Recovery option on boot doesn't work

Hi,

I could get your problem.Actually the primary partition of your pc is messed up. You need to reinstall your OS.To restore deleted partition try this recovery software because this tool is capable of restoring datas and disk volumes easily. You can get the demo version from here .If satisfied purchase the full version as i did..

What type of Laptop ? and operating system on it ?

Restoring your laptop to factory settings can take up to an hour to perform, depending upon the type of laptop and operating system on your machine. Prior to performing a system recovery, you should remove any external peripherals, such as ExpressCards, PC Cards, and USB-connected printers and hard drives. Turn on the laptop. Press the "F8" key until the "Advanced Boot Options" screen appears. Select "Repair Your Computer" using the arrow keys. Press the "Enter" key. Choose your "Language," then "Next." Login with an administrator-level username and password. Click "OK. Select "Dell Factory Image Restore," then "Next." Tick the check box next to "Yes, reformat hard drive and restore system software to factory condition." Click "Next." Click on "Finish" after the computer has concluded the factory restoration. b> Restore on an HP b> Insert the HP recovery disk. Restart the computer, and press the "F11" key. Press the "F" key to "reinstall factory settings." If your computer's operating system is damaged, you may only see "perform a full system recovery" as an option. In this case, press "R." Insert any disks if prompted by the restoration program. Otherwise, permit the computer to restart as needed. b> Restore Via Disks (Generic) b> Insert the "Recovery Disk" or "System Recovery Disk." If you have more than one disk, make sure you insert "Disk 1" or "Part 1." Press any key to boot from CD if prompted to do so. Choose a "Full System Restore," "Restore Factory Settings," or another option worded similarly. Confirm that you want to perform the restoration. Press "Next," "Yes," or "OK," as needed. Press "Finish" or "Restart" when prompted by the computer. Hope this helps.

A brand name and model with operating system would be nice so someone could be precise. ?

Restoring your laptop to factory settings can take up to an hour to perform, depending upon the type of laptop and operating system on your machine. Prior to performing a system recovery, you should remove any external peripherals, such as ExpressCards, PC Cards, and USB-connected printers and hard drives. Turn on the laptop. Press the "F8" key until the "Advanced Boot Options" screen appears. Select "Repair Your Computer" using the arrow keys. Press the "Enter" key. Choose your "Language," then "Next." Login with an administrator-level username and password. Click "OK. Select "Dell Factory Image Restore," then "Next." Tick the check box next to "Yes, reformat hard drive and restore system software to factory condition." Click "Next." Click on "Finish" after the computer has concluded the factory restoration. b> Restore on an HP b> Insert the HP recovery disk. Restart the computer, and press the "F11" key. Press the "F" key to "reinstall factory settings." If your computer's operating system is damaged, you may only see "perform a full system recovery" as an option. In this case, press "R." Insert any disks if prompted by the restoration program. Otherwise, permit the computer to restart as needed. b> Restore Via Disks (Generic) b> Insert the "Recovery Disk" or "System Recovery Disk." If you have more than one disk, make sure you insert "Disk 1" or "Part 1." Press any key to boot from CD if prompted to do so. Choose a "Full System Restore," "Restore Factory Settings," or another option worded similarly. Confirm that you want to perform the restoration. Press "Next," "Yes," or "OK," as needed. Press "Finish" or "Restart" when prompted by the computer. Hope this helps.

Try This:

If your operating system is XP, press the CTRL and F11 keys simultaneously when you see the Dell logo after turning on the laptop, and follow the instructions on the screen.

• Put the computer on.
• When the Dell screen appears, press and hold the CTRL and F11 key simultaneously on the keyboard, then release them both at the same time. The Dell PC Restore by Symantec window appears.
• Click the Restore button or press the key to highlight Restore and press the key.

A caution message appears, advising that all data will be lost.

• Click the Confirm button, or press the key to highlight Confirm and press the key.

The Progress window appears. Once the process has begun, Dell PC the restore usually takes only 8 to 10 minutes to complete. When the restore is complete, the message 'The system recovery process was successful' appears.

• Click the Finish button or press the key to highlight Finish and press the key.

The computer will restart.
For Vista or Win 7
If your operating system is VISTA / Win 7, press the F8 key when you see the Dell logo. It will take you to the advanced boot menu options, which include 'Repair your Computer'. Select that option and enter your password if asked, then you will see a list of options like 'system restore' and 'command prompt'. The last option says 'Dell PC restore', or something along those lines. Select that option and follow the instructions on the screen.
If in both cases, the Factory default doesn't work, then your laptop's factory image defaults partition has vanished (i.e., been corrupted / deleted). In this case you will have to reinstall the operating system with the CD or DVD shipped along with the laptop. Follow the link below to install windows XP Pro on your own.

