Aug 28, 2015 i have an used hp elitebook 8460p and i'd like to factory rest it but there is no recovery disks or recovery partition and it's over warranty where to. I recently purchased a a HP Elitebook 8440p laptop from a US government auction. The hard drive was removed. It comes with a Microsot COA, however it is almost faded and I can oly see the frst few numbers. After researching it on Google, it seems the only way out is to order a recovery disc from HP.
Overview
F11 System Recovery Knowledge
F11 System Recovery Knowledge
For some brand computers, the manufacturer of these computers designs a special key or key combination to do their system recovery. As for Dell, HP or Lenovo computers (PCs, notebooks, desktops), the F11 key is the pivotal key to recover system to computer default settings when your computer corrupted due to hardware or software failure.
HP computer provides a built-in tool named HP Backup and Recovery Manager to recover your system to the original factory-shipped state, the recovery partition is needed. If your HP computer has some issues that you want to restore it to factory settings, turn on HP computer and immediately press the Esc key to display the Startup Menu, and then press F11 to access the HP system recovery.
Generally, Dell computers have a recovery partition that you can access to recover and restore your computer to factory settings. How to access Dell recovery partition? Boot your Dell computer, press Ctrl+F11 when the Dell logo appears, then follow the instructions to restore.
F11 System Recovery Not Working Problem
Nevertheless, F11 system recovery not working problem may disturb you. Why it happens? If the recovery partition in HP/Dell computer is deleted or overwritten somehow, you can’t access the recovery partition with F11 key. That is means, the F11 system recovery not working problem occurs. On the other hand, you cannot boot up your computer and cannot do the system recovery, How to get HP/Dell restore to factory settings when F11 doesn’t work?
How to Solve F11 System Recovery Not Working issue in Windows 7/8/10?
Don’t worry, there are some solutions for you to fix F11 system recovery doesn’t work problem with the following 2 ways:
Reinstall your Windows OS with the Windows Installation disc.
Factory reset your computer.
Compared with these two ways, system recovery for HP/Dell computer is the ideal method. Luckily, you can recover system with AOMEI OneKey Recovery at ease and reset F11 as shortcut for system recovery in Windows 7/8/10.
The detailed steps to solve F11 not working are listed below
1. Download one key recovery software AOMEI OneKey Recovery, then launch it. Click on OneKey System Backup on home console.
2. Choose Backup system to AOMEI OneKey Recovery Partition(Recommended), and hit Next.
Tip: You could encrypt and compress the backup image with Backup Options.
3. Select an existing partition to allocate a required amount of free space (the free space should larger than the used space of system partition C: drive) for creating AOMEI OneKey Recovery Partition, and click Start Backup>>.
Tip: The backup progress will automatically create an AOMEI OneKey Recovery Partition, where a system backup image (suffix with .adi) is saved. This partition is hidden by default to prevent data from damaging.
4. After a few minutes, the system backup will be finished, showed like this. Then, click OK.
5. Click the Settings icon at the top right corner to set the F11 or A key as the shortcut to onekey system recovery, choose F11. Then the F11 system recovery not working problem will be solved easily and quickly.
Now, you can see these partitions created by AOMEI OneKey Recovery in Disk Management, like this:
Tips:
For GPT disk, you will get two partitions: AOMEI (boot partition) and AOMEI Recovery Partition (contains system image file suffix with .adi), all these partitions are hidden by default.
For MBR disk, you will get only one AOMEI Recovery Partition.
This powerful software also applied to other brands computers, like HP, Lenovo, Acer, Dell, Toshiba, HP and IBM, etc.
The program supports all editions (32-bit and 64-bit) of Windows operating system, like Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10 and Windows Server 2003/2008 (R2)/2012 (R2)/2016, SBS 2003/2008/2011, WHS 2011.
Now, you could use F11 key to restore your system to factory settings or previous state.
Another Effective Preventive Measure
As a matter of fact, you could create a system backup image to external hard drive with your computer. If the system crashes or other unbootable issue, create bootable media to boot your computer, and the use this backup image to restore your computer. This way only applies to preparation before problems occur.
