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dleer58

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dleer58

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July 25th, 2022 12:00

Cannot reinstall from USB recovery drive

I need to reinstall Windows 10 on a Latitude 3590 after changing the hard drive. 

I used the DELL OS Recovery Tool to download the reinstallation files for this laptop to a USB jump drive. After booting up to the jump drive, the DELL logo appears then the screen turns light blue with nothing happening. No blinking lights on the jump drive either. After a minute, the laptop will shut down. Sometimes, the Windows 10 logo will briefly appear before the blue screen.

While the screen is blue, I can press F8 which brings me to the Startup Settings page, or F10 which allows me to edit the Boot Options. Whatever settings are selected, and regardless of any option changes, the result is the same.

I have tried with a different hard drive, a different USB drive and in Legacy mode. Windows will install if I use an external USB DVD drive but then I don't have the license key for that laptop...

Any ideas?

Thanks
Dave

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    filbert

    6 Operator

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    Posted July 25th, 2022 12:00

    Did you edit BIOS boot options, or use the F12 boot menu, to boot from USB?

    Have you tried inserting the flash drive in a different USB port? Try a USB 2.0 port, if you have one. 

    @dleer58 wrote:

    Windows will install if I use an external USB DVD drive but then I don't have the license key for that laptop...

    Assuming that your Windows was activated, a record of that will be stored on Microsoft's servers so it should automatically reactivate without manually entering a licence key.

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    dleer58

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    Posted July 25th, 2022 13:00

    In the BIOS, I set it to boot to USB first...

    I tried the 2 USB ports the laptop has. It boots to the USB drive and loads stuff from it since the light is blinking but then goes to a light blue screen.

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    dleer58

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    Posted July 26th, 2022 05:00

    We have a Volume Licenses for the computers we bought Microsoft software for. So, when I install Windows from DVD, it will ask me for a license key and I don't have the one that came with the laptop.

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    filbert

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    Posted July 26th, 2022 06:00

    I don't know how volume licences work, but I would think activation would still be recorded on MS servers. If so, you can do a fresh installation and activate it digitally without manually entering a licence key.

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    dleer58

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    Posted July 26th, 2022 06:00

    I could do that...

    Still doesn't explain why Windows won't install from the jump drive. I have another laptop (5559) that I just finished reinstalling. I tried that jump drive with the 3590 and it started the installation just fine. I suspect that there's something wrong with the 3590 image...

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    filbert

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    Posted July 26th, 2022 07:00

    @dleer58 wrote:

    I could do that...

     suspect that there's something wrong with the 3590 image...

    It's possible that the DELL OS Recovery wasn''t written properly or is corrupted. You could try it on another PC. You could also create it fresh, if you prefer to use DELL OS Recovery rather than clean installing Windows.

    If you still have the hard drive that you removed, and it was a working installation, you have another option. You could create a full disk image of that drive and then restore that image to the new drive, using a tool such as Macrium Reflect or Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office (formerly Acronis True Image)

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