Shot myself in the foot

[Sean Kelly]

Decided to wipe my hard drive in my Inspiron E1505 Running Win 7, did a quick diagnostics on the Hdd and it said healthy, not even any bad sectors. (Why bother, you ask? I'm getting selling it, and want it factory, rocketship like it was new (plus dude goes to my church) anyway Iit says make a restore/boot disk, so I put in a blank DVD into the RW drive and everything runs fine, self eject. Proceed to wipe drive, insert disk and it says " you need an "install disk" so I start rummaging through everything that came with the pc, (from Costco if that makes a difference) and I come up with a handful of disks that (don't work) but say "application and Driver Recovery DVD" and Operating System CD" which I though t would definitely work but doesn't, So I call Microsoft thinking I could give my product code and perhaps DL from their site real quick. But I guess they have a different version of customer service than I do. they say " We sell the licencing to the pc manufacturers, so go bug them" and the # they gave me didn't work-(weird). So I look up/call Dell. first thing they say is " need service tag #" Gave it to him, then got an automatic reply basically saying " ya, your warranty is expired, didn't buy extended coverage etc." We can't help you" So my disappointment primarily lies with Dell because I know this is an easy fix, and I'll be the first to admit ignorance or whatever I just followed instructions. Same type deal when I took my coffee maker back to Target because the timer didn't work, I thought I was doing something wrong, She said nope, I just tried it and it doesn't register. Defect. Gave me $ back w/o question.

 

[MMXMonster]

Did you check your recovery partition? Most in not all current laptops have a secret partition on the HD that contains the OS in case you wish to wipe the machine clean. You'll have to check the laptop documentation to see how to access the partition.

 

[Shaun o]

Well Sean,

Most laptops as said come with a recovery partition.
If you were only provided with a recovery CD/DvD.

Then it`s used to start the clean or new install of windows.
But if when you formatted the drive and it told you there were two or three partitions of the drive. and you formatted all of them all is lost.


That means you have to buy a Windows install disk.
That is boot able when first inserted into the cd or dvd drive.


The thing is if you want to set a laptop or computer with windows running on it.
Back to factory restore mode.

You have and option to do so in back up and restore, of windows.
by selecting the first checkpoint that would of been made after the os was first installed.
or by selecting restore from image that would of been the hidden install of windows on a partition.

If you did not delete the partition, on power up if a dell laptop.
When the dell laptop shows the Dell logo hold down Ctrl and F11.

Depending on the laptop model, a recovery option may pop up to re install windows.
That of course depends on if you did not format the recovery partition.

That`s about the last option to try. So I hope it works for you.

Or buy a windows disk, sorry to say.

Shaun helping, Sean. 😉

 

[Seanamus]

Did you check your recovery partition? Most in not all current laptops have a secret partition on the HD that contains the OS in case you wish to wipe the machine clean. You'll have to check the laptop documentation to see how to access the partition.

 

[Seanamus]

Thanks, I didn't realize they did that. But it's not there, f8 took me to a page with the headline
'Gnu grub version 1.99-12ubutu5' then:
Ubuntu w/Linux
Ubuntu w/Linux recovery mode memory test, ( memtest86+)
Memory test (memtest86+ serial console
Then win xp on /dev/sda/1
(I managed to install that thinking I could upgrade or use my newly aquiredf win7 torrent. In co my mouse or wifi doesn't register even with the tools/ drivers disc for that.!!
I did manage to get to a dos prompt the said "root@manager:~#" and don't really know what to type in there it's getting an error: get-apt configure. I have the torrent on a dvd and flash stick. You'd think I could just f12 it @ the start & tell it to install from one if those two. All these disks and internet and nothing's workin . This little adventure isn't fun anymore.