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

[Bene4Lyf]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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 Which can be nice - but as Barman said there might be quite a few out of date trial programs and so on that need removing.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]

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 Which can be nice - but as Barman said there might be quite a few out of date trial programs and so on that need removing.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]

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

 

[hazel123]

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]

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]

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

 

[hazel123]

It's worth it when it's done It probably won't do any harm leaving all the bloatware programs on - if there are any - but if there is Java I would remove it. Control panel - uninstall programs.

When it's all finished you might have the Windows 10 upgrade icon appear. If you don't want it there's a thread on here which shows which updates to remove to get rid of it.

 

[Bene4Lyf]

It's worth it when it's done It probably won't do any harm leaving all the bloatware programs on - if there are any - but if there is Java I would remove it. Control panel - uninstall programs.

When it's all finished you might have the Windows 10 upgrade icon appear. If you don't want it there's a thread on here which shows which updates to remove to get rid of it.

Btw i've been running the laptop for 12 hours now, will it still not overheat or something bad happens? Sorry i just use my laptop from 3-6 hours and its the first time it took this long

 

[hazel123]

It should be fine. Some people leave their laptops switched on permanently. They can run a bit warmer when working hard doing a lot of updates, but it if it overheated it would just shut down probably.

 

[Bene4Lyf]

It should be fine. Some people leave their laptops switched on permanently. They can run a bit warmer when working hard doing a lot of updates, but it if it overheated it would just shut down probably.

The update took 14 hours and there are some updates left to do


BTW I've found something really odd, i did resetted it to factory settings but its sooo slow that when i move my mouse,it stops responding for 5 minutes then when i click/type something there,it stops responding too long then it will say windows explorer has stopped responding then it takes me almost 45 minutes to boot to my desktop and 1 hour to reboot. It was slower than the old self of that laptop Any help???

 

[AddRAM]

It takes that long because you were in the middle of updating, after all your updates are done, windows should not take but a minute to reboot.

 

[hazel123]

How's it going? Are you up and running now?

 

[Bene4Lyf]

How's it going? Are you up and running now?

Btw i did accidentally factory restored my laptop again and it became successful but when it tried to reboot,the dell logo appeared then next is the windows logo then it will just turn to black forever then will reboot after a long time saying i need to launch startup repair but when i try to go to the recovery options, it just shows the backround and the cursor and not any option for recovery

 

[hazel123]

I think you said you had Dell discs with drivers on? There may be a repair option on there. That's a shame when you were nearly updated.

How did you actually lose your Windows install in the first place? Just wondering if there is a hardware issue.

 

[Bene4Lyf]

I think you said you had Dell discs with drivers on? There may be a repair option on there. That's a shame when you were nearly updated.

How did you actually lose your Windows install in the first place? Just wondering if there is a hardware issue.

I have my dell drivers and utilities cd which only does is a diagnostics

Btw is there a way i can do a system restore over there? I think that can be the only solution since i made a restore point of the laptop before it happened

 

[hazel123]

I don't understand what you mean there, sorry. You could try the drivers and utilities disc and see if it has a repair option or even a recovery option to reinstall. When you say you made a restore point, I don't think that will help if Windows is not booting and loading - unless you mean you made a system image?

Once Windows was installed you would have had the option to burn a dvd as a repair disc, or make a system image and there might also have been a Dell option to make recovery discs of the Full windows install.