Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
10 Posts
0
74140
Complete Reset Latitude D610
Hi guys,
i want to reset my Latitude D610 (Win XP Pro) to the status like it was delivered from Dell 2 years ago (November 2005). Unfortunately i can't run the Dell restore-program. I read (and the support confirmed this) that i have to press "ctrl"+"F11" during the boot process as soon as the Dell logo appears. I tried this many times, but nothing happened at all. The Notebook boots as always.
Is there a way to start the restore-programm manually or with a different shortcut? I know that i could reinstall Windows manually and afterwards all the drivers and programs, but i don't prefer this method (and i have no time =)
Thank You! Lakeside
Message Edited by lakeside07 on 10-02-2007 12:11 PM
i want to reset my Latitude D610 (Win XP Pro) to the status like it was delivered from Dell 2 years ago (November 2005). Unfortunately i can't run the Dell restore-program. I read (and the support confirmed this) that i have to press "ctrl"+"F11" during the boot process as soon as the Dell logo appears. I tried this many times, but nothing happened at all. The Notebook boots as always.
Is there a way to start the restore-programm manually or with a different shortcut? I know that i could reinstall Windows manually and afterwards all the drivers and programs, but i don't prefer this method (and i have no time =)
Thank You! Lakeside
Message Edited by lakeside07 on 10-02-2007 12:11 PM
GreyMack
2.2K Posts
0
October 2nd, 2007 18:00
http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/index.htm
"To divert the boot process to the DSR partition, press down the Ctrl key, press down the F11 key, then release both keys together. The keys must be pressed after the appearance of the F2/F12 prompts and before the end of the blue-line's 2-second pause."
If it still doesn't work, you might wish to verify the presence of the DSR partition, or just run the DOS-based DSRFix utility provided by Dan Goodell.
Windows Explorer (My Computer) won't reveal a DSR partition, or any bootable system partition other than the Windows partition it has booted from. Windows Disk Management will reveal such partitions, and there are third-party disk management utilities that will also.
The DSRFix utility may be used to analyze your disk for the prerequisites of DSR first, then if all is well it may be used to restore Dell's factory customizations to the MBR, which allow the system to boot from the DSR partition.
GM
lakeside07
10 Posts
0
October 3rd, 2007 09:00
I got through the articles you've linked so far. And I wonder if my latitude really uses the ctrl+f11 shortcut to boot from the dell partition, because my boot screen is completly different to those discribed. Maybe the notebooks are using a differnt mechanism? The boot process starts with the dell logo and the white bar underneath. In the upper right corner there is the F1 and F12-Message. This screen shows up only for a second. Afterwards, there is nothing! The next thing I see is the Windows logo. No Messages from Bios etc. So I don't think I can use the ctrl + F11 shortcut, because this very step, where I need to press ctrl+f11, doesn't appear. Is there anybody who could start the restore programm on a latitude`(D610)?
Now i'm going to see if the dsrfix will find something. I'll keep you informed.
Thank you so far,
Lakeside.
lakeside07
10 Posts
0
October 3rd, 2007 10:00
-Disk 80 found, master device at port 01F0
-48-bit user secs: 117210240 (60 GB)
-48-bit max secs: 117210240 (60 GB)
-alert : boot code does not match dell mbr.
-good : pbr descriptor 1 is type DE.
-good : pbr descriptor 2 is type 07-
-alert : pbr descriptor 3 is type 00. not DB-
-info : pbr descriptor 4 is type 00.
-good : pbr1 is fat 16, label is DellUtility.
!!fatal: pbr3 is not fat 32.
-alert : reference partition table not in sync.
I have never formatted or partioned anything. I have never played with the MBR and i have never runned fixmbr... Maybe I never had a Restore partition?
GreyMack
2.2K Posts
0
October 3rd, 2007 19:00
Possibly. There is no indication here of it's existance. The pbr type 00 indicates an unused partition slot, meaning only two (of a possible four) partitions are currently defined in the primary partition table, one for Dell Diagnostics and one for Windows. Dell's special boot code is also missing, but that could be restored by the dsrfix utility if all else looked good.
If you like, you can also verify that there isn't a few GB of unpartitioned space on the disk following the Windows partition, that may have previously been defined as the restore partition. There may be a very slim chance that the restore utility and image could be recovered if their partition was simply deleted and the disk space it occupied remains unused, but even if those are all true, it may be easier at this point to perform a clean installation.
Windows Disk Management would show unpartitioned space and it's location on the disk, but one rough indication would be a comparison of the size of the Windows partition (shown in My Computer when Details is selected from the View menu) against the rated size of the disk (60GB decimal ~ 56GB binary).
The size of the Dell Diagnostics partition should be negligible, and there are no other partitions defined in the table, so the Windows partition will probably be approximately the same size as the disk capacity if the restore partition never existed or if it was deleted and it's space was merged into the Windows partition.
GM