“Hello, I’m trying to do a factory restore of my Toshiba M205-S4806, and it won’t work…It has been loading very slowly from the “Toshiba Leading Innovation” screen. When I try to do the “0” from restart to initiate the reboot, it’ll take forever to get past that screen…”tomsguide
When you search “laptop factory reset” on the internet, you will find many searching results. Thereinto, the above example is the one question asked by many users.
As a matter of fact, to restore your computer to factory settings is an option to help you solve many issues on Windows 10/8/7. Let’s see some details.
About Factory Reset
When it comes to factory reset, you should know something about it.
To be specific, it can also be known as master reset, referring to a software restore of an electronic device to the original system state – manufacturer setting via deleting all information stored on the device. As for computer factory reset, it will delete all the user data.
To factory reset laptop is often done to fix many issues. Perhaps your laptop has some problems with performance, for instance, the computer is running slowly.
Or your laptop is picking up a virus or you only want to remove all your files, passwords, programs and other sensitive information and then throw away the laptop.
All those things can be achieved by a factory reset. Then, you will ask: how do I restore my computer to factory settings?
How to Factory Reset a Laptop in Windows 10/8/7
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And then, you can take action to factory reset Windows 10/8/7. Now here we will show you some useful methods.
Way 1: Use Recovery Partition
How to factory reset Windows 7 without password? How to factory reset Windows 8 without CD? How to do Windows 10 factory reset from boot? These three questions may be asked by you. Actually, it is quite easy to factory reset laptop with a recovery partition.
As is well known, recovery partition refers to the special partition on your disk used to restore the system to its factory settings in case system failure happens.
If your system is installed on a GPT disk, there will be a built-in Windows recovery partition that is visible in Windows Disk Management. In addition, there is another kind of recovery partition called supplier’s recovery partition, including these manufacturers Dell, HP, Lenovo and more.
Both of these two kinds of recovery partition are available to restore laptop to factory settings.
To factory reset laptop in Windows 10/8/7, follow the steps below:
1. Restart your laptop.
2. During the startup, press the corresponding key(s) to boot your computer into the recovery environment. Perhaps you will ask: how to factory reset an HP laptop or Toshiba laptop? How to reset a Dell laptop?
In fact, as for different laptop manufacturers, the specific key is different. For instance, Dell (F8), Acer (Alt+ F10), HP (F11), Samsung(F4), Lenovo (F11), Asus (F9), Toshiba (0) and more. Suppose that you want to boot from a recovery disc, to change the boot order should be done.
3. After that, follow the corresponding instructions to factory reset laptop.
For more information, watch this video.
Way 2: Windows 10 Reset This PC Keep My Files
If there is no recovery partition on your laptop, what should you do to let your laptop restore to factory settings? The way is to reset your laptop.
Additionally, you may be wondering: how to factory reset Windows 10 without settings? How to factory reset Windows 8 without CD? Actually, Reset this PC can be used for this work.
To factory reset Windows 10/8, the steps are the same. Here take Windows 10 as an example.
1. Select Settings after clicking Start.
2. Click Update & security.
3. Then navigate to Recovery tab, select Get Started to begin laptop factory reset.
4. Then two options will be displayed, including Keep my files or Remove everything. Select one.
5. Then you see some apps installed after getting the laptop will be removed. Click Next.
6. Click Reset to begin the operation now.
If your laptop fails to boot, you can enter WinPE to do this job. Go to Troubleshoot > Reset this PC > Keep my files > Choose an account > Enter the password > Reset.
Then, Windows 10 factory reset from boot will be performed.
Way 3: Use Windows Restore Point
If you are using Windows 7, you probably ask: how do I restore my computer to factory settings Windows 7? How to factory reset Windows 7 without CD?
In this case, you can use the system restore point you have created after you purchase the laptop to restore laptop to factory settings.
- When the system is unbootable, you can press F8 at startup to choose Safe Mode with Command Prompt.
- After Command Prompt logs in Administrator, type exe to bring up system restore window and perform the restoration following the instructions.
Restore Laptop to the Previous State with System Backup
When your laptop runs slowly or suffers from some serious problems, you can choose to factory reset laptop to fix these issues with the above three ways. However, you know all the user data and programs since you purchased the laptop will be deleted. And you need to reinstall these applications, which is time-consuming.
Under this circumstance, we advise you to create a system backup on a regular basis and then you can restore your laptop to an earlier date.
Here the free backup software – MiniTool ShadowMaker released by MiniTool Solution Ltd. is really very easy-to-use and reliable for system backup, partition backup, disk backup and the corresponding restoration in Windows 10/8/7.
As for an ideal backup solution, the scheduled backup, incremental backup, and differential backup are also supported in this program.
