Windows 10: Purchased an open-box laptop, how do I do a fresh install?

Just purchased a Dell laptop from BB (open-boxed) for my son, he's 6, first laptop. He's going to love Santa.
Anyways, I assume that Geek Squad wipes everything before selling it again? However, is their a way to do a fresh install, a reset or whatever you want to call it? I want it back to factory settings.

Windows 10 was preinstalled. Will I need to purchase a Win10 CD to start over? I want the hdd wiped clean, nothing left over, especially any Dell bloatware. I'm not tech savvy with laptops but their is only around 800GB of space left on a 1TB hdd. I know Win10 takes up space but this seems a little much. I have to do this tonight before I wrap it up.

Another dumb question. After I do the reset how do I properly back up Windows in case of a crash, etc.? I have a PC that needs a safety net as well. I have no idea how to back up my PC and now his laptop. Yes, I know it's sad. I just remember back in the day, I had to burn like 10 DVD's do to a backup. I have no idea what method is most highly recommended today & how to do it.


Thanks guys...

:)

 

I recently purchased a Windows10 laptop. How do I add my son to the laptop and have Microsoft Family work for both devices

Hello James,

Thank you for keeping us updated.

To Add a Child to Family request you to follow the below steps and check.

• Sign in at account.microsoft.com/family.
  
• If this is your first time setting up a family, select Add a child.
  
  If you've already added child accounts to your family, go to Select a child to view or edit their settings and then select
  Add.
• Enter your child's email address and select Send invite. If your child doesn't have an email address, select
  Create a new email address for your child and follow the instructions on the screen.
  
  Your child will need to accept the invite from their email.

Please post to us with more information and results to help you better.

 

I recently purchased a Windows10 laptop. How do I add my son to the laptop and have Microsoft Family work for both devices

<Original Title: Windows 10 Microsoft Family>

I am using Microsoft Family on my Windows10 desktop. I setup an e-mail for my 5 year old son and everything is working.

I recently purchased a Windows10 laptop. How do I add my son to the laptop and have Microsoft Family work for both devices.

Jim

 

Welcome to tenforums budmonster! *Smile

To be honest with ya, I would wait. If something goes wrong at this 11th hour, you'll be up the creek!
You could start though, by posting a whack of info about the machine.

 

Are you sure it's not factory set already? There should be a program installed already to make a factory restore disk of the laptop.

 

The laptop has a 1TB hdd but it only shows like some 800GB available? Is that normal? I was showed this link, is this what I should do?

 

Dell Inspiron 15 i5559-1347SLV
5000 Series
Model 5559 "Silver"

I got it from Best Buy as open-box for $400. The link shows the incorrect laptop, it's suppose to be silver but the specs are correct I believe. Here are some other spec sheets on the machine: 1 2

I haven't been able to find this on Dells website, or an official spec sheet, except what is on the side of the box.

 

Not sure why it would have 200GB taken already. My new Dell laptop purchased in June had no more than 40 GB or so taken up on its 500GB HDD. Was it packaged with a load of extra software?

That page does give instructions for a factory reset through option 4. You should keep the laptop plugged into a power source, not just on battery, while doing a factory reset. I myself would want to do this for an open box purchase, regardless of where it came from. If would really be prudent, however, to make factory recovery media using Dell Backup and Recovery as soon as possible.

Best you look up that specific laptop at Dell support online - give it the service tag from the bottom of the laptop (which should match that on the side of the factory box).

 

The Dell reset may include all of the crapware that Dell was paid to install.

A 1 TB drive would typically show about 931 GB in Windows. (No scam. To an HD manufacturer, a GB is 1E9 bytes. In Windows, it's 2^30 = 1.074E9 bytes.) Even if the Dell came with 131 GB consumed rather than 200, that's ridiculous.

I wouldn't recommend fooling with it on Christmas Eve.

It's easy enough to download an .iso of Win 10 for a new install (Windows 10 ISO Download - Windows 10 Forums), but I'm not familiar with the details of activation on a laptop with a bulk license.

The main practical device that's large enough to backup a 1TB drive is an external hard drive. The good news is that they are fairly inexpensive. The bad news is that they are hard disks. (Drop one a foot or two while it's spun up, and it may not survive the experience.) I have also used large (64 or 128 GB) flash drives to back up an OS partition, but they aren't large enough to back up hundreds of gigabytes of data, even with data compression.

 

Wouldn't Option 3: Reset Windows 10 using Push Button Reset be my best option as it says:

Option 4 says

I thought the whole point was to put clean Win 10 on the laptop without any Dell apps/software (bloatware)? So 3, 4? Also, I was told to try a program called Decrap My Computer. I don't know anything about it, however a user posted it over at the TechSupport subreddit.

By the way, thanks for all the help. Much appreciated.

 

I'm not tech savvy, I was thinking of putting a faster hdd in, 7200rpm or even a ssd if either are possible. Do I contact Dell about this or is their a website detailing what I can upgrade my laptop to. For example the laptop currently has 6GB or memory but could go up to 16GB, however what type or RAM would I need to buy, brand, etc.? I don't very much about that stuff. I would like to upgraded his hdd to a faster hdd or an ssd, then some more ram down the line.

 

If this laptop is for a 6 year old I wouldn't worry about upgrading the ram or HDD.

 

So this laptop is plenty sufficient enough for games like Minecraft, etc. It would be light gaming, learning programs and applications to help with school, watch his movies, etc.

I'm think laptop wise, for a 6yr old, this is a good first one and will last a while. I think price wise to I did pretty well, $400 with some good specs I fell. Some people on other "forums" where telling me to spend $700, on child! I actually returned a laptop I previously bought for $200 but because these guys got in my head saying it was garbage, it'll be too slow for my son, blah blah I took it back.

 

I understand where you want to go but was only suggesting option 4 as a quick and safe way to get to "out of the box" condition in your limited time. Hope you ended up happy before it was time to wrap up the gift!

I would have done 4 just because the box had been opened and who knows what had been done to it after opening.

Here's what I did with my Dell laptop (although mine came with Win 8.1):

• Made factory restore media on both a USB flash drive and on an external USB HDD, using Dell Backup and Recovery.
• After taking the Win10 upgrade through Windows update (not necessary for you), made an entire disk image to an external HDD with Macrium Reflect.
• Downloaded the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool and made a bootable USB flash drive version of the Windows 10 install (you could alternatively get a Win10 ISO to burn to a DVD that's bootable, this also from Tech Bench rather than through MCT).
• Performed a clean install of Win10 Home which included wiping out ALL partitions (including the factory restore partition).
• Enjoyed a Dell crapware free Windows 10 install.
• Bought an SSD, imaged the entire original HDD with Macrium Reflect, physically swapped the HDD for the SSD, and restored the MR image to the SSD.
• Started the laptop, ran "winsat formal", and have been chugging along on that for 5 months or so, problem free.

However, as was already mentioned, Steps 7 and 8 could be overkill for the use of a 6 year old.

 

Looking at the specs I think you did OK. It should serve your needs for for awhile. My new laptop is an i3 and it's does everything I want. I do very limited gaming so I don't know if it can do Minecraft or not.