sure how to do it. I'm suppose to enter the advanced boot up using f8 right? And then select repair computer? Only thing is I don't know if I have a factory image file on a either disc. It's an Alienware r2 15.
Edit 1: and the Dell OS USB Recovery program doesn't recognize my service tag... Any ideas?
Edit 2: after hours of working on it I've determined it can never be done. I cant get any kinda of recovery media for it and it can't find any other way to reset it to factory conidition. So apparently I can't ever sell it either. Lol this should be so easy....
Hello,
I just purchased an alienware r15 last week and its been giving me issues and will be returning it to best buy. Is there a way to do a factory reset to delete all my files but leave windows on it since I don't own a copy of windows 11?