Me and a buddy got his grandparents' old laptop to put it back. Data is all stored on an external hard drive. We just can't put it back. Every time we want to reset it in the settings, an error message appears. Maybe there's some way to reset the laptop outside of the settings?
Operating system?
Windows 10, originally Windows 7
You should reinstall Windows 10 cleanly using a previously created installation medium (DVD or USB stick).
For this you can use the free Media Creation Tool from Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/.../windows10
Run the program and follow all the steps. With a DVD, it just downloads an ISO file that you still need to burn. There's the option "Burn disk image" directly under Windows if you right-click on the downloaded ISO file.
If you choose a USB stick instead, you just have to follow all the steps and at the end you have a usable stick for reinstallation.
Then boot from the created installation disk by inserting the DVD into the drive or inserting the USB stick into one of your USB slots and then restarting your laptop. If your laptop starts up as usual, you have to change the boot sequence in the BIOS beforehand: https://praxistipps.chip.de/...ehts_10161
Then follow all steps of the installation process. Select Custom as the installation type and delete all existing partitions in the partition manager. Remember that everything will be deleted! If a partition is called "Recovery" or something like that, you don't have to delete it. Unless you don't need them anyway.
You could also reset a laptop via the recovery partition, but then you would have Windows 7 again, and also outdated drivers and software on the device. So you don't usually need it, because there's another way and the method using an installation disk is better.
At the end there should only be one entry with unallocated space. Possibly two if two hard drives are installed. In such a case, select the desired hard drive for the installation.
You now go to "Next" at the bottom right, whereupon the installation begins. The rest is then self-explanatory.
After the reinstallation you should first install all necessary or missing drivers and the latest Windows updates.
