Dell Latitude D600 Recover back to factory settings. Please help.

Hey, I have a Dell Latitude D600 which i bought a few months ago second hand, It came with charger and thats it. No recovery disk or nothing. Laptop worked perfect and is a really good laptop. However I have so many viruses on my laptop, I have ran all types of AVG's, adware scanners, and much more. Its cleared alot of the viruses but still the laptop is not working properly.

I would like to restore the laptop back to its factory settings, i have backed up all my data on an external harddrive so its all good. I checked on google and it says something about Pressing F11 + Ctrl or something like that and it has a recovery procedure in the laptop allready. I dont think D600 has that feature and guessing i need a recovery disk. I have looked on ebay and cant find any, Im not even sure what type of recovery disk to get because i found a few, prices were ranging from £30-35 and i cant afford that as i am a student.

Is there a way where i can download some sort of recovery software for dell and burn it onto a disk or something, I looked on google but there is no detailed sources telling me about this,

Please could someone explain to me how i can restore my dell latitude D600 back to its brand new settings without having to buy the recovery disk.

Thanks, Jonny

 

P.S The operating system is Windows XP. Any questions please ask. thanks

 

If all else fails, you can probably just format your disk drive and install Windows XP again. You can then start searching the Net for appropriate drivers for your system. It's a bit more trouble, but should work.

 

One thing that Dell has going for it, is that you can get drivers for its products direct from Dell with very little hassle.

 

Sadly, I know the website address by heart - support.dell.com

 

Ctrl + F11 only works if the restore partition still exists in functioning condition on the hard drive. Seeing as most D600s are off-lease machines on their fourth or fifth year by now, I'd say the chances of the aforementioned partition existing, not to mention working, are slim.

As HerrKaputt mentioned, you will probably have to re-install XP on your own. If you already have an XP installation, OEM or retail, you can use it to install the OS and activate it using the key on the bottom of the D600. You may have to call Microsoft to get it activated. Also as mentioned, drivers can be found on Dell's support site.

If you do not have an installation disk, call up Dell and request one. Chances are good that they will give you one, but you may have to change the laptop ownership into your name.

 

Thanks for your reply, Basically i am kind of clueless, I'm not quite sure how to format my diskdrive, and what does it do when i format my drive.

Hmm I think i've come across dell latitudes d600's drivers on the dell website, Im just not sure what to do, step by step i'm really clueless. Where can i get a version of windows XP, that sounds quite a hassle.

Thanks

 

Yeah that seems quite conveniant, however im not sure still, do i burn it onto a disk ? :S

Thanks

 

Each driver that you download,will come with installation instructions. Usually, you just run them from within Windows.

Regarding your needing an XP install disk - if you didn't have one that should have come with your D600, then you may have to buy one.
Or, if someone you know has a Dell PC of a similar era then use their OEM XP disk (but using the license key that is on your D600). Your D600 has a copy XP licensed to it - it is just a matter of getting hold of the media.

 

I try to do that but tell me that my disk is unmounted and when i try to use the laptop start with XP but Stop after initial screen. I dont have any CD When I try to restart the laptop amnd press F12 give 4 options

Interna l HDD
CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive
Cardbus NIC
OnBoard NIC
Diagnostics
please help me