How to Restore to Factory New???

[Rockrz]

Well, I was tinkering with my wife's new Dell laptop (Win 7 Home Premium) and I guess maybe I got too happy with the CCleaner and deleted some registry entries er something.

It was working great and I noticed that it would not recognize an external drive I was going to install some progs from, even though I can go in to Admin Tools and see it there, and then I tried taking it online and it says Windows Explorer not responding all the time, so I think the best bet at this point is to restore it back to out of the box condition.

I just started tweaking on it, so it's not like I'll be losing much work.

Anybody know how to do this without using the re-install disc, or is that what I need to use?

 

[Rockrz]

I found the Windows restore feature and set that to restore it to yesterday when it was working just fine.

Hopefully that will do it. This happened before I got Acronis installed, otherwise I would have used that.

 

[gregrocker]

Other steps for factory preinstall optimization:

Clean Up Factory Bloatware
Optimize Windows 7 - Windows 7 Forums
Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

 

[Rockrz]

Well, I restored it to last night at about 10pm... right after when I partitioned the hard drive into 2 drives, which hasn't ever cause an external drive to not be recognized before.

I can go into Computer Management > Disk Management and see the drive USB Drive... un-plug it and it goes away, plug it in and it comes back on... but you cannot access it to drag and drop file from, or otherwise see it normally.

And, now it won't go online... if it keeps this up, I'll have to ship it back to Dell and do a credit card chargeback!

 

[Rockrz]

Well, now the internet is working... just had to re-boot the 'ol router which I have to do occasionally anyway for some strange and odd reason. Router is several years old, maybe it's worn out.

Anyway, the laptop seems to be working normal except for it not being able to see my external drive, which is was able to see yesterday just fine.

Any ideas why this would happen?

 

[gregrocker]

Run a Disk Check on external HD.

Before you ship it back make your Recovery Disks from Dell Windows 7 PC Restore
so you can restore to factory condition if you ultimately decide to return it.

then do the Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 to get a perfect install without the corrupting factory bloatware.

 

[Rockrz]

Well, I went to the Device Manager and it looks like my USB ports are not installed some how...

And when I double click it, Windows says it is installing device driver... and then it says failed.
Done that several times.

So, I guess I need to install the Dell driver disk and try it again and see if that helps...

 

[gregrocker]

See if there is a newer chipset or USB controller driver on the Dell Downloads webpage for your tag number. The disk is outdated almost as soon as its pressed.

Most tech enthusiasts would not run the corrupt factory preinstall which throttles WIn7. I'd strongly consider Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

 

[Rockrz]

Run a Disk Check on external HD.

Before you ship it back make your Recovery Disks from Dell Windows 7 PC Restore
so you can restore to factory condition if you ultimately decide to return it.

But, this external drive works perfectly on other computers. When I did the restore early to take it back to about 10pm last night... once I booted it up and plugged in the external drive, it did the normal thing Windows does when you first plug in an external drive. It said installing driver, then it said driver install was a success.

I know the drive is OK, and I've tried other external drives that work on other computers, and same thing.

I was looking in the wrong place earlier on the USB hub... it is recognized, so there should be no problem there. And, as mentioned earlier I can see the drive in Disk Management as normal and it is online.

This is all weird... I don't even get drunk or do dope anymore, so that's not it

I hate to call Dall cause they'll just spend a bunch of time doing this and that and then have me run the Windows repair using the install CD that I had to pay like $3 extra to get.

Most tech enthusiasts would not run the corrupt factory preinstall which throttles WIn7. I'd strongly consider Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

Yeah, I did that on my Lenovo X220 with great results, but on that deal, the hard drive was easy to get to and I installed a larger hard drive (still have the OE drive in case I wanna sell it someday)... but this one is Win 7 Home Premium 64bit... where can I get an ISO file for that?

 

[Rockrz]

OK, so I found a user manual for the Dell e5430 and it explains how to get the hard drive out, and it doesn't look too hard to get out.

I guess I don't have alot of choice but to buy another hard drive (it only has a 320gig drive, so a 500gig would be kool to install anyway) and install it and do a clean OE Windows install. I'll use Belarc to see what kind of network card it has so I can obtain the driver for it so I can get online and run Windows updates.