• Start the computer.
• As the computer starts, press the F8 key until the Advanced Boot Options menu appears on the screen.
• Press the down arrow to select Repair Your Computer on the Advanced Boot Options menu, then press Enter.
• Specify the language settings that you want, and then click Next.
• Log in as a user who has administrative credentials, and then click OK.
• Click Dell Factory Image Restore.
• In the Dell Factory Image Restore window, click Next.
• Click to select the check box for Yes, reformat hard drive and restore system software to factory condition.
• Click Next. The computer is restored to the default factory configuration.
• When the restore operation is completed, click Finish to restart the computer.

In both cases, if the factory default does not work, then your laptop's factory image defaults partition has vanished (i.e. been corrupted / deleted). In this case you will have to reinstall the operating system with the CD or DVD shipped along with the laptop. Follow the below link to install windows XP Pro on your own.

Good Luck!

If you can boot into Windows, click on start and then open your control panel. Then click on recovery. Then click on advance recovery and select return computer to factory conditions. Answer any question and the system should reboot. Answer a few more questions and then it should go on autopilot and reset your system back to factory conditions. This should take one or two hours. It is best to check on it to make sure everything is going fine. If your resetting a lappy, make sure you have the AC adapter plugged up. You do not want this process interrupted.

If you can not boot into Windows then try Advanced boot options. When you press the power button, start tapping the F8 key. You will see the advance boot menu. Select repair your computer. Select your language and then enter your user name and password. The click on Dell factory Image Restore and next. Answer the question and it should start the recovery back to factory settings.

If all else fails try recovery from the recovery partition

When you press the power button start tapping the F12 key for your puter and the BIOS menu will open. Select recovery from the menu, answer the question and the recovery should begin. Depending on your puter this will take one to two hours.

Your BIOS menu should look something like this. Yours might be different. I am posting this to give you an idea of what it looks like.

ESC = BIOS menu

F1 = System Info

F2 = System Diagnostic

F9 = Boot Device options

F10 = BIOS Setup

F11 = System recovery

Hi

Another way to run the system recovery is RUNNING ON ADVANCE BOOTING OPTION by pressing F8 key when booting up and choose system recovery or restore factory setting.

Please rate and make a comment if you find this solution very helpful and might help others as well. Post more comments if you need more help.

Regards and thank you for using Fixya !

Hi,

Ctrl + F11 works with DELL desktop/laptops with XP operating system to restore computer to factory settings, that too if your recovery partition is intact. So, If you have the same configuration and you are pressing "ctrl + f11" correctly on the dell logo when it comes in the begening, It should work.

If its not then your recovery partition might be damaged and you need a windows disk to repair/reinstall windows.

Otherwise, if you are using any other operating system like "windows vista" or "7", follow the below process.

Power off the laptop. Remove any peripheral devices such as speakers, printers or flash drives that are not necessary to this operation. Connect your laptop to power/adapter.

Very Important: Please make sure you have backed up all important data because restoring your device to factory settings will result in loss of all data and software, Though all software that came preinstalled with the computer will come back.

1. Backup your important data in external hard-drive or flash drive.
2. Shut down the computer.
3. Turn the PC back on and hit the F8 key repeatedly until the Advanced Boot Option Screen appears.
4. Click "Repair Your Computer" if you are not already on it and then press ENTER
5. Choose your keyboard & language options and click OK
6. On the "System Recovery Options Screen" click "Complete PC restore" which is probably the second last option.
7. Follow the on-screen instructions
8. When prompted, click on "Full Factory Recovery"
9. Click "Next"
10. Click "Yes"
11. You may notice for a while it seems like nothing is happening, give it some time.
12. After some minutes, recovery will complete and you click "Finish".

13. Computer will restart and it will boot to desktop just fine. It might ask you to configure some settings as this is equivalent to starting a new computer.
Cheers.!!!

You can try to do a system restore using the system recovery.

There are different ways for doing a system recovery on XP computers and on Vista or Windows 7 computer.

Assuming you are using Windows Vista
On boot press the F11 key repeatedly, When you reach the Recovery manager screen select Advance options.

Select the option do restore the computer to an earlier time.

It will show you the restore points

Select the best restore point and try to do a restore

If system restore does not work then you will have to follow the same steps to perform a system recovery by selecting the option to restore the computer to its original factory condition.

If you want to reformat to factory condition, then press Ctrl + F11 at start-up when the blue bar comes up with "Dell.com" on it. If you miss it then just let it start up, then restart and try again. If it still does not work, press F12 at startup and select recovery option. Please note, if you have deleted the Dell Recovery Partition this will not work for you. You will need to reformat by inserting your Operating System CD at Startup and booting from that (F12).

Put recovery disk in the CD drive. On reboot, hold down F12 key. You should get a choice of drives to boot from. Make sure the first two are in the correct order:

1. CD-ROM (optical drive)
2. HDD (hard drive)

then press F10 to save and exit.

Now the laptop should boot correctly from the recovery disk.