How to bring back Reset to factory settings?

See the Dell reset procedures in this link

Factory reset, restore, or reinstall Microsoft Windows on a Dell computer | Dell US

Dell-USB-Recovery-Tool-Application_JN27D_WIN_2.3.7008.0_A00 appeared to work but ended up with error. Errors are shown in the attached screenshots.

I located RKG4TXA09.5_Win10x64ROW_home.iso and installed it. But it is not the factory image because I can't find few software which existed when I opened my laptop for the first time 20 days ago.

Other restore factory image option in Windows would be futile because there is no recovery partition in the SSD now after a genius Dell social media support personnel told me to use MediaCreationTool to install the OS! I'll probably return the laptop.

I don't really care about what exists in it. All I wanted is to have it restored to the day I received it. That is, after factory reset, I want to see the display same as the first time I opened, with all preinstalled  Dell software. There were 5 partitions: 1 small 1st (EFI?), C drive, 3 hidden inaccessible partitions related to recovery/Dell, the desktop wallpaper was from Dell.

I don't understand why people come up with irrelevant responses saying "back up", "keep my files", "apps", "drivers", "windows 10". I made sure to include a picture with what exactly I need.

Thanks for your effort but completely missed my question.

Windows 10 can reset all its computer files without affecting your personal data. Refresh does the following:

• Reinstalls Windows 10 and keeps your personal files.
• Removes apps and drivers you installed.
• Removes changes that you made to settings.
• Removes any apps your personal computer manufacturer installed. (If your personal computer came with Windows 10, apps from your personal computer manufacturer will be reinstalled.)

To get started with a refresh of your computer files, follow these steps:

1. Click Start 
    

    

   , then type "reset."
    
2. Select Reset this PC (System Setting).
    
3. Under Reset this PC, select Get Started.
    
4. Select the option to Keep my files.
    
5. Note any apps or drivers that must be reinstalled after the refresh has completed.
    
6. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the refresh process. This takes some time and your computer will restart.

Are you still using the original OS with which it was shipped, which appears, from the attachment, appears to be Win 10?

Windows does not like to overwrite a newer OS with an older one.  Since your system came with Win 10, if you upgraded to Win 11, you may have to clean the drive for the factory image to work.

Did you create a Win 10/11 recovery drive for your system?  If you did, it should be able to do a factory reset using the OS on the drive when it was created.  But again, overwriting a newer OS may not be allowed.

The photo attached is of SupportAssist Recovery assistant accessed outside OS (Boot->F12->SupportAssist).

No beta software like Windows 11 is involved here. Only Windows 10.

Laptop came with a recovery partition already which contains factory image. But this image was replaced (without my approval) when I chose the "Reset and Update" option shown in the photo attached in the post. But that is not the OS I want. Then I went back to F12->SupportAssist only to find the "Reset to factory settings" being grayed out. Hence can't choose it anymore. 

Repeating again: The laptop like the day I received it - is what I need.

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@Saltgrass wrote:

You stated you had reinstalled your system using the Win 10 Media Creation tool.  The Media creation tool would have created an install using a newer OS build than your system had originally.  If you no longer even have a Factory recovery image on the drive, you should be able to use the link @fireberd gave you. 

Are you booting to the USB drive which you created and copied over the files from the mounted .iso.  You error messages appear to show such a process did not work correctly.  Maybe if you explain how you created the USB drive you are using, it would be helpful.

 

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I was excited to see the link @fireberd shared. The page and tool looks promising. But unfortunately ended up with error.

I was able to find the .iso file downloaded by that tool. I had the USB drive from earlier with Mediacreationtool which had partition marked Active. I mounted .iso file and copied all the content to the USB drive, replacing all content. The USB drive boots with contents of .iso file. It also pre-installs (there is $OEM$ folder in /sources) one or two software from Dell. But not all that existed when I first opened the laptop. Also when it first booted wallpaper was not Dell. There were no recovery partitions.

You stated you had reinstalled your system using the Win 10 Media Creation tool.  The Media creation tool would have created an install using a newer OS build than your system had originally.  If you no longer even have a Factory recovery image on the drive, you should be able to use the link @fireberd gave you. 

Are you booting to the USB drive which you created and copied over the files from the mounted .iso.  You error messages appear to show such a process did not work correctly.  Maybe if you explain how you created the USB drive you are using, it would be helpful.

All I can suggest is your system came with Win 10 Build 19042.xxx.  You upgraded that to 19043.xxx.  Now you are trying to go back to 10942.xxx.

I have to feel you need to clean the entire drive using Diskpart to get back where you want.  If you had a new clean drive you could substitute for testing, that would be great..

If the process you are currently using gives you the ability to remove all prior partitions, that may also be an option.

You have never mentioned the original situation which caused the reset to be necessary.  Could this be, in any way, related to that situation?

OS versions irrelevant.

Why:

The first time when I installed using MediaCreationTool was a clean install, by deleting all partition. That's what the genius Dell support personnel told me to do.

Later, I installed the .iso obtained using the tool in the URL shared by @fireberd and is also clean install, by deleting all partition.

Cause necessitating the reset is different than this problem and won't change question in this post. In this post I'm asking for a way to get the SSD contents in factory condition - like it was when I bought it. 

This procedure will create a flash drive to install the specific Windows that came on a PC (it requires the service tag numbers).  

Reinstall Microsoft Windows | Dell US

This is how to install everything else that came with it.

Where Can I Download Drivers and Dell Installed Software for My Dell Computer? | Dell US

Thanks, but as I already explained in the previous replies, this tool did not work out. This tool does not restore the laptop to factory image. It does install an OS with OEM customizations, but not as much as factory settings and after installation as well there is no recovery partition created automatically like it existed with factory settings.

Good recommendation but..

I might return it and go for Lenovo. This laptop was released 7 months ago by Dell, but software and stability is like that of Beta testing devices. I felt like signing up for beta testing program and also got duped by paying for it instead of getting paid.

Yesterday there was Dell support personnel remotely trying to repair something who did not even know that command prompt had to be elevated to run admin commands and struggled for more than hour looking at 'x...X' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file. and then "escalated" the problem to higher Dell support level! Of course haven't heard from them since then.

Those two procedures is all I could find. 

It appears Dell would have to send you a new disc configured with the original disc image. 

If its returnable, do that then buy another same model and it will have everything.

If you don't want to tell us what they were trying to repair, I understand.

Do you believe the two processes are the same in that they both restore a Factory configuration but the one you used also downloaded and upgraded to the newer Win 10 build?

Maybe a picture of your Disk Management window would help us see exactly how your drive was configured.

Many Dell systems are set up to use an NVMe drive with the Intel SATA/PCIe driver.  When that is done, they set the SATA controller to RAID.  

If you do a clean Win 10 install on that system, you have to load the SATA drivers during the install or it will not be able to boot back into the OS to complete the install.  The factory image repair will expect the SATA controller to be set as RAID so if you changed that, change it back.

I have never done one of those Dell Image factory restore operations.  I will go look at the links and see if I can pick anything out that might be involved.

And we already know what you want but you may not have that option because the OS has already been updated and cannot go back.  Again, cleaning the drive may help but I will get back after looking at the links.