restore factory settings without any disks!?

Question

Hi! I am iving my laptop to my little brother for his birthday however i have prevously used it for the past three years. Therefore i would like to restore factory settings as my dad has bought all new software for him. My computer is a Samsung V25 and unfortunately i dont have any of the disks thyat originally came with the computer. Please help as its his birthday on 28th of this month!! Thanx!

Answer 1

You need the factory disks to revert it back. Check all your inbuilt software there maybe a partition with the factory settings on it that's you can burn on to CD

Answer 2

You will need a copy of the Windows OS. Any full version will do. Or you can use another computer to download a free Linux OS. There's no way around this if you want to make it 'like new' again. After you install WIndows, you'll then have to update drivers for your soundcard, video card, modem(s) and anything else it might need. These can usually be found at the manufacture's website. Don't delete everything without a copy of windows or you just won't have a computer that functions. Regardless of what user 'uncle billy' says.... you have to have an operating system in order to run other software. A computer just won't run a software program without a 'system to tell it how to operate'. good luck :-)

To Lumper35: Sorry but unless you have a hard drive with 18 million GB free allocated space, there's just no way you can System Restore back 3 years!!!!!!!!!! LOL! you made my day ;-)

Update:
If you don't have any viruses, spyware or anything else messing the computer up. Then just uninstall all your personal programs that your brother won't need. Go to your My Documents folder and delete all that's in those folders. Clean up the icons on your desktop. And WHALA!!!!!! Just like-new!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 3

You have the Vista OS so you should have two partitions on your hard drive. Confirm this by opening "Computer". At the top you should see HP (C:) and Recovery (D:). If you see this, then the set of Recovery Disks is not needed at this point. Make sure that you have all your files backed up before proceeding as everything you installed on the hard drive will be erased. The computer will be put back into the same condition it was when new. Shut your computer down or restart it. When the BIOS screen appears, (first blue screen), you will see at the bottom a choice that indicates "System Recovery" F11. Start tapping the F11 button until the screen goes dark and you see a white bar that says "Windows is Loading". You will then see instructions on your screen to follow. If you've backed up your files then proceed yo do the system recovery. This will likely run for at least a couple of hours, depending on how much software was installed on your system when new. When the recovery is complete, re-install your files and any software you installed yourself and you should be good to go. Although my computer is a HP, the Vista OS is the same so these instructions should help you. If for some reason Acer doesn't have the two partitions (C) & (D) on the hard drive, then you do indeed need a set of Recovery Disks to completely re-format your hard drive. You should have received the Windows Vista disks with your computer. (You paid for the Vista OS disk when you paid for your Acer) If you need the disk then contact Acer and ask them for the Vista disk. They may need the build number information of your computer system in order to give you the correct OS and software you need. My HP computer allows me to make a set of recovery disks, (there's a total of 4), a few days after you start your system. If you get the same message, make these recovery disks to be safe. That way you always have the ability to do a system recovery. After completion, go into the Control Panel and open up "System" to make sure you have the correct "Product Key" with the recovery installation. If the key changed, you can change it back to the Product Key that is on the processor. This eliminates any confusion from Microsoft about the legality of your product key. One other note concerning Product Keys. If you have software installed on your computer that has a product key number, you can track every key code real easy by going to "Belarc Advisor" and downloading and installing this freeware. It tracks your system for everything. All your product keys, all your software and their version and all Windows updates etc. will be in one place. Pretty handy. (Make a copy!) Hope this information helps you get the computer running the way you want! One last bit of information. Don't do the Windows Updates immediately after you restart your computer. Wait a two or three days and allow most of the updates to accumulate so they install correctly. If a newer update shows up to be installed before an older update that has not yet been installed, the newer update may not install due to the fact it needed the older update to already be installed before being updated.

Answer 4

I've just checked on the Samsung website, and if your computer is actually an NV25, and not simply the V25 that you've stipulated, you can download all the relevant drivers, manual, BIOS update, and software from there. This, of course, doesn't include Windows, which will have to be purchased separately.

Take a look at the page and see if it's what you're after.

Answer 5

The advice about the system restore may not work, you may not have that on your machine.

You could have a look aroun your computer as sometimes you can make a back up copy using the information on your computer, i'm not sure how and if this will work for you.

Also deleating all the information and the installing a new OS etc will not work, the computer needs soe of the original information to isnstall new software.

You could take it to PC world, they can clean the system, and then new software can be installed etc, there will be a charge but they can give you adive etc on how to cope with your problem.

You could try cleaning the computer yourself by manually dealeating software ETC that YOU put on, be careful when doing this.

Also things like photos and music take up alot of space, so get rid of them first.

Answer 6

depends what software your dads bought, has bought a new operating sytem for it? If you had the driver disks you would copy anything you need off the laptop onto disk and format the hard drive re-partition the hard drive and install the operating system and drivers and any other software you want.

Answer 7

Oh dear, you really will remember to keep the restore disk next time you buy a computer...tut tut. Don't worry, all is not lost (yes I know that's the problem!). You could try calling the company who made your computer with your model number and ask them to send you one but it will probably take a couple of weeks and they will probably charge you.

Answer 8

go into your start button go to programs then to accessories then to system tools then go to system restore, once you open system restore go back to the date you want and hit restore, it will take a few minutes, but it will do the job for you, good luck

Answer 9

if he's installing new software just erase & delete everything in it, you don't have to restore anything, the new install will take care of that.