When you say you can't get into recovery, what happens when you try?
A black screen with a red triangle is recovery. You then need some button combination (power and volume up, I think) to bring up the recovery menu.
If it really won't go into recovery from the bootloader then you've got a bigger problem than a factory reset can fix, and one that I wouldn't think was possible unless you'd rooted the device (or at least unlocked the bootloader).