How do i set my pc back to factory settings?

Hello

I have been having problems with my computer recently. I had a malware infection (or thats what the guy at the shop told me) so i paid to get it cleaned. I was told he'd remove all infections etc on comp, but its never been the same since.

It runs very slowly, it no longer recognises my external hard drive (an e-book i think its called) and when i google a search if i click on a search result it takes me somewhere else completely not the link it showed. Also a second window opens up with advertising and that never used to happen before.

I went into pc world for advice and they said the best option would be to reset my comp back to factory settings and this should wipe out any viruses etc that are lurking on my comp. I do use CCleaner a malware checker and an anti spyware programme all which i got off MajorGeeks after my initial infection and they have got rid of some things but still i have the list above which has not been fixed.

I have an Intel pentium 4 E-System PC, i have had it about 5 yrs
It runs microsoft windows xp, home edition, version 2002, service pk 3.
CPU 2.93GHz, 960MB RAM. And did not that i can remember come with a disc for rebooting purposes.

I dont know how to set it back to factory settings i thought there would be an option in My Computer or something, i'm not very experienced with doing this kind of thing. I have backed up all my files and photos etc so should not lose any important data that i have put on.

I would appreciate any advice or help anyone could offer me, thank you.

 

You could press F1 or F11 on boot and reset back to factory settings following the simple instructions, but me personally would click on this link http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=208809 and follow all the instructions completely, not missing anything out, if you have any problems don't be afraid to ask, in the malware forum, and then repost into the malware forum with the required logs, and then be patient and our malware fighters will have you back up and running as good as new, because i think that your man who has supposed to have cleared it of all viruses and malware obviously hasn't done the job properly !

Good Luck Rusty !

P.S when posting into the malware forum explain everything you where doing when it all went wrong, and tell them your OS ie: whether XP Vista Win7 !

 

You're assuming his computer has a recovery partition on the hard drive and pressing F1 or F11 will start a system restoration to "factory settings", right? But, we don't know for sure that his computer has a recovery partition. Being an older computer, it's less likely to have a recovery partition.

 

If there is a recovery partition, on these sometimes you can try to keep pressing F10 as you start up - keep tapping-if its there...............

 

To me it sounds as if your still infected (with the re-direct and all). The first thing I would do is follow Rusty's link and then when you are given the all clear, if you still have problems, follow the other info given.

Oh and I'd get my money back from that pc repair guy.

 

No need for speculating whether or not you have a recovery partition, as XP can tell you -

In the Start > Run box type diskmgmt.msc <Enter> and a new window will pop up which shows all your connected disks and disk partitions. Look carefully at Disk 1 - it should show your Windows partition C, but does it show any other partition with no drive letter? If it just shows your C drive then there is no recovery partition, and in such cases it is usual either for you to have been supplied with a recovery disk or for the machine to contain instructions for you to make one.

If there is a second rather small partition, then that will almost certainly be a recovery partition and, as said, you get to boot to it by pressing a function key as it starts up, though you may have to experiment to find which one. Don't worry about trying function keys - you won't damage anything.

 

To see hidden partitions you need parTEDIT32, PTEDIT, OR, PWHE42.
yOU WILL NOT SEE A HIDDEN PARTITION IN THE DISC MANAGEMENT CONSOLE.
if you want to look to see if there is a hidden partition, then you will need to use one of them.(these are free)
You can download phwe4.2 from here
http://download.cnet.com/Partition-...62200.html?part=dl-6285158&subj=dl&tag=button
partedit32
http://mirror.href.com/thestarman/tool/FreeTools.html

Scroll down the page, and I found you can still download the zip file from there.

GUI version:

​

This small freeware software will allow you to make visible your partition in some clicks of mouse and on the fly under Windows XP.​

 

This is true. However recovery partitions are not hidden.

 

Some are, some are created by norton ghost- (especially on laptops0.
I was trying to give the information, in case he never found one the other way- no reflection on your post Earthling- I did say ' you will not see hidden partitions in Disk management'

As usafveteran said -we do notknow if he has a recovery partion- so its another way to check.:banghead