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How can I restore my Windows XP toolbar?

Is it possible to restore windows xp just pressing F3 on keyboard without any CD recovery or full xp CD?

  • My computer seller gave me a laptop with no cd at all and he told me that I can do system restore just pressing F3 on the laptop keyboard. later under my pressure he gave me a fake restore cd made by him(he said I made a favour for you because normally you don't need cd just press F3 to restore xp). I think that guy is tricker what do you think? becasue even if you don't buy a laptop with full xp cd they have to give you a original microsoft recovery cd or not?

  • Answer:

    The guy is tricking you... however, you can do a system restore if when booting up you press F8 to enter safe mode, then you seclect a date to which you want to restore your computer to, pick the date furthest back. This however isnt a full system resotre, you need a XP Disc for that.

Giorge Walker B at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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No, some computers have partitions on the hard drive that are set up to allow you to reformat the computer from running that partition, in this case, by pressing F3 on boot. Manufactureres are required to give you some sort of backup, whether its a cd or a boot partiton is up to them. Some makers wil provide both without asking. Why dont you try holding down F3 and see what happens, it wont automatically reformat your computer, it will ask you if you are sure, and go through the normal steps of the recovery cd, letting your repair the system and what not. Makers started doing this for the usability factor for users, and to reduce costs with providing the disks.

Jamie W

It's amazing how many people will answer a question without a clue about what they are saying. Hardly any companies give you the CD media for any Windows OS any more. They just copy the .cab files to a second partition (usually called the recovery partition) on the hard drive. I restore Dell laptops all the time with NO CD, so YES it can be done! However, I think this guy didn't have a clue, either, and was pulling your leg about the whole thing. All you need to do, though, is back your laptop up to an external 2.5" hard drive using the Imaging feature. If the HD ever dies or you need to restore, just put the external HD in, and reformat the one that was in the computer and use it for the backup.

roadhunter

Windows XP does not have a built in recovery console, so you do need the recovery CD's. Try the CD and see if it works.

Russ K

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