If you are eligible you can get a free set of replacement discs from Dell HERE (for US Customers).
If you are not eligible, the Dell cost is no different than buying a Retail copy of the operating system somewhere. You can download whatever drivers are needed free from the Dell Downloads.
Dell does not have one "restore disc" that covers everything. An Operating System disc and a Drivers and Utilities disc are provided with new PC's. If there is optional software such as Microsoft Office they also supply the disc(s) for that (however that is not a free replacement - if that is lost you will have to buy new).
On many Dell's discs are not needed to do a complete reinstallation. Dell provides a "recovery partition" on the hard drive that will restore the PC to the original factory condition. On system with XP it's CTRL/F11 at initial bootup. On Vista and Windows 7 systems it's F8 at initial bootup.
Knew about the partition and Dell DataSafe 2 suggested I make a backup disc with the image, which I did do. Well, been having problems with system after I installed a new program that wouldn't uninstall. Contacted the company who made it and they helped me for a few days, then nothing for 4 weeks. So I decided to start from scratch and I used the disc (not the partition) to see if it worked. Now I get the death screen when Windows boots up, can't even get into Windows at all, all I get is that it's loading and the crashes. Tried the Windows Repair or whatever it is called and came back with the error "Root Cause: Failure While Setup is in Progress" even though the reinstall went to 100%. Made sure all I had connected was the power, but yet this came up. The restore disc that was made overwrote the partition so I have the problem no matter which I try to use. That's the reason I asked.
Sorry it got posted twice because of my old system and problems loading websites every now and then.
Knew about the partition and Dell DataSafe 2 suggested I make a backup disc with the image, which I did do. Well, been having problems with system after I installed a new program that wouldn't uninstall. Contacted the company who made it and they helped me for a few days, then nothing for 4 weeks. So I decided to start from scratch and I used the disc (not the partition) to see if it worked. Now I get the death screen when Windows boots up, can't even get into Windows at all, all I get is that it's loading and the crashes. Tried the Windows Repair or whatever it is called and came back with the error "Root Cause: Failure While Setup is in Progress" even though the reinstall went to 100%. Made sure all I had connected was the power, but yet this came up. The restore disc that was made overwrote the partition so I have the problem no matter which I try to use. That's the reason I asked.
Now that I have the discs to reinstall everything (Win7, Drivers/Utilities, Office), could the partitions be deleted to free up space since I can't use them?
fireberd
9 Legend
9 Legend
•
33.3K Posts
0
February 15th, 2010 03:00
If you are eligible you can get a free set of replacement discs from Dell HERE (for US Customers).
If you are not eligible, the Dell cost is no different than buying a Retail copy of the operating system somewhere. You can download whatever drivers are needed free from the Dell Downloads.
Dell does not have one "restore disc" that covers everything. An Operating System disc and a Drivers and Utilities disc are provided with new PC's. If there is optional software such as Microsoft Office they also supply the disc(s) for that (however that is not a free replacement - if that is lost you will have to buy new).
On many Dell's discs are not needed to do a complete reinstallation. Dell provides a "recovery partition" on the hard drive that will restore the PC to the original factory condition. On system with XP it's CTRL/F11 at initial bootup. On Vista and Windows 7 systems it's F8 at initial bootup.
SpTigerJD1
5 Posts
0
February 15th, 2010 16:00
Thanks for the info! Sent the request in.
Knew about the partition and Dell DataSafe 2 suggested I make a backup disc with the image, which I did do. Well, been having problems with system after I installed a new program that wouldn't uninstall. Contacted the company who made it and they helped me for a few days, then nothing for 4 weeks. So I decided to start from scratch and I used the disc (not the partition) to see if it worked. Now I get the death screen when Windows boots up, can't even get into Windows at all, all I get is that it's loading and the crashes. Tried the Windows Repair or whatever it is called and came back with the error "Root Cause: Failure While Setup is in Progress" even though the reinstall went to 100%. Made sure all I had connected was the power, but yet this came up. The restore disc that was made overwrote the partition so I have the problem no matter which I try to use. That's the reason I asked.
Sorry it got posted twice because of my old system and problems loading websites every now and then.
SpTigerJD1
5 Posts
0
February 15th, 2010 16:00
Thanks for the info! Sent the request in.
Knew about the partition and Dell DataSafe 2 suggested I make a backup disc with the image, which I did do. Well, been having problems with system after I installed a new program that wouldn't uninstall. Contacted the company who made it and they helped me for a few days, then nothing for 4 weeks. So I decided to start from scratch and I used the disc (not the partition) to see if it worked. Now I get the death screen when Windows boots up, can't even get into Windows at all, all I get is that it's loading and the crashes. Tried the Windows Repair or whatever it is called and came back with the error "Root Cause: Failure While Setup is in Progress" even though the reinstall went to 100%. Made sure all I had connected was the power, but yet this came up. The restore disc that was made overwrote the partition so I have the problem no matter which I try to use. That's the reason I asked.
SpTigerJD1
5 Posts
0
February 17th, 2010 14:00
Now that I have the discs to reinstall everything (Win7, Drivers/Utilities, Office), could the partitions be deleted to free up space since I can't use them?