Windows 7: Unable to use Recovery Disk - Windows 7

Have a Dell Studio 1558...having a problem booting the computer.... Dell is asking me to pay them and I am unable to get the system back to factory settings..... I have a recovery disk but no luck .. would appreciate if someone could help.

More information is needed. You say you have a recovery disk. Is this the operating system supplied by Dell or is it a Windows 7 recovery disk. 32bit or 64bit operating system.

Is your BIOS set to boot from a CD first?

You wouldnt be the first person to end up with bad recovery disks. In any case, since you have a startup problem, you first need to run startup repair from the System recovery options.

Startup Repair

If you are not able to reach the system recovery options, you can try doing it from a Windows 7 disk. Since you have an OEM computer, I presume you dont have a regular install disk, you can still run them from a system repair disk. See option 2 in this tut.

System Repair Disc - Create

FYI, you can also launch factory restore from the hidden partition instead of using the recovery disks. For this, do the following:

As the computer starts, press F8 until the Advanced Boot Options menu appears on the screen. Press the <Down Arrow> on the keyboard to select Repair Your Computer on the Advanced Boot Options menu, and then press <Enter>. Specify the language settings that you want, and then click Next. Log in as a user who has administrative credentials, and then click OK. Click Dell Factory Image Restore.Follow on screen prompts.

If all this doesnt work, come back and we'll tell you how you can clean install windows and activate using the COA sticker key.

My laptop came with no Recovery Disk. I had to make one as soon as I received the machine. I actually made 2 sets, one on 2 DVD's and another on an external hard drive.... I have tried everything possible. Repair and Restore..no joy. I get no error messages but I get no prompts to use the recovery disk. It goes through the whole repair/restore process using I presume the recovery files on the hard disk which I think is corrupted itself. I do not have a windows 7 disk....laptop is only 3 months old......never foresaw this problem. Spoke to DELL who want me to pay for a Windows recovery disk which I think is day light robbery..... but I may not have another option. It is my sons laptop and he is losing patience.....thanks for your help anyway.

Klets, boot from the recovery disk no. 1. Just insert it into your dvd tray/slot, shutdown the computer, then power-on and when prompted "do you want to boot from cd", choose yes.

I think I tried this as well but will try again....Place the CD in the drive and switch the machine on...think I will have to press F12

Bill ... this time it looks like its going tru.....It asked for the second disk ..it never did so the other times.......will keep you posted....

F12 invokes the boot menu which gives you a choice of boot devices. If your computer is set to boot from the optical drive FIRST, then you dont need the F12. Check in your bios and make sure the boot priority order is set so the optical drive (cd drive) is first, that way you'll automatically get the option to boot from cd/dvd if theres a bootable disc in the optical drive.

Bill it went through. It is now installing Windows 7 and all the innitial settings..
Many thanks for your help ...really appreciate it....