Resetting your Toshiba laptop is useful in case you want to restore your computer to its original factory settings and erase all data. Toshiba laptops do not come with recovery discs, but you can restore them at any time using the computer's recovery partition.
Steps
Method 1 of 2: Windows 8
Step 1. Back up all your personal data to an external USB drive or cloud storage service before resetting your Toshiba laptop
Resetting the computer will erase all personal data.
Step 2. Turn off your laptop and remove any external peripherals like the mouse and USB drives
Step 3. Connect your Toshiba laptop to a power source
Step 4. Turn on your laptop and press the F12 key repeatedly until the “Boot Menu” screen appears
Step 5. Use the arrow keys to navigate to and highlight “HDD Recovery”
Step 6. Press "Enter"
The “Advanced Startup” menu will be displayed on the screen.
Step 7. Click on “Troubleshoot”, then click “Reset”
The laptop will take between 15 minutes and two hours to reset. When finished, the laptop will reboot and display the initial welcome screen.
Method 2 of 2: Windows 7 / Windows Vista / Windows XP
Step 1. Back up all your personal data to an external USB drive or cloud storage service before resetting your Toshiba laptop
Resetting the computer will erase all personal data.
Step 2. Turn off your laptop and remove any external peripherals such as the mouse, an additional monitor, and USB drives
Step 3. Connect your Toshiba laptop to a power source
Step 4. Hold down the "0" key and turn on your laptop at the same time
Step 5. Release the “0” key when the recovery warning message is displayed on the screen
Step 6. Select the operating system that applies to your Toshiba laptop
For example, if the laptop is running Windows 7, select "Windows 7".
Step 7. Click "Yes" to confirm that you understand that resetting your laptop will erase all data
The Toshiba Recovery Wizard will be displayed on the screen.
Step 8. Click on “Recovery of Factory Software” and then “Next”
Step 9. Follow the remaining onscreen prompts to finish resetting your laptop
The reset process can take between 15 minutes and two hours. When complete, the laptop will reboot and display the initial welcome screen.