Here we strongly recommend you to download MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial Edition, install it on your laptop and back up the system in Windows 10/8/7 after you get the new laptop.Then in the event of system corruption, use the system backup to restore your laptop to an earlier date.
MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Related article: 3 Ways to Create Automatic File Backup in Windows 10 Easily
Here we will show you how to back up the system and restore it to the earliest computer setting state.
Back up Windows 10/8/7
Step 1: After opening your laptop and installing MiniTool ShadowMaker, you can enter an interface to choose to manage the local computer or another computer on the same LAN.
Step 2: In Backup page, by default, you know MiniTool can choose the system drives used to boot the laptop to back up. (This program always selects the system partitions in the current OS).
Then, click the Destination section to choose the storage location for the system image. You had better choose an external hard drive which can be connected to your laptop via USB cable.
Step 3: Please perform the system backup image operation by hitting Back Up Now. Then you need to wait for a few minutes until the backup operation is completed.
System Restore for Laptop
In the case of system crash, you can use the system backup created before to restore your laptop to earlier settings.
How can you do this work with system image? Look at the steps as shown below.
In order to do a system restore, you are required to create MiniTool ShadowMaker Bootable Edition to do a system restore in WinPE. Here the Media Builder feature enables you to create a bootable CD/DVD or USB drive to boot your laptop.
Perhaps you are looking for:
- How to Build Boot CD/DVD Discs and Boot Flash Drive with Bootable Media Builder?
- How to Boot from Burned MiniTool Bootable CD/DVD Discs or USB Flash Drive?
After that, just begin the system restore in Windows 10/8/7.
Step 1: In the Restore tab, all backup versions are listed here. Just choose the newest system backup to restore your laptop to the previous date.
Step 2: Select a backup version, and click Next.
Step 3: All partitions in the selected system backup image will be checked by default. From the following screenshot, you know MBR and Track 0 is selected. Don’t uncheck it. If not, after restoration, your system can’t boot.
Step 4: Then, you will see all hard drives connected to your laptop via USB cable will be listed. Please choose a target disk to restore the system image to. Usually, we recommend you to restore the image file to the original system disk.
After clicking Next, a warning will pop up to tell you which partition the image will be restored to and all partition data on the drive will be overwritten.
Step 5: Then the restoration process will be performed. Please wait for a few minutes.
Like that, your laptop can be restored to an earlier time by means of a system backup made in advance. Just free download MiniTool ShadowMaker to have a try now.
MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Hot article: 2 Ways to Restore Computer to Earlier Date in Windows 10
Why Restore Laptop from System Backup Not Factory Reset Laptop
In the above sections, you know how to factory reset Windows 10/8/7 and how to restore the computer to an earlier date with MiniTool ShadowMaker.
By contrast, we strongly advise you to use MiniTool ShadowMaker to back up your laptop.
Why?
Actually, you know laptop factory reset can restore laptop to factory settings, namely, all user data and programs after purchase will be deleted. Then you need to download and install these programs again. This is not a good way to solve system issues.
But, with the help of MiniTool ShadowMaker, you can make a system image and set to perform backup task regularly. Once your laptop gets something wrong, the system image file can be available to restore the computer to an earlier date quickly and effectively.
In addition, this freeware enables you to back up the entire disk to protect data. Now, free download this program for a try!
MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Bottom Line
In this post, we tell you what factory reset is on a laptop, how to factory reset laptop Windows 7/8/10, how to use MiniTool ShadowMaker to back up and restore the system and the comparison of these two types of system issue solution. When the system can’t boot, just choose one way to restore it to a normal state.
If there is any question when using our software, please feel free to tell us. You can write an email and send it to our official mailbox [email protected] or leave your comment in the corresponding comment location. Besides, as for the suggestion to this post, we are also appreciated.
How to Reset a Laptop FAQ
You can restore your laptop to the factory settings via Reset this PC if you are running Windows 10. Just go to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery and click Get started under the Reset this PC section. Then, choose to keep your files or remove everything and follow the on-screen instructions to finish the factory reset.
In addition, you can also use Recovery partition or a system restore point to restore the PC to factory settings.
- Choose Control Panel from the Start menu.
- Go to System and Security and click Backup and Restore.
- Click the Recover system settings or your computer.
- Click Advanced recovery methods.
- Choose Return your computer to factory condition.
- Click Skip and then start the factory reset.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Vera is an editor of the MiniTool Team since 2016 who has more than 5 years’ writing experiences in the field of technical articles. Her articles mainly focus on disk & partition management, PC data recovery, video conversion, as well as PC backup & restore, helping users to solve some errors and issues when using their computers. In her spare times, she likes shopping, playing games and reading some articles.