Restoring To Factory Settings via Recovery Drive

Is there anyone that knows how to restore a PC to its factory setting using the recovery partition?

 

Hit F11 on bootup. It will give you three choices:

1. Microsoft recovery
2. Full System Recovery with all software
3. Basic restore with OS and drivers

HP recovery manager makes it pretty easy.

Opton 3 is the closest you will get to a clean install. Most of the "added" software that came with the machine won't be loaded. In the case of the Envy 17 3D...you will still get Cyberlink PowerDVD. If you want TriDef 3D software, then you should do the full recovery. Really not a lot of bloatware on an Envy

 

Thanks for your answer, but for some reason when I press F11 before the bootup screen appears, my computer starts like it normally would. Do you know why that is?

It might not be worth mentioning but I have an Envy 14t-2000.

 

Try a few things. When you boot up...it will say Hit ESC for start up options...do that! Then choose F11 and run the recovery...

OR

You should have HP recovery manager in Windows, where you should have made your recovery disks. There is also an option to run system recovery from there...it will reboot and know what to do...

 

Interesting, I wasn't able to make neither of the methods you mentioned work. When I hit ESC, the only available options are F1, F2, F6(?) and F10. No F11.
Also, it doesn't seem that my computer has HP recovery manager. So I went online to look for it and eventually downloaded it from the HP website. Now, as I tried to install it, it said that, "This softpaq will not be installed because HP recovery manager cannot be found." Something has to be wrong right?

 

Certainly does. Is that the original hard drive in your machine? If so, I would highly recommend calling technical support and having them send you a set of recovery disks for your machine. They will need the model number and serial to make the discs work for you...the recovery is normally written to the make and serial of the machine.

Did you purchase the machine new? Refurb? I cannot imagine HP shipping a machine with NO recovery partition...

Look in "computer", if you have one HDD, You should see Drive C and D. D would be recovery...

 

Right, I have Drive C (101 GB SSD), Drive D (698GB HDD) and Drive F (17.3GB SSD). I purchased that machine via the HP website last summer and I never tried using the HP recovery tools until now. You think I should give them a call?

 

Drive F looks like the recovery partition. Don't know why F11 isn't working on bootup...you should just be able to recover the machine that way. I would call...something is not right with your recovery.

When you booted up and hit ESC...you should have been given the following options:

F1 System Information
F2 System Diagnostics
F9 Boot Device Options
F10 Bios Setup
F11 System Recovery

Enter-Continue Startup

For more information, please visit www.hp.com/go/techcenter/startup

That is what you see when you hit ESC on startup...

You should have those options...I know you said that you did not...maybe tech support can answer why...But first, download the UEFI tools for your model and install...that should fix your menu...then try recovery procedure again...if that doesn't work...call Envy concierge...they are very helpful

 

Thanks for your assistance. Your help is much appreciated. Now would happen to know where I could find the UEFI tools and contact information of the Envy concierge?

 

Here is the UEFI tools download for Envy 17

HP BIOS Update UEFI HP ENVY 17t-2000 CTO 3D Edition Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

If you wish...you can go to hp.com and look up the exact one for your model. If it is the 17...this will work.

For concierge phone number:

1-866-408-5408 They are there 24/7. Envy Concierge is located in Little Rock Arkansas...

 

Awesome. Thanks again.