Windows 7 Wiped? I hope not

[Stryking]

Okay so recently my friend was having some troubles with his laptop so I went on Skype and walked him through downloading a free trial of Kaspersky. My internet died partway in and he shut his laptop off. It refused to turn on after. He called Dell support and they told him that Windows 7 was wiped and he would need to purchase a recovery disk and another disk because if he just installed Windows 7 again it would continue to crash.

He has basically given up on the laptop but I have other ideas.

My two questions are: Would a Kaspersky Rescue Disk potentially work?

If not can he just install Ubuntu on the computer and be done with it?

 

[expl0itfinder]

Ubuntu is always a good option, but it can take a little time to learn the ins and outs. As for kaspersky rescue disk, if it is something simple, which it very well maybe, than yes, that will do the trick. I suggest using all recovery tools available to you. If none of them work, grab the newest release of ubuntu. Don't buy recovery stuff from the manufacturer, as in your case, it likely won't be worth the money.

 

[vrumor]

If it was bought through Dell, itll have a CoA (certificate of authenticity) sticker on it, likely the bottom. That is the Windows key. There are several places online he can download the image of whatever version of Windows he has, and install it using his CoA. Hes either full of crap or Dell is as far as them saying he needs to buy 2 DVDs from them.