A problem that is taking me months to find a way to fix....

Bene4Lyf · 20 Mar 2016

Barman58 said:

Yes that's the way the recovery system works

Is it surely guaranteed that there will the an original windows Operating System and not have a blank laptop?? Cuz i cant take a risk on it since we dont have the installation disk of the dell

Barman58 · 20 Mar 2016

Unfortunately there is no guarantee that this will work that I can give you as there is no way to confirm that everything is ok. It' Should work, and the software may give you the option to save your data or even make recovery media but this depends on what was loaded by Dell at the factory

You may try to contact your nearest Dell office and see if they have a set of recovery disks for that model laptop, but even if they do they will be likely to charge for the service, although this is normally just the cost of the disks and postage

GokAy · 20 Mar 2016

Barman58 said:

You cannot Boot windows 7 from a USB stick or even a USB attached external Hard drive. This Limitation is by design.

Nigel, there is this project for making Windows boot from USB. I have not tried it yet though.
[project] PWBoot <Latest version: 3.0.2> - Project forge - reboot.pro

Ok to link here?

Barman58 · 20 Mar 2016

Seems above board so OK to link, although from reading through some of the chat there I don't think it's something for a regular user yet, (or to be honest ever)

hazel123 · 20 Mar 2016

If you have found an option to use recovery settings I would go with that. Factory install means your original copy of windows is on the laptop and will be reinstalled via the recovery process - it will be as it was when the computer was new. Which can be nice - but as Barman said there might be quite a few out of date trial programs and so on that need removing. And you'll need to do all the Windows updates which could take a day or more, but quicker than things have been until now.

It will set up as a new installation, just as if you had installed from a disc, but with manufacture software in addition. Do you have files on there you want to keep? If so it might be an idea to try and recover those before resetting to factory settings.

Bene4Lyf · 20 Mar 2016

hazel123 said:

If you have found an option to use recovery settings I would go with that. Factory install means your original copy of windows is on the laptop and will be reinstalled via the recovery process - it will be as it was when the computer was new. Which can be nice - but as Barman said there might be quite a few out of date trial programs and so on that need removing. And you'll need to do all the Windows updates which could take a day or more, but quicker than things have been until now.

It will set up as a new installation, just as if you had installed from a disc, but with manufacture software in addition. Do you have files on there you want to keep? If so it might be an idea to try and recover those before resetting to factory settings.

Updating windows that will take a day will relieve me more of feeling safe from BSODs rather than wasting months to find one right solution out of many fixes out there

Also i cannot recover those softwares so i still have them when i reset to factory settings since i cant boot to my desktop and i last booted from my laptop was back December 2015

Bene4Lyf · 20 Mar 2016

Thank you guys for helping me!!! Specially to AddRAM hazel123 and Barman58 !!! :)

Now i have my laptop back and its weird looking for now since its in the factory image but i'll edit annd personalize it :P

hazel123 · 21 Mar 2016

Yay! I'm glad you found the recovery drive option. If you look in programs (Windows button, control button 'uninstall programs' you will see a list of the pre-installed somewhere. I'm not sure how much 'extra' stuff Dell put on but there are likely to be some 'trial' softwares that will be out of date (and will also pester you to pay for them when they expire). You'll need antivirus on it before you do anything. But if you've already started doing something without antivirus on it, you can restore to factory settings again and start again (you should be able to do it easier next time as there will probably be a Dell recovery program/option in the list of programs).

Anyway you can either activate the trial antivirus that'll be installed and then replace it before the trial runs out. Or you can uninstall the trial antivirus and put your own antivirus on (if you have one) or if you start Windows updates, Windows will automatically down MSE so that will give you antivirus for doing the Windows updates, although I would replace that later with something 'stronger'.

Usually any Microsoft Office, antivirus and so on are 'trials' and will keep nagging you to pay for a full version - they can be safely uninstalled via the Control program/uninstall programs.

As for the look, you can change that in 'Appearances' and choose wallpapers or aero or whatever.

I've just reset mine to factory settings recently and there are a lot of Windows updates, so be patient until they are all done. After that it will be safe to use. Don't connect to the internet until antivirus is on and all Windows updates done (if you have already, then say and we can suggest a virus check before going any futher).

I would go to Windows Updates in the program list, open Windows updates and on the left select 'change settings' and opt for the second one 'download updates but let me choose whether to install them'.

Barman58 · 21 Mar 2016

What you may wish to do at this point, is check for a Dell folder in the start menu all programs list, which contains an option to create a set of recovery disks, this will take a few minutes and a DVD or two, but could save you in the future if you ever get into problems again.

Bene4Lyf · 21 Mar 2016

What im doing at this point is actually updating my windows since 10:30 AM to present 8:30 PM and there are 12 more updates xD so it will be a long updating day

Totally,i updated 19 windows updates yet and 12 more to go :)