Nothing will open (programs, files, etc..)

whs said:

1. To reinstall a Dell from the recovery partition, this is the procedure:

· Unplug all the devices and drivers from your CPU (except the keyboard and the mouse), including your printer, camera and memory stick.

· Shut off the computer and then turn it on, or simply restart it.

· As soon as you see the Dell logo at the start keep on hitting the F8 key repeatedly. Do not stop until you see the screen that says "Repair your computer." There will be other options too but chose this option and hit Enter.

· Next you will see a prompt window giving you options to select the keyboard layout select from the drop-down menu "US" and click "OK."

· On the next screen you will be asked to select the user ID and the password of your Windows account. Select your user account, but make sure your user account has administrative functions. Type in your password. If you don't have a password, leave it blank and click "OK."

· Now you will come to a window with multiple options. Choose the one at the bottom that reads, "Dell Factory Image Restore." By clicking "Dell Factory Image Restore" , it will generate an operation that will take about 45 minutes to complete.


2. Saving programs makes no sense. You will have to reinstall those programs. If you have not saved the product keys, you will have to get them from the companies that own the programs. Next time, run Belarc advisor and store it in a safe place. That lists all your product keys and more. Try to run the advisor in safe mode, maybe it works.

3. For saving your data files, you need some live CD with which you can boot the dead system. This is a popular one:

Lucid Puppy way to recover files from a non-bootable computer

But you need access to another computer to burn the CD.

But here again, if you can copy them to your stick in safe mode, that would be the easiest.

ahh, I see. Can belarc adivsor find product keys you previouslly entered or not?

Stevethaboss said:

whs said:

1. To reinstall a Dell from the recovery partition, this is the procedure:

· Unplug all the devices and drivers from your CPU (except the keyboard and the mouse), including your printer, camera and memory stick.

· Shut off the computer and then turn it on, or simply restart it.

· As soon as you see the Dell logo at the start keep on hitting the F8 key repeatedly. Do not stop until you see the screen that says "Repair your computer." There will be other options too but chose this option and hit Enter.

· Next you will see a prompt window giving you options to select the keyboard layout select from the drop-down menu "US" and click "OK."

· On the next screen you will be asked to select the user ID and the password of your Windows account. Select your user account, but make sure your user account has administrative functions. Type in your password. If you don't have a password, leave it blank and click "OK."

· Now you will come to a window with multiple options. Choose the one at the bottom that reads, "Dell Factory Image Restore." By clicking "Dell Factory Image Restore" , it will generate an operation that will take about 45 minutes to complete.


2. Saving programs makes no sense. You will have to reinstall those programs. If you have not saved the product keys, you will have to get them from the companies that own the programs. Next time, run Belarc advisor and store it in a safe place. That lists all your product keys and more. Try to run the advisor in safe mode, maybe it works.

3. For saving your data files, you need some live CD with which you can boot the dead system. This is a popular one:

Lucid Puppy way to recover files from a non-bootable computer

But you need access to another computer to burn the CD.

But here again, if you can copy them to your stick in safe mode, that would be the easiest.

ahh, I see. Can belarc adivsor find product keys you previouslly entered or not?

Sorry for being so ignorant, but is the lucid puppy a physical disk or just a download? If it is a download can I fit most of my files into a 4gb flash drive?

whs said:

Yes, Belarc Advisor finds all product keys of all installed programs that have such keys, including the OS key. But the OS key is only good for that particular installation.

If you reinstall from the recovery partition, you do not have to worry about the key of the OS. It is automatically detected.

Okay cool. I have the Belcarc Advisor now. It says to mouse over the blue "i" but that doesn't show the product keys. Are they located somewhere else?

Stevethaboss said:

whs said:

Yes, Belarc Advisor finds all product keys of all installed programs that have such keys, including the OS key. But the OS key is only good for that particular installation.

If you reinstall from the recovery partition, you do not have to worry about the key of the OS. It is automatically detected.

Okay cool. I have the Belcarc Advisor now. It says to mouse over the blue "i" but that doesn't show the product keys. Are they located somewhere else?

Nevermind I found them.

If you own those Adobe programs then you'll need to be sure you have their Product Keys and locate the installers to reinstall them. Did you buy them from Dell or elsewhere? I would call them to find out how to secure an installer if you don't have one. Those are expensive programs so you should have preserved their disks and Keys so you could reinstall them.

You said you really don't understand a Clean Reinstall. Did you read the tutorial to try to understand it, because you didn't ask back any questions? You own a copy of Win7 which can either be reinstalled using Dell Recovery which includes a lot of factory bloatware that interferes with Win7, or you can Clean Reinstall just the OS which gives much better performance.
Dell Windows 7 PC Restore
Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

It's your choice. We will help you with whatever you decide.

gregrocker said:

If you own those Adobe programs then you'll need to be sure you have their Product Keys and locate the installers to reinstall them. Did you buy them from Dell or elsewhere? I would call them to find out how to secure an installer if you don't have one. Those are expensive programs so you should have preserved their disks and Keys so you could reinstall them.

You said you really don't understand a Clean Reinstall. Did you read the tutorial to try to understand it, because you didn't ask back any questions? You own a copy of Win7 which can either be reinstalled using Dell Recovery which includes a lot of factory bloatware that interferes with Win7, or you can Clean Reinstall just the OS which gives much better performance.
Dell Windows 7 PC Restore
Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

It's your choice. We will help you with whatever you decide.

I want to do the clean install but when i download the thing from the first step it makes me pick a drive and it just opens my cd drive and I have no cd to save it to... I want to use my usb, so i have no idea what to do from step one