Reinstall Win 7 on Dell Inspiron 1545

I have a friend who has a virus and needs to reinstall Win7. Not sure he made a "recovery" disk.

If not.........?

Hi,

If your system’s hard drive is never formatted before and if your system has a “DELL factory Image”, then you can follow the below mentioned URL which will help you in restoring your system to factory settings without OS discs:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xlob/mmd/en/starting_DFIR.htm

Using Dell Factory Image Restore permanently deletes all data on the hard drive and removes any programs or drivers installed after you received your computer. If possible, back up the data before using this option.

Hope this helps.

Hey, thanks for the posts. Win 7 is the original. Only added programs on to it.

I'm guessing you didn't get media. You might call Dell and request it. The worse they can say is no, or that it will cost you.
Keep in mind that if you restore from an image on the hard drive, that image might be corrupt or infected.

thewolfe said:

Hey, thanks for the posts. Win 7 is the original. Only added programs on to it.

Then try the Dell Utility to create a OS reinstall disk. If you can do that I suggest you create and ISO of it so you can save it and burn it down to a DVD or to USB thumb drive.

Dell only gives you one chance to make either the ISO or a DVD. I chose the ISO So I'll always have that. and then burned it to USB thumb and DVD. Redundancy is the key to not losing your data.

edwar, how do I get to the Dell Utility to create ISO?

Did you see Post #3. Everything you need is in the Clean Reinstall tutorial including the latest official installer. The only way it differs is that activation and a Dell logo are baked into Dell Reinstallation DVD.

thewolfe said:

edwar, how do I get to the Dell Utility to create ISO?

Look here.

How to Create a Backup Disc for Dell Laptop | eHow.com

And here.

http://support.dell.com/support/topi...&isLegacy=true

Hi thewolfe,

Ask your friend to submit an online request for the media. Or do it on his behalf. Give reason "virus inflicted hard drive. Recovery disks not working"
https://support.dell.com/support/top.../backupcd_form

In all probability consumer-friendly DELL will promptly send you the Reinstall Media free of cost, with which you can clean install any number of times keeping in-tact the OEM activation which will self activate.