HP dv6z will not allow restore to factory settings. Is this function available in is laptop or is it an HP that doesn't have the Restore to factory settings option. Does this mean I need the operating system disc to restore the computer to factory settings, like format hard drive, do a fresh instal of OS and have to buy all the pre-installed programs and go find/buy from HP the motherboard and other hardware drivers CD's? I hope not

SOURCE: I own a Dell Optiplex

Hi 
    What Operating System was on the Machine?

SOURCE: Dell Optiplex GX150 Factory Settings Restore Partition...

This is from the Dell support site. You were correct in pressing ctrl+f11 but perhaps you did not press at the correct time. If in following these first two steps you do not get the recovery console, it may not have been installed on your computer.



1 Turn on the computer.
2 When the Dell splash screen appears during the computer startup process, press and hold <Ctrl> and then press <F11>. Then, release both keys at the same time.
3 In the Dell PC Restore by Symantec window, click Restore. Alternatively, press <Tab> to highlight Restore, and then press <Enter>.
4 When a warning message appears stating that all data will be lost, click Confirm, or press <Tab> to highlight Confirm and then press <Enter>.

The Progress window will appear. Once the restore process starts, Dell PC Restore by Symantec usually takes about 8 to 10 minutes to finish.

When the restore process is complete, the following message will appear:
The system recovery process was successful.
5 Click Finish or press <Tab> to highlight Finish and then press <Enter> to restart the computer.
The software is now installed as it was when the computer was first received.

SOURCE: Compaq Presario m200 Laptop system recovery

buy or download a windows disk. insert it and format the partition and install a fresh copy

SOURCE: cant install OS BOOTMGR is missing

Usually the installer should have a function to allow you to wipe the disk, or delete partitions.

If it doesn't, and you do not care about the hard disk content, and it is acceptable to wipe out the entire hard disk, you can do so in Linux.

(There is a utility which will do everything for you - Darik's Boot and Nuke, you find it at http://www.dban.org/ . I'm also giving you the "manual" instructions below, though).

Boot with Ubuntu Live, open Terminal, become root with 'su'.

Now you need to know how your disk is "seen" by Linux. Since you only have the one disk and nonexistent disks will fail, we can try all the likely hard disk names. The first command that does NOT fail saying "No such device" is the good one:

fdisk /dev/sda
fdisk /dev/hda
fdisk /dev/cciss/c0d0
fdisk /dev/rd/c0d0
fdisk /dev/ida/c0d0

One of these commands (likely the first or second) will give you a menu ending in "Command (m for help)". type "p" and press Enter to list partitions; there should be only one and it should be a Linux type, probably 83. If it isn't, stop - something's wrong. But it should be.

The first column will say something like "/dev/sda3". Note the number at the end, here "3". You'll likely have "1".

Now type, "d" and press Enter. You'll be asked which partition to delete. Type the same number you saw earlier. Type "w" and Enter to save changes and exit. Type "q" and Enter to exit without changes. The partition can still be recovered, but the disk is now "unlocked".

Reboot and install the OS of your choice. The previous hard disk contents will be permanently lost, and you'll get a shiny new empty partition with a working OS.

You can also erase the disk without using fdisk (but you still need to know how it's named, and for that you can use fdisk) by typing

dd if = /dev/zero of = /dev/sda bs=1M count = 12

Here we suppose the disk turned out to be /dev/sda.

This will write twelve megabytes of zeroes to the beginning of the disk, effectively wiping any OS information there could be there. All disk data are as good as lost. The disk is now, to all installing purposes, a perfect blank. Reboot and install the OS of your choice.

Just for the record, omitting "count" will zealously wipe out the whole hard disk surface, all partitions, all data, irretrievably (except using residual hysteresis detection equipment - doubt if even NSA would take the trouble). This can be handy when decommissioning computers.

There are also

SOURCE: Restore Factory Settings on Dell Latitude D620 (refurbished)

Restart your system. As soon as the computer reboots and when you see the blue line on top of the screen with a label www.dell.com that the time that you have to hit ctrl+F11. Once Dell PC Restore appears click on the restore button.

Best of Luck