Can't restore laptop?

[doomislegend]

Hey everyone, I have a Dell Inspiron 11z laptop that i purchased a while ago that i'm trying to sell. While it's booting, i click f8 and click on "Repair Your Computer". Next, the log-in screen appears, but the only user is "other users". I click that since that's the only option, and it then asks for a Username and Password. I've tried a few things, including typing Administrator and the password for administrator ( which i changed for this purpose ) or the name and password for my account, but i constantly get an error that states:

"The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted."

Any idea why i'm getting this error and what will fix this? Thanks!

 

[hang-the-9]

Change the "Log on to" field to the computer name whatever that is for you. If you don't see the Log on to field, click on "Options".

 

[doomislegend]

When you say "log on to" field, are you talking about the user name? There's a blank space for user name and password, but nothing i try works. I just get the error stated above. There also is no options button or anything there... it's just those two fields. Basically, the screen looks like a normal vista log in, but instead of already having user names, it asks for me to type it in.

 

[hang-the-9]

Try to type in the computer name before the user name in the Username field.

Should look like "PCName\Username".

 

[doomislegend]

Doesn't seem to be working... :\

 

[hang-the-9]

How did you log on to it before? Can you go back to that?

 

[doomislegend]

i can log in normally to my desktop, but when i chose to press f8 and click repair my computer, that's when this new log in window appears.

 

[doomislegend]

actually, i have another question that just might make this somewhat easier. Can i download windows vista home edition 32 bit on to a flash drive and format my computer from there? I'm figuring the product key on the bottom of my computer is for vista, so i can just go ahead and do something like that. If possible, what do i need to do? Thanks.

 

[hang-the-9]

If you have the disk for it you can boot of a flash drive. http://www.eeeguides.com/2007/12/install-windows-vista-from-usb-flash.html

 

[Zoron]

Why not boot from a Vista DVD and simply format the drive and reinstall?

 

[hang-the-9]

Why not boot from a Vista DVD and simply format the drive and reinstall?

I think that model laptop is a netbook type if not technically a netbook, no optical drive.