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Reformat an eMachines E525

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GoTAtitO Posted messages 69 Status Member -  
GoTAtitO Posted messages 69 Status Member -
Hello and first of all thank you for your future help.
I will briefly explain, my mother received a PC from her boss that he hasn’t used for a while, unfortunately he doesn’t remember the password to open it (or doesn’t want to out of fear that we will access his documents) so I wanted to reformat it so that there wouldn’t be a need for a password anymore, but I can’t find this reformatting center. Does anyone have any idea where it is? I have tried several keys on startup. Thank you for your attention.

Configuration: Windows Vista / Chrome 42.0.2311.135

6 answers

Answer 1 / 6
tanteelise Posted messages 28179 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   4 810
 
Hello, start the PC while holding down the ALT key and tapping the F10 key at the same time.
See if that takes you to the factory restore (recovery) menu

Best regards

--
"The little I know, I owe to my ignorance" (Sacha Guitry)
No responses will be provided from 5-6 PM, thank you for your understanding :)
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GoTAtitO Posted messages 69 Status Member 2
 
Hello, no by holding down the ALT key and tapping the F10 key the computer starts up just fine, I really wonder if there is a factory reset menu because I had already tried some keys.
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Answer 2 / 6
tanteelise Posted messages 28179 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   4 810
 
Have you tried F10 alone?

--
"The little I know, I owe it to my ignorance" (Sacha Guitry)
No responses after 5-6 PM, thank you for your understanding :)
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GoTAtitO Posted messages 69 Status Member 2
 
By pressing the F10 key alone (which I had never tried), I end up in a "Change Boot Options" menu.
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Answer 3 / 6
tanteelise Posted messages 28179 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   4 810
 
no, that's not it either... not the right menu.
is it indeed an acer?

--
"The little I know, I owe to my ignorance" (Sacha Guitry)
No responses after 5-6 PM, thank you for your understanding :)
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GoTAtitO Posted messages 69 Status Member 2
 
Yes, it's indeed an Acer.
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Answer 4 / 6
cristali Posted messages 9481 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   1 577
 
Hello, on Acer you also have the recovery with the option
"repair the computer"

tap the F8 key at startup
repair the computer
respond keyboard language
recovery management

in this kind of recovery manager
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GoTAtitO Posted messages 69 Status Member 2
 
Hello and thank you for the reply. So indeed, it is the F8 key that needs to be tapped. As mentioned, I arrive at the system recovery options after choosing the language, but in order to access the recovery options, it asks for the user's password or the HomeGroupUser$. As I said, I do not have the user's password. Is there a solution or not? Thank you again for the reply.
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Answer 5 / 6
tanteelise Posted messages 28179 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   4 810
 
So it's either F10 or ALT F10...

I don't see any other solution.

--
"The little I know, I owe to my ignorance" (Sacha Guitry)
No responses after 5-6 PM, thank you for your understanding :)
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GoTAtitO Posted messages 69 Status Member 2
 
I just tried what "cristali" told me, I can get into the recovery system but it asks me for the password to access it so I'm stuck. Thank you for your help.
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cristali Posted messages 9481 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   1 577
 
By any chance, could there be several accounts, one of which wouldn't require a password?
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GoTAtitO Posted messages 69 Status Member 2
 
Unfortunately not, I will go to his workplace to see the boss and explain to him, and I hope he will find his password, because with his password, we could just redo an admin session and delete his account, well of course it would also be best to reformat it.
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GoTAtitO Posted messages 69 Status Member 2
 
Thank you for your help. After more than 3-4 months, I found a very simple solution.
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Answer 6 / 6
GoTAtitO Posted messages 69 Status Member 2
 
Hi, for anyone looking for how to do it, I've found a very easy solution that doesn't take much time.
Download the version of Windows that is on your computer, take a USB drive and make it bootable. (If you don't know how to do it, just look it up on Google, it's your friend). Once that's done, insert Windows onto the USB drive, plug the drive into your PC, turn it on and simply reinstall Windows. When it asks for the product key, look on the back of your PC, there's often a little paper stuck on it with the Windows key. There you go, just like that.
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