Reset laptop

Question

My laptop was hacked so I contacted the PC World tech support line who talked me through resetting the laptop. I have now done this 4 times including a full clean of the drive. Each time I’ve done this instead of allowing me to set the laptop up again from scratch I am returned to the log in page which says ‘other user’ and asks me to put in user name and password (which it obviously won’t accept any more because I’ve cleaned the drive). Any suggestions? (Apart from not phoning the PC World support line!). Please bear in mind when responding that I am pretty much computer illiterate! Thank you!

Dell-SreejithR · Answer

Thank you for your message. How did you clean install the OS?

Did you do a clean wipe & do a fresh install with an imaged flash drive or did you use the reset to factory settings within the operating system?

Did you download a Dell OS image or using the Microsoft image?

For my reference, please click on the message tab next to your avatar– click “New Message” & search for my Dell username (Sreejith R) & send a private message with the service tag, registered name & email address.

How to locate the service tag

Crumblevitch · Answer

I was also wondering what is the difference between resetting the laptop and restoring factory image?

Dell-SreejithR · Answer

There are 4 options

Restore – Restore the system back to a previous date – There is no data lost here but any software installed after this date will be lost.
Reset (with keeping files)– Changing all OS settings back to the way it was shipped without deleting any files you saved.
Factory restore- Restoring the computer just the way you had it when you first booted the computer, all data is lost.
Clean install – The factory will be completely deleted & you will install a fresh OS.

Thanks,

Sreejith

Inspiron

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