Inspiron 1501 - No recovery essentials for Vista

Vista is a dead, unsupported and insecure OS.  If you want to run something that's at least updated with current security patches, there are any number of releases of Linux you can run.

The only supported versions of Windows at the moment are 8.1, 10 and 11.

Did you read this part? "And no, dont suggest me to upgrade to a newer OS or use EasyRE." I said to not suggest one either way you did it anyway. I am not upgrading. Simple. Anyway other then that any other solution?

If that's the case, look on EBay for someone selling a set of Vista recovery discs for a Dell system.

Cant afford.

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@gravitycoil828 wrote:

On my Windows Vista home basic PC i'm trying to reset the thing, but then it broke last year so i had to reinstall it, and now the "Repair you computer" does no longer come up in advanced options....

Does anyone have a working one, and how do i get it?..

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Hi gravitycoil828:

My old Vista SP2 machine is a HP laptop so I might not be of much help to you, but when you reinstalled your OS did you perform a reset to factory condition (i.e., that restored the Dell utilities and any trial software installed at the factory) or was it a clean reinstall of your Vista SP2 Home Basic OS? Were you able to patch your Vista OS back to the end of extended support on 11-Apr-2017 with Windows Update, or was your reinstall performed after Microsoft deactivated the Windows Update servers for older operating systems like Win XP and Vista on 03-Aug-2020 (see see the Microsoft support article Windows Update SHA-1 Based Endpoints Discontinued for Older Windows Devices).

I'm not sure from your original post if you're only interested in obtaining VIsta recovery discs (either OEM from Microsoft or custom discs for a Dell Inspiron 1501 - I can't help you there since my HP Vista laptop came with a recovery partition on the hard drive and I use Macrium Reflect Free v7.3 on this machine for disk imaging and emergency recovery) or if you're having some sort of problem with your Windows OS now (e.g., BSODs, etc.) that requires a repair or another reinstall of your Vista SP2 OS.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Malwarebytes Premium v3.5.1.2522-1.0.365
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550@1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, 256 GB Western Digital Scorpio WD2500BEVS SATA HDD, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H1 build 19043.1288 * Firefox v94.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v.4.18.2110.6 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.4.10.144-1.0.1499
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

No its not vista recovery disks,  and i couldnt factory reset. Laptops before Vista had a built in "System Restore" Function, but since mine is Vista it does not come with that and is supposed to be the Repair your computer.  Thats the problem though. I DONT HAVE REPAIR YOUR COMPITER. It was clean though, I think i also found something to help activate. Its something related to a tool, i dont remember its name. Ill reply once i find it.

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@gravitycoil828 wrote:

No its not vista recovery disks,  and i couldnt factory reset. ...I think i also found something to help activate. Its something related to a tool, i dont remember its name...

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Hi gravitycoil828:

When you said in your original post that you re-installed Vista, do you mean that you performed a clean re-install and haven't re-activated your Vista installation yet?  If so see Brink's tutorial How to Activate Vista Normally and by Phone Activation​ in the VistaForums.  See Step 2 / Option 2 that describes how to perform an automated activation via phone using slui.exe 4.  If the automated phone activation doesn't work you will be transferred to an activation operator who will give you a set of Confirmation ID numbers if they agree your copy of Vista is legitimate.

If your Vista installation does not require activation see the following tutorials by Brink. They might have some suggestions for accessing System Repair that you haven't though of yet.

     How to Do a Startup Repair in Vista​ 
     How To Perform a Repair Installation For Vista​ ***

*** Requires a Vista installation disk or ISO file. See my 21-Oct-2021 post in the VistaForums thread Why SP1 May Not Be Available For You and How To Get It for comments about the best way to perform a clean reinstall of Vista SP2 and ISO files.

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... Its something related to a tool, i dont remember its name. Ill reply once i find it.

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Are you referring to a tool that would help you activate your Vista installation, or are you looking for a third-party tool that might be able to repair your Vista OS?

Before running any third-party repair tools, I'd suggest running a thorough Check Disk (chkdsk /r) from an elevated command prompt with Administrator rights to see if Vista can recovery any system files that might have been written to a bad sector [if you answer "Y" (yes) to scheduling the scan note that you will be prompted to restart your computer; once started, the scan might take a few hours to run to completion depending on the size of your hard drive], followed by System File Checker (sfc /scannow) to see if it can find and repair any missing or corrupted system files.  This assumes, though, that you have an activated copy of Vista.  If System File Checker does not find any issues with your system files it will report that "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations."

