How to format laptop with broken screen?
Since your laptop has a broken screen, you will need to connect it to an external monitor via a VGA or HDMI cable.
Once connected proceed with the following steps.
1. Remove the battery and power cable (if it is connected)
2. Turn off your laptop. Use this method to turn it off if you are currently logged into Windows: press and hold the power button for 10 seconds, then release it. You should see a dialogue box that says “Turning Off” followed by another saying “Shutting Down.”
3. If you are not logged out of Windows yet, do so now by pressing ctrl+alt+del on your keyboard and choosing logout or shutting down depending on how far along you are to finishing up what you were doing.
4. Unplug any external devices connected to your laptop such as mouse, USB flash drive etc…
5. Now push the start button and hold it down as you then press and hold the “on/off” or “battery off” button next to it. You will see a black screen pop up with some instructions. Let go of them both once your full attention is on this screen.
6: Within these steps, the black screen should switch between showing “F10= Setup” and ” ESC:Reset “. Underneath one of those messages, find the text that says something like Pressing F3 lets you bypass system setup . This command might be different for every laptop but if you do not see anything even closely similar to this at all, try hitting F2 instead (which normally lets you change boot-up options).
7. Press F5 or “Fn” + F5 to reset your current laptop back to factory settings (this depends on the laptop’s brand)
8. Follow all on-screen instructions and allow the computer to boot with its default configuration for restoration. If prompted, do not restore from a backup that you have created yourself using software such as Windows 7 Backup & Restore . It’s never a good idea to restore from backups that aren’t provided by a professional in cases where hardware damage is involved.
9 – 10: Press any key when prompted and watch the system go through its entire set up process once more after you have restored it back to factory settings. During this process, you will most likely be asked if you want to input license keys again so make sure that you either say yes or no depending on your preference.
11: When prompted, select a user profile to carry out the factory restoration process as and then press Enter.
12: Wait for the entire laptop restoration from factory settings to be completed before taking control once more of your now-restored laptop.
13 – 14: Reboot the machine after it has been restored back to its original state by the software you used to restore it with and enter in any information that may have been lost upon restoration such as License Keys or usernames etc. If you do not input these license keys at this point, you will be unable to access many programs including Windows itself thus creating a potential security threat for yourself due to malicious activity from viruses if you continue without inputting them.
15: Log in using the username and password you always use to access your computer. DO NOT create a new account. If you wish to change this information, please do so at another time after proper restoration has been completed as any changes made will not be effective until the factory settings have been restored correctly.
16: Install updates for Windows itself and also install updated drivers for components such as your keyboard, mouse, controller, etc if they require updating upon restoration from backup/restore or even just after initial installation of Windows 10 or anything else that may need updated drivers included with installation packages for your hardware. This process could take several hours depending on how many driver updates there are available and how long it takes each individual update to complete installation so plan this step accordingly.
17: Re-activate Windows 10 by either using your product key or by running the command slmgr -ipk _______ (where ________ is your product key) and entering the newly displayed activation code in the appropriate field on the Windows 10 settings panel under “activation”. This process will require internet access to complete successfully. If you are unable to activate it after following these steps due to an error message, go back to Step 2 and make sure that all of your drivers are up-to-date before trying again then skip ahead to Step 24 if still unsuccessful.
18: Format the entire hard drive including all partitions currently present with diskpart at minimum. It is recommended that you copy the contents of any flash drive or disc that has been in the machine previously to another location before beginning this step.
20: Install your preferred edition of Windows 10 from an official Microsoft source such as System Builder media (requires product key listed on label under battery) or USB flash drive(does not require product key, see last page for download links). The download link can also be found by clicking here. If using a USB flash drive, open it and copy its content into your clipboard then paste it into the root directory of an empty flash drive and proceed to install.
21: Reset BIOS settings with Lenovo/Dell utility if necessary and uncheck “UEFI/Legacy Boot” option.
23: Install Lenovo/Dell drivers for your model system, reboot computer and install all necessary applications (optional).
24: Don’t go further if you are using any custom made laptop models. If certain components are not working properly, use this article as a reference.
25: After rebooting, check Device Manager for any missing drivers or other errors. Find Lenovo support here. Finally Google “support” for other laptop brands or visit their website’s Support section to find other methods of getting help with your specific issue(s).
26: Check Windows Update for any available updates and install all patches/updates before attempting to customize your laptop.
27: Go to “Start” by moving the cursor to the bottom-left corner of the screen and opening it. From here click on “Settings”. Then navigate to “Update & security” followed by “Recovery.” Finally, go down and click on “Restart Now” under “Advanced Startup.” After restarting, select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt from the menu.
28: If you haven’t transferred files yet (i.e. music, videos) over from another computer or a previous installation of Windows via an external drive, now is a good time before we begin installing new programs. This process will take a while depending on how much data needs to be copied over, so take this time to do it.
30: Click “Next.”
31: Here you will have the choice of installing Windows in a different language than your current version or choosing not to change the default. If you feel like getting technical, there are ways around changing the language here but that’s beyond the scope of this article. Simply click “Next.”
32: Click “Install Now”.
33: Click “I Accept”. After accepting you should see that progress is being made on installing Windows 10. Be patient and wait for all files to transfer before doing anything else with your computer because it could potentially cause problems later if done incorrectly. Once finished, your computer should automatically restart reboot and you should see the license agreement.
35: Click “Next”.
36: Type in your desired username, password, computer name (optional), connect your account to Microsoft (not optional), and set a picture for your account (also not optional). If you do not sign up for an email address with Outlook or Hotmail it is best that you de-select the option now before completing setup.
37: Just click through this screen. You can customize privacy settings later if needed.
38: Sync your apps from the windows store by clicking on the boxes of each app that needs to be synced. By default, all apps should be selected already but if any were unchecked then recheck them here and finish creating a Microsoft account if you haven’t already.
39: If you get a “no email” type screen just click the line that says “finish your phone setup later”. You can set this up using Cortana to search for something later or do it from another device if needed.
40: You are done!
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