Q&A for How to Reformat a Laptop

If your laptop is running Windows 8 or higher, on boot, press and hold the F9 key on your keyboard. Eventually you'll enter Advanced Options, and then you can choose to reformat.

It must be external as the system reserved partition is read only after the OS writes to it. Also the system reserved partition is normally clear of a letter path (for example C:).

If it's the physical screen, see if your manufacturer can source a new one or send it for repairs. If it's a boot error, you should probably reinstall Windows.

Go to Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall. Click on Uninstall and follow the directions. Make sure you can reinstall it if you want or need to, and that it won't cause your system to become unstable.

You will need a Windows Vista or higher installation disc. Insert it into your PC. When the prompt to boot from CD is displayed, press the specified key to do so. Then follow the on-screen prompts.

Exactly the same as above. Nothing changes if a computer is given to you used or is one you've had for any amount of time.

For that you will need either a CD or an iso file of the Windows version you want. If you are using an iso file, then download it and extract it to a usb drive that has been formatted to make it bootable. Then you can format your computer following the above steps. In boot options, select cd or usb drive, depending on whichever one you are using.

If you want to format your entire drive, you could get a live CD (such as Ubuntu) and enter the built-in partition manager, such as G-Parted. From there you can delete all your partitions and create a new one. Just make sure you back everything up first.

In this method you are using the Windows OS that you already have on a CD to reformat the system. During the Windows installation, just select "Default settings" to clear all your initial documents and the reformatting is done.

First of all, check the versions of Excel and PowerPoint that you're using. If you're using outdated versions, that could be the problem, so you would need to install the updated versions. If the versions are not out of date, but the programs aren't working, then I would uninstall and reinstall them.

There isn't a way; you'll have to move all of the files you want to keep onto a flash drive. It's a good idea to have a backup of important files anyway, so you'll be able to put the flash drive in a secure location after you're done copying them back post-reload for a little peace of mind.

The only thing you might want to do is browse through your computer to ensure that all of the software you had installed on your computer before you formatted it is still there.

Yes, you can. Any external drive, including a USB flash drive, would definitely work.

Do a full scan with Windows Defender a few times. If you don't mind losing your files, you can do a complete OS reinstall, deleting and recreating the hard drive partition during the process.

Using Windows 7, you could use the windows 8 media creation tool (assuming you know how to install it from there, as well as have a Windows activation key). Then you will have Windows 8.

You can use the bootable CD or pen-drive for this purpose. While the computer starts enter into Advance BIOS option. It is usually one of the function keys. Refer to the company web page or search online for the model or laptop name to identify the function key. It is generally f2 or f10 key, however, it differs from manufacturer to manufacturer.

If the problem is physical, i.e. with your screen, you can use an external monitor. Press windows + P key to enter into projection mode, keep on pressing and releasing the keys until you see a display in the second monitor. By default, you shall be able to see the display in second screen after the first key stroke. Now you have a display in second device. From here, you can do the rest. If the above method does not work, try inserting your hard-disk into another computer and try from there.

You can try running a cable from the laptop's video-out port to an external monitor (or TV, if your notebook and TV have HDMI ports) to see whether it's an issue with the laptop's monitor or the notebook's motherboard. If it's simply the monitor, you can use your notebook like a desktop computer by connecting an external keyboard, mouse and monitor (or replace the laptop's screen, though this can get costly).

Let me guess, you deleted System32, didn't you? Anyway, if startup repair can't help you, you'll have to manually reinstall Windows 10 by downloading Microsoft's "Windows Media Creation Tool" from another computer, put it on a USB stick with at least 16GB of space, plug it into the PC, and then boot from that. If it's too confusing, you can take it to a repair shop and they'll do it for you.

If you want to use that laptop, then you can make a recovery disk for Windows 7 onto a bootable USB flash drive. Look for an article on wikiHow for that, as well as a guide to resetting the passwords.

They meant directedly to clean up the unwanted programs that is stored in your laptop. It has no effect on any of your personal data files, for which they are in another place named by your directory.

You need to either buy a CD or DVD with an operating system on it, a blank one to put it on yourself from another computer, or a flash drive (also requires another computer). For Windows, you can download the Media Creation Tool from Microsoft for free to make a Windows 10 or Windows 11 DVD or flash drive. To make it short, if you don't have a disc and don't have any blank DVDs or a flash drive, you're going to have to buy or borrow them. Fortunately, they are not expensive or hard to find.

You need to boot the system from a CD, DVD, or USB flash drive that has an operating system on it. Open your BIOS, and set the CD or flash drive as the first boot device, then put the disc in the drive and reboot. See How to Enter BIOS for more detailed instructions.