Create System Backup Image:
1. Download AOMEI Backupper Standard, install and launch it. On the main window, select Backup, System Backup in turn.
2. Enter a proper Task Name into the box.
3. Choose the external hard drive as the destination to save the system image and click Next.
Tips: The program will select the system partition associated with system files automatically in the Step1.
4. Press Start Backup.
Restore Your Computer with the System Image:
1. Connect your external hard drive with your computer and boot up your computer with the bootable media created by AOMEI Backupper Standard. Then, click Select Task under the Restore tab.
2. Then choose a backup image and click Next to move on.
3. Tick Restore this system backup or Restore a partition in this system backup and click Next. After that, preview the result of restoring, click Start Restore.
Wait for a moment, the F11 system recovery not working problem will be solved. In addition, AOMEI Backupper Standard allows you to backup hard disk, backup Dell/HP partition, restore partition, etc. as well as split, comment, encrypt backup image, and merge backup images. The most important thing, you can clone your entire hard drive (HDD) or partition to another location, like local hard drive, external hard drive, network share, NAS, USB drive, cloud drive, and many more features. For advanced users, you can try AOMEI Backupper Professional to enable universal restore, clone system, restore to dissimilar hardware computer, etc.
Lost Windows password on your HP Elitebook laptop? Is there a way to remove BIOS password after forgotten? How to factory restore HP Elitebook? In this article we'll show you how to unlock your HP Elitebook laptop by clearing BIOS password, resetting Windows admin password or restore your computer to factory settings.
1Reset HP Elitebook BIOS Password
How to remove or clear a forgotten BIOS password? You can reset all BIOS settings (including the BIOS admin/user password) by changing the jumper settings, or removing the CMOS battery from the motherboard for a few moments and then putting it back in.
But in all new UEFI-based HP notebooks, there is a built-in utility named HP SpareKey, which can help you recover lost system passwords, such as the power-on, drive lock, or BIOS passwords. When setting up the SpareKey, you are prompted to provide answers for a sequence of three predetermined personal identification questions.
If you've set up the SpareKey, you can follow these simple steps to remove HP Elitebook BIOS password:
Turn on the computer and immediately press the ESC key to display the Startup Menu, and then press the F10 to enter BIOS Setup.
After typing the incorrect BIOS password three times, you'll be presented with the screen prompting you to press F7 for HP SpareKey Recovery.
Press F7 key, the HP SpareKey wizard pops up and prompts you for the answers to the three personal identification questions.
If you successfully answer the questions, you are granted access and you can reset the BIOS password.
Note: HP SpareKey cannot help you recover a Windows 8/7/Vista administrator account password. It is intended solely to recover system-level passwords.
2Reset Windows Admin Password on HP Elitebook
If you've lost your Windows user password, you may not have to reset your laptop to factory settings. With PCUnlocker you can reset forgotten Windows 8/7/Vista password on HP Elitebook laptop. No need to worry about data loss!
Download the self-extracting Zip file of PCUnlocker package.
Decompress the package, there is a ISO image: pcunlocker.iso. Burn it onto a CD or USB flash drive.
Turn on your HP Elitebook laptop, and then press and hold the ESC key to access Startup Menu. Press F9 to enter Boot Device Options and then boot to your CD or USB drive.
Wait until the boot process is finished. When a window pops up with all your Windows accounts, select the admin account and click on Reset Password button.
The program will unlock / reset your forgotten administrator password immediately.
3Reset HP Elitebook to Factory Settings
Factory reset will remove everything from your PC. Before restoring HP Elitebook to factory settings, be sure take backups of your important files like pictures, videos, music etc and store them safely like another machine or USB device etc.
Turn on or restart HP Elitebook, and then press ESC key while the 'Press the ESC key for Startup Menu' message is displayed at the bottom of the screen.
Press F10 to enter BIOS Setup.
Use a pointing device or the arrow keys to select File ->Restore defaults.
Follow the on-screen instructions.
To save your changes and exit, click the Save icon in the lower-left corner of the screen, and then follow the on-screen instructions.
Your changes go into effect when your HP Elitebook laptop restarts.