Laptop wont boot F8

hello,
Im trying to get my laptop (Dell) to reformat back to factory settings and to do that i need to access the advanced boot menu or  (f8) however ive restarded multiple times and it refuses to go into advance boot menu.
thanks for reading hope to hear back.

Can you get into the BIOS and change the boot sequence there / tried a USB keyboard?

Alan <><

ive tried the USB keyboard to no avail. also i tried the BIOS but all i can change in there is the boot priority like the HDD, CD ROM ets. i went into MS CONFIG and tried to change the boot there but it doesn't even acknowledge that there is a HDD so i cant select safe boot or anything in there.

[Moderator]

If the BIOS doesn't see the drive a restore wont work...
Try removing the HDD with both the power and battery removed...and replace it.
Wait 5 minutes and see if Bios sees the HDD...it may have failed completely.

I cant really get it apart, laptops arent meant to be taken apart lol. The PC works when started normally so the HDD is working. i just cant see in in MS CONFIG.

In the BIOS it does recognize the HDD but all i can do for boot options is make it first. i need to get to the advanced boot menu.

Please let me know if i misunderstood part of your post

It might be a SATA drive. Some BIOS' aren't capable of reading these in Vista-era laptops and you'll need special drivers for Windows to see 'm.

You should use your recovery CDs if the built-in recovery software fails.

Im trying to get my laptop (Dell) to reformat back to factory settings and to do that i need to access the advanced boot menu

Please post the computer laptop model. Some laptops can access recovery utility within windows.

model is DELL  "studio 1537"

The Dell Studio model is only configured to restore via the pre startup of windows. Have you tried rapidly tapping F8 on first powering up? Check disk management if the recovery partition is present and check the status. You may need to create recovery CDs as suggested if everything fails.

Ok so i got into the advance boot menu and i click repair PC. It asks me to to login and only shows one window. this is labeled other user and thats all there is i dont know what to type in...ive tried leaving it blank and typing admin and nothing..

Also a additional problem is now every time it boots normally it takes me into safe mode...

is my HDD bad?

[Moderator]

Try rebooting...when you arrive at that screen hit Enter...any Luck ? ?

unfortunatly no luck. when i press enter it brings up the log in screen prompting username and pass

when i try my user name it gives me a error message saying "the specific domain either does not exist or could not be contacted"

Start up a Ubuntu live CD and head over to disk management. You'll know soon enough if your hard drive is bad.

I tried Ubuntu and it reads my HDD so i think that is ok

I tried Ubuntu and it reads my HDD so i think that is ok

S.M.A.R.T read-out is what matters.