Inspiron 1525

[web]

Hi all got a ageing but still working Dell Inspiron 1525 need to factory reset it but after pressing f8 at start up, don't get the option to mend restore my pc, laptop came with know installation disk, but there is two small partitioned drives on the disk, could be a mirror not sure, downloaded G parted but not sure what to do with program, but told could help ....... need to flag up a partition ???? just made it not work at all, back working now not sure how to proceed

any help advise welcome cheers

 

[fireberd]

Did the PC come with Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit? (I suspect not). If you are not using the original OS that the PC came with the Dell PC Restore (recovery partition) is no longer valid and can't be used. The only way to restore is with a Windows disc.

 

[Ztruker]

Dell laptops usually use F11 or Ctrl+F11 to start the recovery to factory. Have you tried that?

Nope, F8 as stated:

Dell Factory Image Restore
1. Turn on the computer. When the Dell logo
appears, press <F8> several times to access
the Vista Advanced Boot Options Window.
2. Select Repair Your Computer.
3. The System Recovery Options window
appears.
4. Select a keyboard layout and click Next.
5. To access the recovery options, log on as a
local user. To access the command prompt,
type administrator in the User name
field, then click OK


Also, the computer probably came with Vista so even if the recovery worked you would end up with Vista and not Windows 7.

Download and run ShowkeyPlus to get and save the installation key.

See if you can download the Windwos 7 Ultimate iso you need from here:

Download Windows 7 Disc Images (ISO Files)

then use it to do a Clean Install of Windows 7 Ultimate.

 

[web]

Hi guys thanks for all the help here so far think I might not of explained my situation here entirely, the laptop I was trying to factory reset is not the one on my profile here, came with vista sp1 ..... managed to reinstall, now sp2, as far as I can tell its activated and all drivers are up to date, via slim drivers, connects to internet fine via wireless, devise manager says all ok, but it wont download windows uploads ????... just keeps checking for updates for hours ???? ... know it needs loads I think is it discontinued for vista now ?



also if I check history it says below even though says never above ?



thanks for any help

 

[Ztruker]

Try the Microsoft FixIt for Vista, see if that helps.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/gp/windows-update-issues/en-us?wa=wsignin1.0

 

[web]

Try the Microsoft FixIt for Vista, see if that helps.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/gp/windows-update-issues/en-us?wa=wsignin1.0

adult image

didn't help at first, but then win vista tried to download something but failed set to automatic download, so checked disk properties and to my horror a 142GB of 149 was used up with just win vista installed ? ..... but three versions of windows old too taking up 118GB

since saving anything I needed and deleting this files all seems to be working fine im downloading windows updates at the moment and all seems well

 

[Ztruker]

Good work analyzing the problem and finding the solution.