Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
3 Posts
0
15484
Reloading Windows 7 on replacement hard drive
My Inspiron N7010 purchased in 2010 is out of warranty and some months ago the screen, after working intermittently, went black. I had a separate monitor which worked ok connected to the VGA port.
Later on running Dell checks I received a warning that the hard disk needed replacement, although other utility software did not highlight any problems. Although I had three rescue dvd's foolishly I did not immediately replace the drive or make a system bootable recovery disk.
The drive of course did then totally fail and I removed it for destruction anticipating the disposal of the laptop, buying in the meanwhile a Dell small desktop model 3646 (Windows 8.1) Looking now at the cost of replacement drives and screens it is perhaps worth fitting these and rebuilding the laptop, however I do not have Windows 7 disks to restore system to factory setup. Any ideas here please. My pc's only receive minimal home use, which makes the Inspiron N7010 a particularly bad buying experience.
Mary G
4 Operator
4 Operator
•
20.1K Posts
0
October 6th, 2014 14:00
See the posts in this forum about this-- like this one--
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/software-os/f/3524/t/19601606
Laptops are really not worth rebuilding and spending any money on big repairs.
Graham NW
3 Posts
0
October 7th, 2014 08:00
OK I take your point. It's just annoying and hard to accept that a computer should be consigned to the scrap heap after 3 years, with merely 5 or 6 hours use per week. Still such is our throw away society now. Thanks.
Philip_Yip
7 Technologist
7 Technologist
•
16K Posts
0
October 7th, 2014 13:00
Yes use a Windows 7 .iso from Digital River with the ABR program as instructed here:
More details and download links here:
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/download-microsoft-windows-and-office/download-microsoft-windows/windows-7-sp1-iso-download/
Follow my Windows Reinstallation Guide/A Clean Install of Windows 7 for optimal results:
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/a-clean-install-of-windows/a-clean-install-of-windows-7/
This will give you use of your laptop as a desktop by connection via the external monitor.
Graham NW
3 Posts
0
October 8th, 2014 05:00
Great, that's really helpful. Thanks.