Factory Reset on Vista Laptop

[john clemence]

Hi,

I have a Fujitsu Siemans Amilo Pi2515 laptop bought in 2008 and running Vista. It works fine but I want to pass it on to my daughter so I would like to format or clean the hard drive and re-install the operating system – I have the original “Operating System – Recovery” DVD and “Driver and Utilities” DVD.

I tried putting the dvd in and doing an install but at some point it said that my old files would be copied and put somewhere and there did not seem to be an option to format the disc, I tried the “repair” option but that could not be progressed without a previous back up, which I don't have.

I just want to return the laptop to “as it left the factory” but again I can't find how to do it.

 

Any advise would be very welcome.

Regards,

John

[Plastic Nev]

Hi John and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help.

 

I have found a link to download the part of the manual for complete restoration to factory settings here=

 

http://support.ts.fujitsu.com/Download/ShowDescription.asp?Info=FTS&SoftwareGUID=89BDD58D-1F5B-4494-9569-16D9D943D6C8

 

Click the accept conditions first to be able to download the manual. You will need Adobe Acrobat, or similar PDF file reader.

 

It is in several languages but the English is second one down. You will see various options depending on what type of recovery system you have, either disks created by you, a recovery system on the hard drive or with disks supplied with the computer, in all cases they do say you may lose all data, which in this case is exactly what you want!

Best of luck,

 

Nev.

[KenB]

Hi John and welcome to ExTS

 

my old files would be copied and put somewhere

I am not sure how it is going to do this ..... unless it is the contents of My Documents ?

If you make a note of the location you could always complete the re-install then go to the stored location and either transfer your files to an external drive for your own use - or simply delete them.

[john clemence]

Factory Reset on Vista Laptop

 

Hi Nev and KenB,

Sorry for delay in thanking you for your help but I have been on holiday. I thought I had replied to Nev but did not see it on the thread. Anyway, I followed the instructions from the manual but it did not offer the format option but I expect this was done automatically, however, it did indicate that my files would be saved in a folder called "windows.old" I think. I will try to locate this file in the search button and hopefully delete it.

Well thanks again for taking the time to help - much appreciated.

Regards,

John.

[KenB]

"windows.old"

Now I understand :)

 

Make sure that all is well with the re-install before you delete the Windows.old file.

( as you have recovery disks this is not that important )

This can be done using Disk Cleanup if you can't locate it.

In the Disk Cleanup dialog box, on the Disk Cleanup tab, click Clean up system files.