how to restore your computer to the factory setting.

[angel]

My desktop crashed. Couldn't really get the data out but will replace it with another hard disk/drive (same as storage drive???). does anyone know how I can restore it back to the factory setting? I went to a computer shop when my machine crashed before (due to incompatitble programs Norton clashed with McAfee anti-virus) and they restored it back to the old setting, but I don't want to hand over another $500 just to have someone spend less than 5 minutes on my machine punching just a few computer keys in the setting. Sad thing is that I was not and still am not computer savvy enough to understand what he was doing, where he went, and what keys/options he chose to reset it. So if anyone know, please help. Thank you very much.

[Mediadesign]

if you have a HP or desktop and laptop have that they should give you a recover CD!!!!or DVD lol

[Albert]

Were you given a restoration disc? You should have one that came with the computer? :shocked2:

[Mediadesign]

yup all the computer should have it, there is none if you custom built your self...

[Jkeeton]

If your hard drive is fine and it didn't fail and your crash was caused by something else, with an hp or compaq desktop, odds are you have a recovery partition in the hard drive so while booting up hit, i believe f10 but I cant really remember and select choose to restore computer to original factory settings and it should be fine.

[Albert]

Thanks for the input Jkeeton!