[TanyaGenese]

My computer is basically trashed. I cannt do anything, I'm lucky to be doing thisand I've asked every where. So here it goes, How do I completely shut my computer down, I mean get an "as new look" Please don't ak me if I mean all these diff names. Because everyone calls things diff names and I am lost with the names right now.I don't have a disk and cannt not make one so pleses not that again. I know that I have to it an F-Key but which one and what is next. Please give m step by step instructions. I'm praying someone can help my computer will have to be trashed oth wise. By the why I have windows xp. Thanks Thanks... so much

[ScottGem]

If I follow you, you don't want to shut down your PC, but you want to reset it back to factory settings. To do that you need either a Recovery disk or partition. When you power up it should say to press a key for Recovery, does it?

[TanyaGenese]

No, it does not say recovery, it say setup and reboot that's it. I don't have anything saved on disk, I don't care about what I loss I just want a working computer. Can you help

[morgaine300]

What kind of computer do you have? My Dell does not have anything on boot-up for recovery either. The setup will get you into the BIOS, which you should probably not be messing with. You might try hitting F8 and see what options you have in there. (This is a timing thing and you may "miss" repeatedly until you get it. After it passes the screen where it says setup, you can try to just continually tap F8 and see what happens. On mine, I can usually time it if I am quick and hit it the very split second I hear the beep it makes.) I have no idea if you'll find some type of recovery in there, cause I've rarely gone in there since getting XP. But check it.

You may want to try a system restore. Go to Control Panel under the Start menu. Then Performance & Maintenance. On mine, the system restore is over in the left pane. (The instructions say otherwise, but that's where mine is.) Then just follow the instructions. If you want to do this is Safe Mode, that can be gotten to using that F8 above, and you can go back to a point where things were working properly, hopefully. I've never actually done a system restore myself, so hopefully you can find that OK unless someone can give you better instructions.

People tend to not keep their disks. You really should have them. If you seriously need to completely re-do the hard drive with a fresh install (i.e. nothing else works), you're going to need the disks, assuming you don't have a computer with a restore on a different partition. (Look in My Computer or Explorer and see if you have a D drive. If so, see what's on it.) If you bought it fair and square with XP on it, you may be able to get the disks from the manufacturer.

Do you know of a computer-savvy person who can do this for you?