Can I restore my laptop to factory settings without a recovery disk?

Maybe.

Try to find it over the internet. Just like I did my Microsoft Office 2007 lol

I can't believe people actually pay for it lol

Yes if you go to your windows start menu, then go to all programs, accessories, system tools... there is an option for system restore. It will then walk you through restoring it, it is a quick fix however will uninstall all new programs. But I have done this in the past so I would recommend if you are having minor problems! Good Luck ! I just reread your question & realized you said restore factory settings not just system restore, yes you can if you go through the same options. There is something in there that will restore completely!

I doubt you can reset it without the recovery disk unless yours has a recovery partition. You can contact Dell and buy a recovery disk, though.

Press F8 repeatedly at start up black screen before logo or log in screen to enter start options chose safe mode back up all important files restart pressing F8 and chose recovery or repair.

Yes if the restore files are loaded on a partition on the HDD

Yupp, I did. When it is on the Dell screen when starting up, click F7 or F8. I called DELL and that is what they told me to do, and it worked.

*The Dell Screen is before you are at your background*

dell has been known to use "hotkeys" on older laptops that initiate system restore.you may still need to contact dell to use them, i have forgotten mine but it did reset everything

there is a key combo that you press at start up...i think for dell it's alt+f10

but i would google it to make sure

yeah.