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Dell Inspiron Mini 10 Factory Restore
I can't seem to find where to factory restore my new Dell Inspiron Mini 1010. The manual gives me steps for pressing F8 several times.. on boot to go to the Vista Advanced Boot Options and then selecting Repair Your Computer. Then blah blah blah click Dell Factory Image Restore. The only problem is, the dell inspiron mini 10's come with XP not vista... Why does the manual say vista? I've delt with Dell factory restores in the past. but this one has got me going in circles.
EDIT: January, 8th 2012
This post needs to be marked as solved or answered. It was officially over 2 years ago yet for some reason it keeps getting answered and being forwarded to my email. It's done, over... It was taken back 3 years ago, please do not respond to this post anymore. Thanks!
Wilso
7 Posts
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April 22nd, 2011 09:00
Mine definitely has the restore partition (just over 14GB), but none of the responses have worked for me. I've tried 20 different combinations of and but can't get the restore page up. Driving me mad.
Dell Inspiron Mini
Windows 7 starter.
ejn63
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April 22nd, 2011 09:00
It is not done by CTRL-F11 with Vista or Windows 7 -- only with XP:
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/detectos?type=force&lx=361058&lv=325300&l7=362029
ejn63
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April 22nd, 2011 11:00
It will restore the system to as shipped with Method 2 in the link above.
Wilso
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April 22nd, 2011 11:00
That doesn't do a restoration to factory settings. That's just plain old system restore. I've already done that, and it didn't fix the problems I wanted fixed. I want to reset it to how it was when I took it out of the box, which I'm supposed to be able to do. My only option at this stage is to copy my discs to flash drives, and do it that way.
Wilso
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April 22nd, 2011 11:00
No, it will not. I just tried method 2. All that does is provide a way to access the same old system restore without first logging on to Windows. I does not provide a way to restore to factory settings.
ejn63
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April 22nd, 2011 16:00
If the boot menu doesn't load, then you're going to need a Windows DVD. You can use it to boot and (assuming your restore partition is intact) use that.
http://smsoftdev-solutions.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-to-restore-dell-factory-image-when.html
Wilso
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April 23rd, 2011 02:00
The boot menu does load. But it doesn't have any option that leads to factory reset.
ejn63
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April 23rd, 2011 04:00
Same situation - you need a Windows DVD.
Wilso
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April 23rd, 2011 04:00
I've got all the disks that came with the computer. But it's annoying because I have to copy them onto flash drives, which means I've got to find somewhere else to store the backup information - which I had copied to my flash drives prior to trying to reset my machine.
ejn63
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April 23rd, 2011 04:00
You're better off buying a $50 USB DVD drive to use in booting the system. Trying to get a flash drive to work isn't always easy.
Wilso
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April 23rd, 2011 05:00
I can't do that. I don't have a computer that is running Windows 7 that's got a DVD/CD drive. My inspiron mini only has USB ports. I've got a desktop computer, but it's running XP. Looks like I'll have to buy that USB DVD drive after all - if I decide to try to reset this machine, which is looking less and less likely by the hour.
ejn63
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April 23rd, 2011 05:00
That's not the issue here - installing drivers or applications from flash drives is easy.
The problem here is that you must boot the system from a Windows DVD or a flash drive that's been made bootable, which contains the /boot directory. That's not so easy to do. You're going to need a system that has a DVD drive to do it.
It can be done (you'll need a drive that's blank to start with)
http://kmwoley.com/blog/?p=345
Wilso
7 Posts
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April 23rd, 2011 05:00
I didn't have any trouble loading my office software from flash drive. Just copied the CD/DVD onto the flash drive, plugged it in and clicked "Setup". Flew through without a hitch.
rdhariwal
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June 23rd, 2011 00:00
I have a Dell INSPIRON mini 10 with XP. The CTRL-F11 on the Dell screen only brings up the screen giving you options of different SAFE modes or last working configuration. There is no restore. How can it be done?
Ziedhane
1 Message
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September 8th, 2011 21:00
You might wanna check this page
maketecheasier.com/.../23
with this, you can create a bootable USB with Windows 7 instalation in it in windows XP