Clean install of Windows? Factory reset?

[izzydoesit]

My Dell Inspiron 1545 has been running very, very slow. Although it passed numerous diagnostic tests, I think messing around with the registry has taken its toll. I tried doing a factory reset but there's no option for Dell factory image restore. However, my recovery E drive does contain a factory.wim which would lead me to believe that if I could access it, I might be able to use it. Reading the instructions of how to do a clean install of Windows makes my head explode. I'm fairly tech saavy but hesitant about attempting this.

This started with my futile attempts to reinstall an HP printer. I could not, and can still not access the troubleshooter. I keep getting the message that a problem is preventing the troubleshooter from starting and error code 0x80070490. When I couldn't install the new Epson printer I bought, I thought I might as well start from scratch since all attempts to repair what was wrong have failed. I'm confused, overwhelmed, and tired of going around in circles. I'm not sure that I fully understand what the difference is between a clean install and a factory reset. I wonder if I shouldn't take my laptop to a pc guru to let him do it, but I'd also like to know if there's a easier and less expensive solution to this.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Appologize for the length.

 

[whs]

Try This: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html

 

[izzydoesit]

That's exactly what made my head explode. I don't feel I know enough to attempt it. I was hoping someone could tell me if there was a way to access the factory.wim.

 

[lffoar]

I remember doing this on a mate's laptop a while back. It was either F6 or F8 on start up which got me to the "factory reset" page.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
You can always contact Dell for instruction for recovery or ordering a win-7 disk for your machine,
Cheers.

 

[AddRAM]

Installing windows is unbelievably easy

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

 

[ThrashZone]

Really is it's so easy I did it twice last month :roflmao:

 

[gregrocker]

If it was that hard then we would have heard about more problems after a million consumers have used Clean Reinstall Windows 7. There hasn't been a single complaint.

If you're saying you can't run Dell Windows 7 PC Restore
then you can manually Boot Recovery Partition using EasyBCD