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...Laptops before Vista had a built in "System Restore" Function, but since mine is Vista it does not come with that and is supposed to be the Repair your computer...

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Vista has a built-in System Restore feature that should be enable by default and creating system repair points on a regular basis basis if your Vista reinstall worked correctly. See Lawrence Abrams' tutorial Windows Vista System Restore Guide in the bleepingcomputer forum. Tomasz Szynalski's old blog post What You Should Know About Volume Shadow Copy/System Restore in Windows 7 & Vista (FAQ) that notes that "if you use your machine every day on AC power and nothing prevents it from entering an idle state, you can expect automatic restore points to be created every 1-2 days on Windows Vista".

You should be able to access System Restore at Control Panel | System and Maintenance | System | System Protection | System Protection tab as shown below:

The automated task called "SR" that creates new system restore points can be found in Task Scheduler at Task Scheduler Library | Microsoft | Windows | System Restore. If a system restore point hasn't been created in the past 24 hours it should create one when your Vista machine is re-booted.

By default, System Restore allocates a maximum of 15% of total disk space. My old Vista SP2 laptop has a 220 GB C:\ drive with over 130 GB of free disk space and System Restore will use 33 GB (0.15 x 220 GB) before it starts overwriting older system restore points. If you open an elevated command prompt with Administrator rights and enter the command vssadmin list shadowstorage it should show the the amount of disk space allocated to system restore points and how much of that space is currently being used.

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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Malwarebytes Premium v3.5.1.2522-1.0.365
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550@1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, 256 GB Western Digital SATA HDD, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H1 build 19043.1348 * Firefox v94.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v.4.18.2110.6 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.4.11.149-1.0.1513
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

Forgot to mention,  I am trying to activate vista.

This is the thing im talking about.

If you spam F8 when booting Windows Vista, you get to boot options. If you press F8 again you get directed to the Advanced boot options, which is Here.

If you fortunately opened the image, you may have seen the Repair your Computer at the top. Thats the thing im actually looking for, but on the Dell, its missing. Here's a screenshot.

Im also not looking for the System Restore option that you referred to, I do not even have a singular backup of it.

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@gravitycoil828 wrote:

This is the thing im talking about.

If you spam F8 when booting Windows Vista, you get to boot options. If you press F8 again you get directed to the Advanced boot options, which is Here. ... 

Hi gravitycoil828:

The 05-May-2012 post by richc46 in the VistaForums thread Where Is Repair Option in Vista - Not On This Lenovo that has the following quote from an old Microsoft bulletin that states in part "If your computer does not include Startup Repair, your computer manufacturer might have customized or replaced the tool. Check the information that came with your computer or go to the manufacturer's website." Brink's tutorial How to Boot to the Advanced Boot Options in Vista​ also notes that the Repair Your Computer option in the advanced (F8) boot menu "will only be available if you have a OEM computer with a recovery partition on your hard drive. Otherwise, you will need to use the System Recovery Options from your retail Vista installation disk."

At this point my best guess is that Dell deliberately removed the Repair Your Computer  option from the advanced (F8) boot menu of your Inspiron 1501 computer or that your Dell recovery partition was removed during your Vista SP2 re-install last year. My old Vista SP2 machine is a HP Pavilion so I can't tell you what the advanced (F8) boot menu should look like on a Dell Inspiron with a Vista SP2 OS.

If you can't reach System Repair as instructed in Brink's VistaForums tutorials How to Boot to the System Recovery Options in Vista​ or How to Do a Startup Repair in Vista​ as I previously suggested then try using the instructions in the Dell support article Run Windows Startup Repair on a Dell Computer using the F12 key and your Windows Vista installation disk or computer repair disk. Be sure you scroll to the right and select the instructions for "How to run a repair in Windows Vista".

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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Malwarebytes Premium v3.5.1.2522-1.0.365
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550@1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, 256 GB Western Digital SATA HDD, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H1 build 19043.1348 * Firefox v95.0.0 * Microsoft Defender v.4.18.2110.6 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.4.11.149-1.0.1513
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

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@gravitycoil828 wrote:

Forgot to mention,  I am trying to activate vista.

