System Restore Fail/Loading DRMK Version 8.00

You can't blame Dell for your "failing connection" and any resulting corruption on your hard drive.  Files on hard drives can and will get corrupted, and there's no way around it...

Your options are (1) follow the instructions here, (2) reformat the hard drive and reinstall (you'll lose everything), or (3) install this drive in another PC to copy off your files and then reformat and reinstall Windows..

Ron

Why was my post deleted? First my PC is rendered useless now I can't post about it?

Anyway let me put it another way. Is there no way to restore my PC without a Restore/XP disc or the Dan Goodell thing(which I don't understand)? I backed up my files before I ran the Restore so data loss is not the issue. I'm a complete noob with computers but if I reformat myHDD I asume I'll whipe out windows as well right? Since the system recovery was supposedly succesfull according to my computer surely there must be a way for that succesful recovery to actually take effect..? Surely...?

If I do format and get a XP disc will I be able to just reinstall my back up and get everything back to normal?

In short, what is the easiest, fastest way for a computer noob like myself to get my PC up and running again?

I did warn you about your language in that other thread on this same topic. But you used that bad word in both threads so now both posts are gone. If you keep it up, Dell may revoke your membership in this forum. Please keep it clean/polite.

As for the warning you want/expect about PC Restore from Dell, in that case EVERY software manufacturer -including Microsoft- would have to make the same disclaimer. Any software can turn your PC into a brick. It's just the way it is. I'm not excusing them for things like this, but that's the way PCs are and will likely be for a long time.

Besides, your problem might have nothing to do with PC Restore. If there's a bad sector on your hard drive, or there was an error when PC Restore wrote to the drive, that could have easily caused the problem. And that's clearly a hardware issue, not a software issue. And blaming anyone at this point isn't going to solve your problem.

Perhaps you have a geeky friend who can help you understand the article about PC Restore and help you edit the partition table. Otherwise, your best option is to boot from your Dell Windows Reinstallation CD, reformat the drive and do a clean install of Windows, then the drivers (in the correct order!) and finally the software.

If you don't have the Reinstallation CD but live in USA, you can request it here. It used to be free, one time only, but Dell may have changed that policy recently.

Ron

I missed your warning but I'm just completely frustrated with this. Hence the cusrse word, blame. I must say I still find it odd there is a programm that comes with my PC that renders it useless. I thought it was there to fix any issue. You mention there is always a risk with programms but this one comes installed on my desktop. It's not like some random thing I got of the net somewhere. I think it should be mentioned to only use use it as a last resort and explain the user that it could potentially completely mess up your PC.

From browsing the net it has become obvious that this happens quite often. I found 3 year old posts adressing it, you'd think Dell could have found a way to solve whatever causes this...

But you're right, blaming and getting upset isn't getting me anywhere. I just want it solved. I have a couple of questions still.

- Does Dell have a (home) service to help me with this?

- There is a computer store that offers service charged by time spent. How much time would it take an expert to fix it, you think?

- This one is probably obvious, but is there a way to undo the restore?

- What drivers, software do you mean? Don't they come with windows? How will I know what drivers, software I need?

Since this is software related (OS), we do not send technicians to do this work. I think your best bet is to ask the guys on the OS board. Thery may know of ways to get the restore to work. If not, your looking at doing a complete install of the operating system. But, to do that you will need the operating system disc.

I need the following in a private message -
Name:
Email Address:
Shipping address:
Phone number:
PC Service Tag number:
Reason/Issue: OS Discs never sent to customer

Chris-Thanks for jumping in to help Soprano76 get the disks.

JackShack told Soprano76 in the other thread where he/she posted about this problem, there are instructions on the net to repair the drive table in the MBR after a failed PC Restore to allow the PC to boot properly.  Those instructions are very geeky and Soprano76 unfortunately isn't able to follow them. So the only solution is to get the Windows Reinstallation CD and do a clean install.

Soprano76 - Windows doesn't include all the hardware drivers. You will have to install them separately after you reformat the hard drive and install Windows. Choose your version of Windows here to find Instructions to do a clean installation.

Go here, and click Drivers and Downloads. On the next screen, click "Choose by Service Tag" and enter your Dell Service tag number. It should give you a list of the drivers you need for your specific system. You can download them on any PC and burn them on a CD for installation on this system after you install Windows. Hint: use the option to download the drivers via your browser, NOT the option for the Download Manager.

 The correct installation order is Windows followed by:

Desktop System Software (System Utilities - not all systems require DSS)

Chipset driver

Video driver

Audio driver

Network Driver

Other drivers

If you take this to a shop, figure it's going to take ~2 hours to do a clean installation of Windows, and then additional time to install the drivers...  I'm guessing they may charge you for ~3-4 hours of work. As I said before, find yourself a geeky friend or relative who can help you and you'll learn a lot about taking care of your system for the next time...

Ron

I did it! :) Burned a copy of XP, got install instructions from Youtube, downloaded/installed the drivers like you said and...it's up and running! In the end it was quite simple. I'll probably be updating and tweaking for days/weeks but who cares, it's alive, aliiive :)

Thanks for the help guys.

:emotion-21:

Don't forget you need to download and install all the latest updates from Microsoft You didn't say what version of XP you installed, but if it was only SP2, you need to get SP3 and all subsequent updates. Microsoft isn't providing security updates for SP2.

And you also need to get all the security updates for Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office etc etc...

Isn't this fun?  :emotion-4:

Ron

I wonder how much anti-psychotic/sedative medication is prescibed to computer users?

Jeff   :emotion-7:

Thank God some stuff is semi legal where I'm from. (Holland). Could not have done it without.

It's a total drag :S Especially when you're not really sure what you're doing. I swear I aged about 5 years in the last two weeks. I don't have a lot of personal time, and every second of it has gone into this mess.

I now have a new issue though. I accidently shut down my desktop when it was about 70% done reinstalling my back up. When I restarted and ran the back up again I got a message telling me there is not enough space to put it back. Upon checking my space it says I have only 44 of 146 GB available!? I have no clue what is taking the other 100GB of space. Someone advised me to check the partitiuons but that's okay accordingly... So how do I find out what is using all this space?

Oh goody! Do you mean that after you installed the operating system and were then restoring your files - the system was shut down at 70% complete??

Jeff

Exactly what is that backup file and how did you make it? Is it an image of the hard drive or is it only a copy of your data files??

If it's a full image, it contains all the Windows files and everything else that was on your drive. And in that case you may not have needed to reinstall Windows independently. You would have just used that image to reinstall everything on your hard drive, after reformatting it.

But there must have been a reason why you wanted to run PC Restore. So if you made an image of the drive, when you use it, you'll get back to exactly where you were before you opted to run PC Restore, with whatever problems you had in the first place...

Ron

I used the Wizard for transferring files and settings... And yeah, it's an image. You're telling me I could have undone the restore....?? But I did the restore bacause of a network card issue. Before formatting I tried the repair option but even that didn't fix it.. If what you say is so, is there a way to select what files exactly I want back?

This is so tiresome....

Yup.