I just need to find a place to download Win 7 Home Premium 64bit ISO file so I can burn a DVD for the install and use the COA to activate,

 

[Rockrz]

Never mind... I found the ISO file download at
Legal Download from DigitalRiver: Windows 7 SP1, 13 languages

This is where I got the ISO for my Win 7 x64 for my Lenovo... installed it, and activated it with my existing COA and got rid of the Lenovo bloatware.

I just hope that this will help on her Dell Laptop cause there doesn't seem to be much bloatware at all, nothing like my Lenovo had.

 

[gregrocker]

but this one is Win 7 Home Premium 64bit... where can I get an ISO file for that?

Step 1 in tutorial. Follow the steps if you want to get and keep a perfect install.

I thought you said Dell provided you with Reinstallation DVD. That works fine and self-activates.

Why do you need to remove HD?

 

[theog]

How to use Dell Recovery Partition,make Recovery Disks & how to order Recovery Disks.
Dell - Support

Dell will send you

Dell reinstall DVD
Dell Drivers DVD
Dell App DVD

 

[Rockrz]

I thought you said Dell provided you with Reinstallation DVD. That works fine and self-activates.

Why do you need to remove HD?

Yes, the Dell re-install CD and their drivers CD will hook me back up with extra Dell bloatware that isn't needed.

Since I ran the Windows restore... now Windows will not update, so something is sckrewy in St Louie. I run a business and don't have alot of time for troubleshooting.

So, the original hard drive is only 320gigs and I'd like to put in a 500gig driver anyway, so I'll probably call Dell and see if they can walk me through getting this thing back to factory new condition with it's current hard drive.

Then, I'll remove that drive altogether and do a fresh install on a new 500gig drive using a Windows OE version that won't have anything but Windows.

I did this on my Lenovo and it works great. Nuttin but Windows, and what I add after that. That way, I know what I got and I'm keeping it simple.

 

[AddRAM]

Just put the new deive in and run the dell reinstall cd`s get your pc up and running.

 

[gregrocker]

Dell's Reinstallation DVD is a clean copy of Win7. You should not use the Driver's CD but instead after running all Important and Optional Windows Updates to completion, any drivers still missing in Device Manager should be imported from the Dell Downloads webpage for your tag number.

This is all explained in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 which has helped tens of thousands of users get perfect reinstalls. Only if you follow outdated XP reinstall methods can there be problems.

 

[Rockrz]

I'd rather skip having Dell's proprietary software re-installed since it's un-necessary.

Most people will agree that using a manufacturer's re-install disc also install's that manufacturer's proprietary software (bloatware) so they can continue installing stuff on your system and keep themselves before your eyes in hopes of selling you more stuff. Everyone knows this is the game of commercial product providers to continue marketing to existing customers.

I can install the same version of Windows from an OEM disc and activate using the COA on the back of the laptop. That way, I know I'm getting a straight Windows install.

Using the Dell CD is a gamble... I don't have time to gamble so I'm going to install from an OEM disc that did not come from Dell so I know I'm getting a straight install.

 

[gregrocker]

There is no gamble and we need no schooling on this. You are at the top tech forums and the top site on the web for this specialty - none others even come close.

Dell provides a clean Reinstallation DVD which only contains the Win7 OS, self-activation and a Dell logo for System page. Having it self-activate makes this more convenient than using the latest official installer which we also provide in Step 1 of Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

In order to obtain Recovery Media containing the factory image you have to burn it yourself off of the Recovery partition as described in Dell Windows 7 PC Restore

The steps in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows are based on helping tens of thousands of users since before Win7 was even released. If you stick with the tools and methods therein you will get and keep a perfect install.

 

[Rockrz]

OK, thanks for the input!

The steps in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows are based on helping tens of thousands of users since before Windows 7 was even released. If you stick with the tools and methods therein you will get and keep a perfect install.

Yes, and these instructions are what I said I wanted to do instead of using the Dell re-install disc.

Looks like I will be following these instructions after all...