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Hi gravitycoil828:

Did you try the slui.exe 4 automated phone activation method I suggested in the first paragraph of my 28-Nov-2021 <above>?

You also didn't answer my 13-Nov-2021 questions <here> about how you reinstalled Vista last year. Do you have any other problems with your current Vista installation other than the missing Repair Your Computer option in your advanced (F8) boot menu?

Reinstalling Vista SP2 and patching back to end of extended support on 11-Apr-2017 has not been an easy task since Microsoft deactivated the Windows Update servers for Win XP and Vista on 03-Aug-2020, even if you perform a clean reinstall with an installation disk that includes Service Pack 2. If your Vista license still hasn't been re-activated then perhaps you have bigger problems that a simple System File Checker (sfc /scannow) scan I suggested in my 28-Nov-2021 post <above> or System Repair cannot fix.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Malwarebytes Premium v3.5.1.2522-1.0.365
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550@1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, 256 GB Western Digital SATA HDD, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H1 build 19043.1348 * Firefox v95.0.0 * Microsoft Defender v.4.18.2110.6 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.4.11.149-1.0.1513
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

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@gravitycoil828 wrote:

... Ive been trying slui.exe 4 for a while now, but i need some free phone caller for it.

And also, i reinstalled Vista SP2 this year, on October 30th 2021, 8:00AM....

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Hi gravitycoil828:

What happens when you follow Option 2 (How to do a Phone Activation) in Brink's VistaForums tutorial How to Activate Vista Normally and by Phone Activation​?  Step # 9 states:

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9. If Automated Service is Unsuccessful​
A) If the activation service informs you that it was unsuccessful and cannot help you with activation, then STAY ON THE LINE and your call will be transferred to an activation operator who will assist you in activating your copy of Vista. The operator will give you the set of Confirmation ID numbers if they agree your copy of Vista is legitimate.​
NOTE: Just explain to the operator your situation and what you did to require activation. (EX: hardware upgrade, installed Vista on a new computer after uninstalling it from the old one, etc...)​.

Most Vista SP2 users I know who recently performed a clean reinstall of their OS and were unable to activate their installation themselves using the automated phone service were still able to activate their installation by waiting to be transferred to the operator, assuming they could read the 25-digit product key on the Microsoft COA sticker on the bottom/back of their computer or had a record of their product key and could prove they had a legitimate license.  I would suggest trying the free Belarc Advisor program listed in Brink's tutorial How to See The Product Key in Vista if you can't read your COA sticker, although Belarc Advisor might not be able to find that product key if you've already reinstalled Vista SP2 (which will reset the Windows registry) but haven't re-activated the license to re-create the registry key. I assume you will not be charged for a long-distance call if you perform a phone activation this way - especially if you select your nearest location in Step # 3 to obtain the correct phone number.

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@gravitycoil828 wrote:

... And one last thing. I'm restoring the laptop so basically the key will be included with the System Restore.

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If I understand you correctly, I'm not sure that's possible if you already performed a clean reinstall of your Vista SP2 OS on 30-Oct-2021 and reset your Windows registry. I assume you will have to follow Brink's instructions and reactivate your reinstalled Vista SP2 OS with your 25-digit product key first. If you are currently using your Vista SP2 machine in Reduced Functionality Mode then I doubt that running a System Repair (which I believe you refer to as a System Restore) could automatically activate your license, if that's what you're hoping to do.

I haven't performed a clean reinstall of Vista SP2 and used the automated phone activation service in recent years but there is still an active community of Vista SP2 users in the VistaForums (I think Brink is still moderating that forum and can be contacted via a private message) and the MSFN Vista board. If nothing I've suggested so far has helped perhaps someone in one of those forums could provide assistance.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Malwarebytes Premium v3.5.1.2522-1.0.365
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550@1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, 256 GB Western Digital SATA HDD, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H1 build 19043.1348 * Firefox v95.0.0 * Microsoft Defender v.4.18.2110.6 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.4.11.149-1.0.1513
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

I'm actually trying the phone activation.

Problem is, i dont have a phone number, so i might need some private call app i can call with.

And also, im trying the "Dell Factory System restore" thats what im referring to as System Restore.

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@gravitycoil828 wrote:

I'm actually trying the phone activation.  Problem is, i dont have a phone number, so i might need some private call app i can call with.

