restoring my dell with windows vista back to factory settings?

Question

so i did the thing, hit "repair your computer"... then it's supposed to ask you to choose your keyboard layout right?! (Next you will see a prompt window giving you options to select the keyboard layout select from the drop-down menu "US" and click "OK.") mine doesn't. does this mean i dont have the option to restore? if so, i know you can manually put it in... can anyone help with any of this?! PLEASE!! my computer is SOOOOO slow :( thanks!!

Answer 1

Your question is a little vague, so I'll try to answer it as best I can. If you are trying to restore your system to an earlier date, then click Start, Help and Support, then system restore. Choose a date that is displayed in bold print. Choose a date before you started having your problem. If however, you want to bring your computer back to a "factory new" state, then do this:

Dell Inspiron laptops have what is called a Ghost Partition embedded on the hard drive which makes it easy to do this. These instructions were copied and pasted from the owner's manual of my Inspiron 1501.



Use Dell PC Restore by Symantec only as the last method to restore your operating system. PC Restore



restores your hard drive to the operating state it was in when you purchased the computer. Any programs



or files added since you received your computer—including data files—are permanently deleted from the



hard drive. Data files include documents, spreadsheets, e-mail messages, digital photos, music files, and



so on. If possible, back up all data before using PC Restore.



To use PC Restore:



1 Turn on the computer.



During the boot process, a blue bar with www.dell.com appears at the top of the screen.



2 Immediately upon seeing the blue bar, press .



If you do not press in time, let the computer finish starting, and then restart the



computer again.



NOTICE: If you do not want to proceed with PC Restore, click Reboot in the following step.



3 On the next screen that appears, click Restore.



4 On the next screen, click Confirm.



The restore process takes approximately 6–10 minutes to complete.



5 When prompted, click Finish to reboot the computer.



NOTE: Do not manually shut down the computer. Click Finish and let the computer completely reboot.



6 When prompted, click Yes.



The computer restarts. Because the computer is restored to its original operating state, the screens that



appear, such as the End User License Agreement, are the same ones that appeared the first time the



computer was turned on.



7 Click Next.



The System Restore screen appears and the computer restarts.



8 After the computer restarts, click OK.



9 You will now have to run Windows Update as well as Live Update for your virus protection, as these will be seriously out of date.

Answer 2

Just a small addition. I have found that using OEM software or Software that is not Original Retail Windows Software can be and is a problem to download and do a System Restore. Many of these computers are furnished with there brand of Windows Software that in my opinion is more often than not sub-standard. This is the reason I recommend Microsoft's Windows Software in the Microsoft Packaging that comes with the Code Key. Don

Answer 3

You could always get a restore download for vista, just type vista restore disc download. You just burn it and it repairs vista.