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trkghost

12 Posts

13604

January 14th, 2008 23:00

Inspiron 1501 Laptop system restore

  I installed windows XP on my laptop, wiping out the vista OS that came on it.  I am now wanting to restore it back to when I got it and try learning Vista a little.  the laptop has a partion with all the system restore stuff in it and want to know how to kick that off to reinstall the system defaults from shipping.
 
Thank you

RoHe

10 Elder

 • 

44.3K Posts

January 15th, 2008 00:00

Assuming you didn't delete the PC Restore partition and/or damage the boot files when you installed XP, read this for instructions how to reset the hard drive to Vista factory install conditions:

http://snipurl.com/1xgtv

Ron

C3PO5

2.7K Posts

January 15th, 2008 04:00

Hi
When you installed XP you over wrote the master boot record for Vista
and F8 will not work !
But if you have all of the files in D:\Recovery and you did not delete
any of them !
Use this link
 
But if your computer goes in to a boot loop leave the DVD in the drive
then boot back to it go to where it says install but look to the lower left
you will see repair my computer click that and it should fix the boot loop !!
Good Luck 

trkghost

12 Posts

January 16th, 2008 18:00

I did not delete the partition but also never recieved the CDs that were supposed to come with the laptop. Will this still work or do i need the CDs to do this? If it wont work without the CDs then why do i need the partition at all?

C3PO5

2.7K Posts

January 16th, 2008 19:00

 Is this fairly correct?
Yes
if you do not want the D:\ just detete it when you reinstall Vista using the DVD .
Good Luck

trkghost

12 Posts

January 16th, 2008 19:00

I live in the US. And they don't always put the CD's, like they are supposed to, with the computer. My desktop came with 1 cd and had to have them resend me the bundle. Then the laptop didn't have any with it. I have them sending the CDs but its not shipping till Monday. But pretty much from what I am understanding from these responses that if you put any other operating system on the computer besides vista the partition is worthless to have. The CDs will let me install it completely without the partition. So I can just delete the partition when I am installing off the CDs and recover 10gig of space that is being taken up by a pointless process? Is this fairly correct? Sorry if i'm coming off a bit rude or anything. But I am frustrated with Dell and their outsourced support. Have had nothing but problems with them and trying to get this fixed. The online guy didn't know what a system restore was so he disconnected the conversation with me and the over the phone guy was not any better. On top of that the cd's have the wrong address associated with them. And the partition I do not see a point in having if I have the CDs and it wont work anyhow if you don't leave the original operating system on there. My apologies and thanks for the help

trkghost

12 Posts

January 16th, 2008 19:00

Jerry, Thank you for the help and answering the questions. I appreciate it. Travis

C3PO5

2.7K Posts

January 16th, 2008 19:00

Hi
I don,t know where you live but here in the USA the DVD
comes with the computer if you have Vista
you might check to see why you did not get one !
You do need the DVD to make it work with F12.
If you know someone with a DVD you could use it.
Good Luck 

Rebel9

2.9K Posts

January 16th, 2008 19:00

You can normally access the restore feature by tapping F8 as the computer boots. You don't require the Vista DVD for this.
 
BUT, you have installed XP and this wrote over the Master Boot Record. You can no longer access the restore utility without the Vista DVD (as per C3PO5's link).


Message Edited by Rebel9 on 01-16-2008 04:32 PM

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