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Hi gravitycoil828:

I assume you want an app for making VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone calls from your Vista SP2 computer and not for video chats. The HighSpeedInternet article The 6 Best Apps for Making Internet Calls has a few suggestions but I checked the system requirements for the first two (Google Talk, Skype) and newer versions will not run on a Vista SP2 OS with an old IE9 or Firefox ESR v52.9.0 browser. Try Googling "app for making VOIP phone calls" and see if you can find anything that's still compatible with Vista SP2 (and hopefully doesn't have a charge per minute fee if you don't have your own phone number).

If you know your 25-digit Vista product key, note that the image in Step # 7 of Brink's instructions Clean Install With a Full Version of Vista shows a check box that can be enabled to automatically activate Windows while you're online. I have no idea if that online activation still works (I suspect it doesn't), but if you are thinking about starting over and trying a clean Vista SP2 reinstall using a bootable DVD or USB thumb drive created with a Vista ISO you should post in the VistaForums first and ask if there's any way to avoid phone activation.

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... And also, im trying the "Dell Factory System restore" thats what im referring to as System Restore.

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Sorry for the confusion, I think that's what I normally refer to as a reset to factory condition.

Do you recall if your Inspiron 1501 shipped from the factory with a recovery partition or Dell recovery CD, and did it come with a Dell program like Dell PC Restore or Dell Backup and Restore (see my comments below about the D:\HP_RECOVERY drive and HP recovery software on my HP Vista SP2 laptop)? If so, is it possible that your Dell recovery partition and/or Dell recovery software was deleted from your hard drive during your reinstall of Vista SP2? I still don't know exactly how you performed your reinstall, but if it was a clean reinstall with installation media that wiped your personal files and third-party software as your previous posts suggest (you said your Vista SP2 OS still needs to be re-activated) then it's likely the Dell recovery software you need to reset your computer back to factory condition was deleted in the process.

Here are a few Dell support articles I found that might be useful:

• Inspiron 1501 User Manual [link found on the Documents tab of your Inspiron 1501 support page; Page 84 of the section "Solving Problems - Restoring Your Operating System" describes how to use the Ctrl+F11 keys and Dell PC Restore by Symantec ("that may or may not be available in certain countries or on certain laptop configurations") to reset your computer to factory condition]
  
  
  
• Factory Reset, Restore, or Reinstall Microsoft Windows on a Dell Computer (also found on the Documents tab of your Inspiron 1501 support page; the "Legacy Operating Systems" section for Vista has links to instructions for using Dell Backup and Restore v1.8)
  
  
  
• Restoring Microsoft Windows Vista to Factory Configuration (general instructions for performing a reset to factory condition on a Dell computer)
  
  
  
• How to Manually Reinstall Windows Vista (general instructions for reinstalling Vista on a Dell computer)

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My own HP Pavilion Vista SP2 laptop did not ship from the factory with an OEM Windows Vista installation disk. Instead, my hard drive has a small 15 GB partition (D: drive) called D:\HP_RECOVERY that can be used for emergency recovery to reset my computer back to factory condition. I also have a program called HP Recovery Manager that can use this recovery partition to perform a reset to factory condition. HP did not provide a set of recovery CDs for my laptop that I can use if my D:\HP_RECOVERY drive is ever deleted or corrupted so I had to create those recovery CDs myself using the HP Recovery Manager and my CD burner (i.e., my CD/DVD R/W optical drive at E:).

Newer Dell laptops with Windows 10 like my Inspiron 5584 have the option of installing a Dell program called SupportAssist OS Recovery (also known as Dell SupportAssist Remediation).  I actually prefer to use Macrium Reflect Free on both my HP Vista SP2 and Dell Win 10 laptops for creating full disk images and bootable emergency media in case I ever need to perform an emergency recovery, so I don't actually need the recovery software provided by HP and Dell.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.9.0 * Malwarebytes Premium v3.5.1.2522-1.0.365
HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550@1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, 256 GB Western Digital SATA HDD, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H1 build 19043.1348 * Firefox v95.0.0 * Microsoft Defender v.4.18.2110.6 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.4.11.149-1.0.1513 * * Dell SupportAssist v3.10.4.18 * Dell SupportAssist Remediation v5.5.0.16041 * Dell Update for Windows 10 Universal v4.4.0
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620