If the recovery management tools have been removed, reseting back to factory settings is no longer possible.
The best you can do is to perform a clean install of any operating system you want, including a reformat.
If you install any distribution of Linux, and use the native file system, the deep format needed will make any data recovery nearly impossible.
BEFORE reinstalling, be sure to delete any personal files, empty the recycle bin, and defragment the drive. This does a great job of destroying leftover files fragments. If you have more than one drive or partitions, be sure to erease any personal files in those locations. Here again, defragmenting is recomended.
I recomend using some third party defragmenter. Many have a whipe free space option. They also do a beter job than the one included with Windows.
Use Ccleaner. In the "Cleaner" section, BOTH tabs. Activate EVERYTHING. Click "Analyse". Click "Run cleaner". Sellect "Yes". Whiping the free space can take a few hours, be patient.
Electro
March 2013