I have a hp pavilion a645w. my wife and kidds have filled with usles stuff we dont want or need. would take for ever to delete or uninstall. This is the first computer i ever had that didnt come with a disk to reset it to factory programing and erase everything else. I believe all I can do with the recovery drive is reset to factory setting. ran compleat recovery once and it doesnt erase any programs but made a few unwanted ones stop working.
my question: Is there any way to reset to factory programing without a recovery disc. If so how.

To get the same "system" you had when you bought it, you need a recovery disk from the manufacturer. Easiest way to do it is do a complete format (after saving your important files) and then run the recovery disk. Otherwise you can use a regular Windows CD and get a (very) basic system; you'll lose all the programs that came w/ the system.

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Common Sense v2.0-Striving to make the world a little bit smarter.

1) Go to the manufacturer website of your computer (ie. http://www.hp.com)

2) Download all the drivers for your hardware like the Video Adapter, Sound Card, Modem, etc.

3) Format your computer and install Windows.

4) Using the files that you downloaded from the manufacturer's website, start installing the drivers then restart.

5) Finally, install all the applications that you want and you have a newly formatted fresh Windows installation.


If you need further clarifications, please do not hesitate to ask, good luck.