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Dell Inspiron Mini 10 Factory Restore
I can't seem to find where to factory restore my new Dell Inspiron Mini 1010. The manual gives me steps for pressing F8 several times.. on boot to go to the Vista Advanced Boot Options and then selecting Repair Your Computer. Then blah blah blah click Dell Factory Image Restore. The only problem is, the dell inspiron mini 10's come with XP not vista... Why does the manual say vista? I've delt with Dell factory restores in the past. but this one has got me going in circles.
EDIT: January, 8th 2012
This post needs to be marked as solved or answered. It was officially over 2 years ago yet for some reason it keeps getting answered and being forwarded to my email. It's done, over... It was taken back 3 years ago, please do not respond to this post anymore. Thanks!
ejn63
1 Rookie
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87.5K Posts
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June 5th, 2009 05:00
The sequence to initate restore on XP is CTRL-F11 at the Dell screen.
cahones
1 Message
0
March 22nd, 2010 11:00
Mini 10 with XP: Reboot, press and hold Ctrl, The Dell logo screen will appear and freeze after progress line finishes, continue to hold Ctrl then press F11. It will go into Symantec recovery.
JaJunk
1 Message
3
September 28th, 2011 17:00
WINDOWS 7 STARTER SOLVED
Just had a customer who was collecting viruses on their Inspiron Mini running windows 7 starter. After removing all the infected files the OS failed to start, even in safe mode. When it fails and restarts, or during normal startup by pressing , choose the option "Repair your computer". Mine started an auto-repair but came back saying it was unable to fix the problem. On the next screen, there is an option for advanced recovery options, click it. Choose a keyboard layout and click "Next", then select a local user (administrator recommended), enter their password or leave blank if no password and click OK. The last option on the menu that shows is for "Dell DataSafe Restore...", click it. Select "Select other System Backup and more options" and click next. Select "Restore my computer" and click next. You should now see a backup called "Factory Image", select it and click next. There are a few more screens asking if you want to backup first, I skipped this because I already made a backup. Let it format and copy files back and click restart when it's done. If you don't see image, you may be missing restore partition, it is hidden and I wouldn't go making copies of yours to give out because it probably has your windows product key embedded.
Scorpwanna
16 Posts
1
September 29th, 2011 00:00
LMAO at this thread still being active for 2 years. The laptop was sent back those 2 years ago. It's cool that help for this problem is being found. I was personally told by dell that my laptop did not come with a factory restore.
Scorpwanna
16 Posts
0
June 5th, 2009 10:00
I've tried that, it doesn't work. The computer just boots straight into Windows XP. The only function keys that bring up anything are just F2, F8 and F12. But none of them would have this option. F2 is just for the bios, F12 the boot options and of course F8 is typical Windows.
Scorpwanna
16 Posts
0
June 5th, 2009 20:00
I'm willing TO gueSs that the Factory Image Restore doesn't exist on the Dell Mini 10's. I went to Disk Management and it doesn't show that there's a hidden partition at all that would have the restore there. Just a tiny diagnostics partition. This (To draw in by establishing a partial vacuum), I want to restore the netbook back to it's factory settings. Is there anywhere out there that has the factory restore as a disc image that could fit on an SD card to reinstall it? I use a 2 gig SD card on the Dell Mini 10
mroshaw
22 Posts
0
June 6th, 2009 01:00
You might be right. When I went to install Windows 7 on mine, I did notice a restore partition on the disk but it was tiny. Didn't think much of it and merged it to reclaim the space.
Not sure if this will help you, but you can definitely boot off of an external CD drive - if you have one, you can boot off that with the restore CD that came in the box. Either that or make your SD card bootable (which should work, as I think the card reader is connected internally by USB) and copy the CD contents on to that.
tiratoshin
2 Posts
1
January 27th, 2010 13:00
To check if you have a recovery partition, go to start, right click on computer, click manage. Select management. It will show you if you have a extra partition in there. if so, reboot. At the Dell screen press and hold ctrl, right after the Dell screen goes away hit F11. Select options from there.
Dell mini 10.
Wondows XP
Scorpwanna
16 Posts
0
January 27th, 2010 20:00
Yeah, I know how to check for hidden partitions. About 5 days after I posted here which was months ago... I had called dell support for another issue with the mini asking about upgrades which it doesn't support. They told me that the Dell mini 10 doesn't come with the Factory Restore Partition.
tiratoshin
2 Posts
0
January 28th, 2010 06:00
That is strange. I work for an ISP and we get alot of these. Every one of them has had the restore partition. I put Linux on it anyway, but it is there on ours.
shuttledik
2 Posts
0
September 6th, 2010 20:00
Earlier versions of this Netbook only came with the restore CD. I'm attempting copying this to a flash drive now. I'll keep everyone posted.
shuttledik
2 Posts
0
September 7th, 2010 09:00
Turns out mine DID have the partition. But in order to properly execute the Ctrl+F11, I had to wait until AFTER the Dell Inspiron logo & blue bar filled up [the screen with the F2 & F12 options], and then hit it IMMEDIATELY after, when the BRIGHT BLUE bar was at the top of the screen with www.dell.com in courier font beneath it.
But it worked and I rebuilt it last night. Running smooth a silk & no BSOD when running Skype! woo hoo!
Waheeddba
3 Posts
0
October 10th, 2010 16:00
Good Morning .
Hi I am new to computer and after read your thoughts i found that i have done something very terrible , accidently i format my whole harddisk ,before i dont know my pc have back partition or not but now i am sure its not exist anymore .
So can any some upload the restore cd DELL INSPIRON MINI 10, so i can reinstall it and make my notebook working .... all the tatics written below i have tried but this all will be successful if i have the backup partiton ,but unfortunately i have lost it , i also try to contact dell but they only delievered the restore disc in U.S and i live in Asia. so please any 1can help me ....Waheed
Waheeddba
3 Posts
0
October 10th, 2010 16:00
Good Morning .
Guys i am new to computer and after read your thoughts i found that i have done something very terrible , accidently i format my whole harddisk ,before i dont know my pc have back partition or not but now i am sure its not exist anymore . so can any some upload the restore cd DELL INSPIRON MINI 10, so i can reinstall it and make my notebook working .... all the tatics written below i have tried but this all will be successful if i have the backup partiton ,but unfortunately i have lost it , i also try to contact dell but they only delievered the restore disc in U.S and i live in Asia. so please any can help me ....thanks
Regards
Waheed
mardae1993
1 Message
0
January 28th, 2011 20:00
This worked perfect for me, none of the other answers that I found worked.....Thank you Cahone!!!!!!!!! I have been trying to restore the mini for hours.........