Factory restore problems. Partitions???

WacoJohn

Distinguished
Apr 16, 2011
79
0
18,540
Dell Inspiron Laptop.
W10-64.

Trying to do a factory restore (W8) and tapping F8 on a boot is supposed to do it, ... but nothing happens with F8. It is a UEFI machine ... which I don't really understand very well. Have tried it with secure boot off ... and with Legacy. With F8 ... it just boots normally either way.

I decided maybe the FACTORY restore partition was blown away ... so in W10 I looked at Disk Management. Here is LINK to screenshot. Could not figure how to provide screenshot inline. Sorry.

http://

Looks TO me like it's there. Maybe not!! Also .. what the heck ARE all those partitions? Seriously.

If it won't restore to factory .. I have original Dell CD's. They are titled OPERATING SYSTEM, Drivers and Utilities, and Application (already installed on your computer). They do not seem to be FACTORY IMAGE disks, but seems like the way to go if F8 doesn't work.

So .. here is the grand question. If I use the CDs ... will F8 resume working? Will F8 restore to Factory (W8) like originally? I really don't want W8 ending up installed but with a BUNCH of strange partitions that are not needed. I have a 'gun', but not sure what will happen if I fire it.

Thanks anyone in advance.
 
Solution
There doesn't seem to be a factory recovery partition on your drive. It would have been several GB large. You don't have anything like that.

I'm assuming, you don't have any backups of windows 8 (pre-upgrade to win10). Right?
If you want to get windows 8 back onto your pc, then obtain windows installation media and reinstall windows 8. Make sure it's correct windows 8 version, you had before (Home or Pro). Wrong one will not activate.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows8ISO
There doesn't seem to be a factory recovery partition on your drive. It would have been several GB large. You don't have anything like that.

I'm assuming, you don't have any backups of windows 8 (pre-upgrade to win10). Right?
If you want to get windows 8 back onto your pc, then obtain windows installation media and reinstall windows 8. Make sure it's correct windows 8 version, you had before (Home or Pro). Wrong one will not activate.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows8ISO
 
Solution

WacoJohn

Distinguished
Apr 16, 2011
79
0
18,540


THANK YOU. For some reason, I was never notified (or missed it) of your reply. I think it will be VERY helpful and I want to thank you for your time.